HOUSTON – It’s a tricky thing sometimes when you go looking for answers. Especially the brutally honest kind.

Because if you aren’t truly prepared for what you might hear – or, in this case, what you might see – the truth can hit like a two-by-four.

The Raiders came to Houston this week looking for exactly that kind of honesty.

They sought out the Texans specifically for Tuesday’s joint practice, viewing two hours in the suffocating Texas heat against one of the NFL’s best teams – and arguably its best defense – as a measuring stick.

No sugarcoating. No grading on a curve. No hiding behind the familiarity of practicing against teammates whose strengths, weaknesses and tendencies you’ve studied for weeks.

Just a straight-up examination against a defense capable of exposing every flaw you have.

“We kind of knew that this would be a good test for us,” said Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins.

As in, with a little more than three weeks remaining before their season opener under new head coach Klint Kubiak, the Raiders wanted to know where they stood.

They found out.

And the answer was impossible to miss.

The Texans look every bit like a playoff team, and one capable of doing some damage once they get there.

The Raiders look like what they are: a team in the early stages of a rebuild, with a considerable amount of work still ahead.

Nowhere was that gap more apparent than along the Raiders’ offensive line, the position group they most needed to test against Houston’s relentless defensive front.

It did not go well.

Straight up.

The Raiders were too often pushed backward in pass protection and failed to consistently impose their will in the run game.

The result was Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza playing far too often under duress, and Ashton Jeanty struggling to find room to run.

“We all know that we’re not anywhere near where we want to be,” Kubiak said. “We’ve got to keep getting better.”

There are reasons to believe the Raiders’ offensive line is headed in the right direction. Kolton Miller gives them a proven presence at left tackle. Tyler Linderbaum was brought in to stabilize the middle. Kubiak and veteran offensive line coach Rick Dennison are trying to build a tougher, more cohesive group capable of protecting the quarterback and creating the running lanes necessary for an offense that wants to lean on Jeanty.

But Houston provided the sort of stress test that exposes the difference between improved and good enough.

The Raiders, on Tuesday, were not good enough.

“We asked a lot of them today,” said Cousins.

True.

And the answers weren’t pleasant.

But for a franchise that finally seems willing to take a cold, hard, truthful look at itself – and accept the reflection staring back from the mirror – those answers were necessary.

“I think today was a great reminder that, hey, we got more work to do, we got more details to lock in on,” said Cousins.

Starting, although hardly ending, with the offensive line. A banged up one at that, with right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson present but not participating in Tuesday’s workout after leaving Monday’s practice with an undisclosed injury.

That meant Caleb Rogers got all the first team reps at right guard. Like everyone else on the Raiders offensive line, he had an uneven day.

The Texans’ speed, power and depth up front repeatedly compressed the pocket and forced the Raiders to operate under duress.

And that matters well beyond one rough August practice.

If Kubiak’s offense is going to function the way he envisions, everything starts there. The Raiders can’t consistently push the ball downfield, establish Jeanty or properly evaluate their quarterbacks if the operation is breaking down before plays have a chance to develop.

“We’ve got lots to improve on,” said Kubiak.

Which brings us to Cousins and Mendoza.

The plan coming in was for the veteran and rookie quarterbacks to share first-team reps, with Cousins preparing to be the season-opening starter and Mendoza continuing his NFL baptism.

Houston made life difficult for both.

Cousins had the Raiders’ lone touchdown throw of the day, while Mendoza authored perhaps their best offensive play, dropping a 25-yard dime into the arms of tight end Brock Bowers.

But neither quarterback could escape the problems happening in front of him.

Both struggled to operate against the Texans’ fierce pass rush. And each threw a costly pick-six.

Both turnovers were of the unacceptable ilk.

Mendoza misread the location of Texans safety Jalen Pitre, then forced the ball to Jeanty near the Houston goal line, throwing it directly into the arms of Pitre, who took it the distance for a touchdown.

As upset as Mendoza was, he also understood he’d be wasting a valuable opportunity if he didn’t learn from it.

“Sometimes in the red zone, you got to throw it away or you got to scramble and extend a play. It’s not always going to be there,” Mendoza said. “I always see it as a puzzle. I have a piece, and I can either put it in five little slots. Whether it’s a first read, second read, checkdown, throwing it away, or running. And that one, I tried to put the puzzle in the wrong place, and it happens.”

Cousins’ turnover came on the final rep of practice during a red-zone period, with Kamari Lassiter taking his errant throw the distance for another long touchdown return.

“I was pleased with the way we made some plays, just would have loved to have finished the
last period, I guess, with more production,” he said.

Cousins remains the veteran security blanket, the quarterback whose experience should allow him to survive some of the chaos that inevitably comes with an offense still under construction.

He has seen virtually every pressure, disguise and coverage an NFL defense can throw at him.

But even experience has its limitations when protection collapses.

Mendoza presents an entirely different equation.

The first overall pick has looked more advanced than expected throughout training camp, showing enough poise, processing ability and command to at least make the Raiders think about a timeline they originally expected to unfold much more slowly.

Houston, though, offered Mendoza something Raiders practices simply cannot: a glimpse of how fast, violent and unforgiving life can be against an elite NFL defense.

That’s invaluable.

Because the question with Mendoza isn’t simply whether he can make NFL throws.

He can.

It’s whether he can consistently process NFL information, make NFL decisions and protect himself and the football when everything around him is moving faster than it ever has before.

That was part of Kubiak’s mission in letting Mendoza share first-team reps with Cousins.

“I think it’s great to get the speed of the game because every group is fast, but the ones might be elevated a little bit more,” Mendoza. “So, to get that speed of the game, be in there, be able to not only execute the play, but also command the huddle, see and read the defense pre-snap, post-snap. There’s so many different elements that I think are elevated and accelerated with that group.”

Tuesday provided that lesson.

Painfully at times.

And maybe that was the entire point of coming to Houston.

The Raiders didn’t need another practice that made them feel good about themselves. They didn’t need false reassurance or the comfortable illusion of progress that can develop when a team spends weeks practicing against itself.

They needed somebody capable of exposing their weaknesses.

They needed a defense good enough to punish their mistakes.

They needed the truth.

Houston gave it to them.

The truth is the Raiders have made progress.

The harsher truth is they still have a long way to go.

And three weeks before the games start counting, knowing the difference might have been the most valuable thing they could have brought home from Houston.