HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Previous Raiders teams were more than accustomed to the feeling of coming off a loss, but this year's team is surprisingly experiencing it for the first time about a month into the season.
Las Vegas had every chance to remain unbeaten this past Sunday before losing 30-27 to Kansas City, which until last season had won nine consecutive AFC West titles. The Chiefs (4-0) now look as if they could be ready to begin another streak.
Now the Raiders must turn their attention to Sunday's game at New England and forget how close they came to beating the Chiefs.
“I think we just have so much to be focused on now moving forward that keeps our attention on today, really,” quarterback Kirk Cousins said Wednesday. “That’s what mature teams got to do is be able to respond and look ahead and keep pushing no matter what happens.”
This was expected to be a rebuilding season for the Raiders under first-year coach Klint Kubiak, but after winning their first three games, they appeared to be ahead of schedule. Las Vegas (3-1) remains in position to make an unexpected playoff run.
The numbers certainly are in the Raiders' favor. Of the 49 teams to open a season 3-1 since the playoffs expanded in 2020, 38 qualified for the postseason.
But this also is a challenging part of their schedule. The Chiefs have been the class of the AFC, and the Patriots were in the Super Bowl just eight months ago. After this weekend, the Raiders host Buffalo and the Los Angeles Rams — the two consensus betting favorites to win the Super Bowl.
Simply facing the Patriots alone should be enough to get the Raiders' full attention.
“It's not about who exactly we're playing,” defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “No matter what, we want to be the best version of ourselves. We know New England's a great team and we're going on the road again, so we got a lot of work to do until we get to Sunday.
“They got a team coming off the appearance in the Super Bowl, so we know we got to be at our absolute best.”
Crosby is well aware of the team's prior struggles. He was perhaps the best player on the teams that over the previous two seasons combined to win seven games. Las Vegas already has as many wins as last year's team, which went 3-14.
“You just got to be present,” Crosby said. “You got to be focused on right now, and that’s all you can keep your mind at. Because if you’re thinking too far ahead, too far behind, worry about the loss the week before or the win the week before, it’s all an illusion.”
Kubiak said he wasn't concerned about the team having the proper focus.
“A very mature group,” Kubiak said. “Moving on, ready for the next opponent.”
Wide receiver Dont'e Thornton Jr., who has been out all season with a hamstring injury, practiced in full Wednesday to open his 21-day window. During that span, the Raiders can activate Thornton and add him to the 53-man roster, place him on season-ending IR or release or trade him.
“It would be good to get him back out there and get him playing and reacclimating,” Kubiak said. “He’s a great teammate. He’s a great person. He’s worked really hard. He stayed patient, had a great attitude, and was the kind of guy you really pull for.”
Right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson (groin) went through a limited practice. He did not play against the Chiefs.
Wide receiver Jalen Nailor (concussion) did not practice. He was hurt against Kansas City.
Kubiak was Seattle's offensive coordinator when the Seahawks beat the Patriots in last season's Super Bowl.
“They were a great defense last season,” Kubiak said. “They’re a great defense this season with a lot of talented players, really talented coaching staff. They play hard, and this is a defense that we have a ton of respect for.”
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak watches from the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby walks on the field before an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) talk on the field after an NFL football game in Las Vegas, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — The woman accusing several men of raping her at a Cornell University fraternity party was “misled” about the status of the criminal investigation in the weeks after she went to police, her lawyer said Wednesday.
Even as she took her allegations about a 2024 gang rape at the Chi Phi fraternity house through Cornell's internal disciplinary process, the university's police department gave her the impression that a criminal investigation was continuing, lawyer Thomas Giuffra told The Associated Press.
In fact, the criminal inquiry ended almost as soon as it began.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, the local prosecutor, made the decision not to go forward with a criminal case within days of the woman giving her first substantial interviews to police.
Van Houten has said that he asked Cornell's police department to convey the decision to the woman, who is referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, but never spoke personally to her or her lawyer.
Giuffra said the woman was told that the criminal investigation was ongoing.
“I think she was misled. She was told it was still — they weren’t going to prosecute, but they were still investigating," Giuffra said. ”I was involved with this case early on. I thought they were still investigating. It was news to me that they weren’t doing anything."
