Nobody picked the Raiders to be 2-0. Absolutely nobody picked Cody White to be the reason.
Las Vegas beat the Chargers 26-14 at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, and the receiver who scored twice was signed to the practice squad on Aug. 31 and elevated to the active roster on Saturday.
Two Touchdowns From a Guy With One Career Score
White caught a 13-yard go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter, then an 11-yard score in the fourth that capped a three-play, 43-second drive after Jeremy Chinn returned a fumble 43 yards to the Chargers’ 16 with 3:52 left.
The 27-year-old entered Sunday with 11 catches for 169 yards and one touchdown across six NFL seasons spent bouncing between Denver, Pittsburgh and Seattle. He played Week 1 against Miami and did not catch a pass.
He doubled his career touchdown total twice over in one afternoon.
Cousins Knew Before You Did
Kirk Cousins finished 19-of-29 for 253 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. Afterward he explained why he was throwing to a practice squad elevation on third-and-long.
“That touchdown catch over here on third and long was just, it changed the game and he isn’t open,” Cousins said. “I just gave him a chance, and he made me right and he went to Michigan State like I did, and I had seen him do that at Michigan State. I didn’t get to play with him there, but watched him, and I knew he was a guy who could go get the ball.”
Both men are Michigan State products. Cousins left East Lansing years before White arrived, but he watched the tape.
Why the Raiders Needed Him
Las Vegas is missing Dont’e Thornton Jr., who is on injured reserve for at least the first four games. The receiver room needed a body, and White happened to be the body who could win a contested ball.
Tre Tucker added a 40-yard touchdown catch. Matt Gay hit a career-best 59-yard field goal. It was a complete afternoon for a team that was supposed to be terrible.
Cousins Was Supposed to Be Finished
Atlanta released Cousins in March, halfway through a four-year, $160 million contract. He signed with Las Vegas in early April with $20 million guaranteed for 2026, and the Falcons are still on the hook for $8.7 million of his pay this year.
Teammate Tre Tucker offered the most Raiders assessment possible: Cousins “can probably play until he is 60.”
Three touchdowns on the road against a division opponent will do that for a reputation.
2-0 Is Not a Fluke Yet
This is the Raiders’ first 2-0 start since 2021 under head coach Klint Kubiak. They ended a four-game losing streak against the Chargers and won in Los Angeles for the first time since 2020.
New Orleans is next, on the road. A 3-0 Raiders team in late September would force a genuine reassessment of the AFC West, and it would do it on the back of a quarterback everyone wrote off and a receiver nobody had heard of two weeks ago.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.