Raiders fall to 49ers 18-12, and Klint Kubiak still isn't naming his starting quarterback

The Las Vegas Raiders dropped their preseason finale 18-12 to the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night, but the score was the least interesting part of the evening. The part that matters: head coach Klint Kubiak walked out of the building still refusing to name a starting quarterback for the regular season.

The competition picture remains murky. Kirk Cousins was efficient in the first half, completing 8 of 11 passes for 51 yards, while rookie first-rounder Fernando Mendoza closed the preseason with a combined line of 25-of-45 for 240 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and four sacks — and finished the night on the bench as Aidan O'Connell took the fourth-quarter snaps and led a tying drive before the 49ers answered. Mendoza himself kept the self-assessment honest afterward, saying "the NFL is really tough" and that the speed jump from college has been significant.

Kubiak's only public statements on the rookie was patience: "I would love to play him the whole game, but there's other guys that we want to get looked at. I thought overall this preseason we got him plenty of time, and I'm happy where he's at, but we just got to keep pushing to be better."

There was one genuinely encouraging thread: the starting defense. Las Vegas' first unit was a perfect 6-of-6 on third down in the first half, forced two red-zone field goals instead of touchdowns and opened the game with back-to-back three-and-outs against San Francisco's offense. The concern on the other side of the ball was rookie defensive end Keyron Crawford, who was helped off with an ankle injury and ruled out; Kubiak said only that he would be evaluated further.

The pads come off the evaluation now. Cutdown decisions loom, the opener is next, and the Raiders' most important depth chart spot officially has no name attached to it.