The Raiders end a 4-game skid by dominating on defense to beat the Titans 20-10

LAS VEGAS (AP) — It was Devin White and Maxx Crosby and Jonah Laulu and seemingly every defender wearing Raiders silver and black.

Las Vegas' defense, which allowed at least 40 points in two of the past three games, came at Tennessee in droves on Sunday.

The result was a suffocating 20-10 victory over the Titans.

The Raiders (2-4) ended a four-game skid, and the Titans (1-5) missed an opportunity to win consecutive games for the first time since November of 2022, a 47-game stretch.

“We've been talking like we want to play good football for a long time,” Raiders coach Pete Carroll said. “It just hasn't come together yet. The last time we won was such a long time ago, we can't even remember it, but (the victory is) really important for us. These guys deserve to feel like they feel right now.”

Neither of the struggling teams did much on offense. They combined for 451 yards.

Las Vegas won fairly easily despite pedestrian numbers from Geno Smith (174 yards and one touchdown passing) and Ashton Jeanty (75 yards and a TD on a 3.3-yards-per-play average).

Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward, the top overall pick in the NFL draft, was 26 of 38 for 222 yards. He connected with David Martin-Robinson for the second-year tight end's first career TD.

The Raiders set the tone in the first half, when they shut out the Titans. It was the first time Las Vegas has blanked an opponent in a half since the second half against New Orleans last Dec. 29.

The teams combined for 2.39 yards per play in the first half, the lowest since Baltimore and Jacksonville combined to average 1.80 on Oct. 24, 2011.

It didn't help the Titans that they lost wide receiver Calvin Ridley in the second quarter to a hamstring injury. He was coming off a five-catch, 131-yard performance a week ago at Arizona.

The day belonged to defense, at least on the Raiders' side.

White resembled the player who was a top defender for Tampa Bay earlier this decade, finishing with nine tackles, a sack, an interception and a forced fumble. He joins Khalil Mack in 2016 and Trace Armstrong in 2002 as the only Raiders players since 1999 with a sack, forced fumble and interception.

“I don’t know anybody could put up more numbers than Devin White did today,” Carroll said. “Geez, it’s a stat line.”

The Raiders pressured Ward consistently and sacked him six times, tying the QB's season high. Las Vegas sent pressure on 36.4% of dropbacks, according to Next Gen Stats, a season high.

That strategy seemed to surprise the Titans.

“They did a good job mixing up some coverages,” Tennessee coach Brian Callahan said. “They pressured a lot more this game than they had going into it. They zero blitzed us (with no deep safety) a few times, which is not something they had done a lot of.”

Crosby had two sacks. He has a nine-game streak with at least one tackle for loss, the longest for a Raiders player since 2008. Laulu recorded his fourth sack in six games, the first Raiders defensive tackle to accomplish that since Bill Pickel in 1986.

“This is a good feeling knowing we go to work every day and we practice really hard,” Laulu said. “You guys should see the stuff we do out there as a D-line. It's just us coming together collectively and pushing each other. Our mindset is to be the heartbeat of the team.”

Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons picked up another sack, extending his streak to three games.

Carroll won his 171st game, moving him into a tie for 17th with Bill Parcells.

The Las Vegas Aces, who won their third WNBA championship in four years on Friday when they completed a four-game sweep of Phoenix, were honored before the game. They received a video tribute and lit the Al Davis memorial torch as fans roared. Davis' son, Mark, owns the Aces and Raiders.

Titans: K Joey Slye (calf) did not play. He was replaced by Matthew Wright, who was signed to the practice squad this week. ... OLB Femi Oladejo (calf) was injured in the third quarter.

Raiders: TE Brock Bowers (knee) missed his second game in a row. ... P AJ Cole (ankle) played after getting injured the week before. ... RB Dylan Laube (hamstring) was hurt in the second half.

Titans: Host New England on Sunday.

Raiders: Visit AFC West rival Kansas City on Sunday.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby (98) celebrates after sacking Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Jonah Laulu (96) pressures Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll celebrates after Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty (2) scored a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Leki Fotu (95) sacks Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty (2) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the the Tennessee Titans during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

MILAN (AP) — Milan’s storied Teatro alla Scala celebrates its gala season premiere Sunday with a Russian opera for the second time since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But this year, instead of drawing protests for showcasing the invader’s culture, a flash mob will demonstrate for peace.