Giuffra added that at the time, he assumed investigators just needed more time to speak with witnesses and build a case.
“But nothing was being done, and we didn’t know that,” Giuffra said.
A message seeking comment was left for Van Houten. Cornell’s media relations office, citing pending litigation, declined comment on behalf of the university’s police department.
The district attorney said in a statement last week that he was confident that no further investigation was necessary after prosecutors and criminal investigators from his office reviewed a six-page summary of the woman's account, written by a police officer.
Based on that summary, Van Houten said he believed no crime had been committed, and that the woman's participation in drug use and sex was “voluntary, conscious and consensual.”
That description differs sharply with what the woman told police and university investigators, and with what she alleged in a lawsuit filed against seven Chi Phi fraternity members, Cornell and others last month.
Among other things, Giuffra said, the six-page report omitted the woman telling investigators, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped," that she was subjected to physical violence, and that a fraternity brother had sent a message to a group chat using a vulgar term to advertise that a woman’s body was freely available.
Last week, citing investigative records it obtained, The New York Times reported that a Cornell police investigator tried to get Van Houten’s office to consider additional evidence in the weeks after the alleged rape, but was rebuffed.
“At first I thought these police were incompetent," Giuffra said. "It sounds like they were doing the right thing. And they just got shut down.”
Giuffra said that while he and Jane Doe have received death threats, he has been heartened by an outpouring of support, including rallies and protests on the Cornell campus and more than 1,000 women who have emailed him to share anger, frustration, solidarity and stories of their own assaults.
Some Cornell students staged a sit-in at a dining hall and vowed not to spend money on campus Wednesday to protest sexual violence and how the university has handled complaints, in the latest expression of outrage over an alleged 2024 gang rape at a fraternity house.
A handwritten sign reading “Justice for Jane Doe ” — the name under which the accuser is suing — was propped on an empty table in the dining hall in the afternoon. Some students sat around the room without eating, while others lunched. Another small group sat outside holding signs with messages such as “we are Jane Doe.”
The demonstrations were meant to spotlight complaints that the university is slow to respond to reports of sexual assault while quick to protect its reputation. Among other demands, the groups want the university to retool disciplinary procedures for addressing complaints and expel or revoke the degrees of anyone involved in the alleged October 2024 sexual assault.
Jane Doe, who was a student then, alleges that Chi Phi members plied her with alcohol and drugs and several sexually assaulted her. One man sent others a message inviting them to participate, according to a lawsuit she filed last month.
Lawyers for two of the men have denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the others or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Some of the men who underwent a university disciplinary hearing in 2024 told investigators that the sexual activity was consensual or said they were not involved.
The woman went to Cornell police in November 2024, though no criminal charges resulted. In the wake of her lawsuit, Van Houten said he was reopening the investigation. Days later, Gov. Kathy Hochul took the case away from him and appointed the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, as a special prosecutor.
Giuffra applauded the move, saying he was troubled by Van Houten’s plan for conducting the reopened investigation and “didn’t think he was up to the task.” Giuffra said the district attorney wanted to take the case to a grand jury and have Jane Doe testify before the panel within two weeks.
That timeline, leaving little time to review evidence or interview witnesses, suggested that Van Houten may have been trying “to go take a dive and not really give it his best effort and not do any investigation,” Giuffra said.
James hasn't said how long her investigation might take, but she suggested it would take months.
On Wednesday, one of the men named in Jane Doe’s lawsuit filed a court petition seeking James' removal from the case, arguing she showed bias by posting on social media a few days before her appointment: “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable.”
A message seeking comment was left for James' office.
Cornell closed down the Chi Phi campus chapter in 2024 and says it expelled some students and suspended others after an investigation under the federal Title IX law.
This week Cornell trustees brought in former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review how the school investigates sexual assault and sexual harassment, how the disciplinary process works, the campus police response and more.
A sign is displayed in support of Jane Doe during a sit-in protest at Cornell University, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Matt Burkhartt)
Students and attendees sit during a sit-in protest at Cornell University, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Matt Burkhartt)
Students and attendees sit during a sit-in protest at Cornell University, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Matt Burkhartt)
Student Isabel Breslin works on her laptop during a sit-in protest at Cornell University, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Matt Burkhartt)