La Scala’s music director Riccardo Chailly will conduct Dmitry Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” for the gala season opener that draws luminaries from culture, business and politics for one of the most anticipated events of the European cultural calendar.

Shostakovich's 1934 opera highlights the condition of women in Stalin’s Soviet Union, and was blacklisted just days after the communist leader saw a performance in 1936, the threshold year of his campaign of political repression known as the Great Purge.

The Italian liberal party +Europa announced a demonstration outside the theater as dignitaries arrive “to draw attention to the defense of liberty and European democracy, threatened today by Putin’s Russia, and to support the Ukrainian people.’’

The party underlined that Shostakovich's opera exposes the abuse of power and the role of personal resistance.

Due to security concerns, authorities moved the protest from the square facing La Scala, to another behind City Hall.

Chailly began working with Russian stage director Vasily Barkhatov on the title about two years ago, following the 2022 gala season premiere of the Russian opera “Boris Godunov,” which was attended by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, both of whom separated Russia’s politicians from its culture.

But outside the Godunov premiere, Ukrainians protested against highlighting Russian culture during a war rooted in the denial of a unique Ukrainian culture. The Ukrainian community did not announce any separate protests this year.

Chailly called the staging of Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth" at La Scala for just the fourth time “a must.’’

“It is an opera that has long suffered, and needs to make up for lost time,’’ Chailly told a news conference last month.

La Scala’s new general manager, Fortunato Ortombina, defended the choices made by his predecessor to stage both Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth” and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov " at the theater best known for its Italian repertoire, but which has in recent years showcased other traditions.

‘‘Music is fundamentally superior to any ideological conflict,’’ Ortombina said on the sidelines of the press conference. “Shostakovich, and Russian music more broadly, have an authority over the Russian people that exceeds Putin's own.’’

American soprano Sara Jakubiak is making her La Scala debut in the title role of Katerina, whose struggle against existential repression leads her to commit murder, landing her in a Siberian prison where she dies. It’s the second time Jakubiak has sung the role, after performances in Barcelona last year, and she said Shostakovich's Katerina is full of challenges.

“That I’m a murderess, that I’m singing 47 high B flats in one night, you know, all these things,’’ Jakubiak said while sitting in the makeup chair ahead of the Dec. 4 preview performance to an audience of young people. “You go, ‘Oh my gosh, how will I do this?’ But you manage, with the right kind of work, the right team of people. Yes, we’re just going to go for the ride.”

Speaking to journalists recently, Chailly joked that he was “squeezing” Jakubiak like an orange. Jakubiak said she found common ground with the conductor known for his studious approach to the original score and composer’s intent.

“Whenever I prepare a role, it’s always the text and the music and the text and the rhythms,'' she said. “First, I do this process with, you know, a cup of coffee at my piano and then we add the other layers and then the notes. So I guess we’re actually somewhat similar in that regard.''

Jakubiak, best known for Strauss and Wagner, has a major debut coming in July when she sings her first Isolde in concert with Anthony Pappano and the London Symphony.

Barkhatov, who has a flourishing international career, called the choice of “Lady Macbeth,” “very brave and exciting.”

Barkhatov's stage direction sets the opera in a cosmopolitan Russian city in the 1950s, the end of Stalin’s regime, rather than a 19th-century rural village as written for the 1930s premier.

For Barkhatov, Stalin’s regime defines the background of the story and the mentality of the characters for a story he sees as a personal tragedy and not a political tale. Most of the action unfolds inside a restaurant appointed in period Art Deco detail, with a rotating balustrade creating a kitchen, a basement and an office where interrogations take place.

Despite the tragic arc, Barkhatov described the story as “a weird … breakthrough to happiness and freedom.’’

“Sadly, the statistics show that a lot of people die on their way to happiness and freedom,’’ he added.

Stage director Vasily Barkhatov sits during an interview with The Associated Press prior to the dressed rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A wig receives final touches ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A wig receives final touches ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

External view of Teatro all Scala ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Soprano Sara Jakubiak has her makeup done ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

The stage is prepared ahead of the dressed rehearsal of the Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, by Dmitri Shostakovich, at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)