Raiders-Chiefs: Kansas City runs away from Las Vegas

Kansas City wakes up and dominates Raiders for most of game

A player arrested to start the day.

A blown 14-0 lead.

More Patrick Mahomes-Travis Kelce dominance.

Some odd decisions by interim head coach Antonio Pierce.

It’s been a helluva Sunday …

A 31-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs as they improved to 4-0 at Allegiant Stadium (which was very, very red Sunday) and have outscored the Raiders 138-75 in those games.

Let’s look at some of the keys of this tough loss:

Mark Davis can’t be happy:

The Raiders have lost two straight games, both to upper-level AFC competition and are now 2-2 under Pierce. The good vibes of beating two bad New York teams at home has disappeared. Davis has seen his team fall out of AFC West contention and he did seeing a sea of red in his house. He has to be thinking about what to do at head coach. Yes, there’s been a lot of talk that Pierce will be considered for the permanent job. But remember, Rich Bisaccia wasn’t kept when he led the Raiders to a 10-7 finish and a playoff berth as the interim head coach in 2021. Pierce would have to lead the Raiders to five straight wins to reach that mark.

Here comes December football:

The Raiders have their bye this week and then they have five games to finish the season. Three of those games are at home. Four of those five games are against opponents that currently are over .500. Interestingly, the Raiders play one more game outside — December 25 at Kansas City.

Chiefs take over

The Chiefs had possession of the ball for under two minutes in the first quarter and the Raiders were cruising after Josh Jacobs went 63 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-0. After going three and out on their first two possessions, Kansas City woke up and took over the game by outscoring Las Vegas 31-3. The Raiders dominated for about 20 minutes and then the Chiefs said, “Ok, that’s enough” and took over Allegiant Stadium again

Jacobs has nice moments;
Jacobs has been good in three of the four games after Josh McDaniels was fired. He had 110 yards on 20 carries Sunday. That has to continue. Keep giving him the ball.

Nice effort, Maxx:

Raiders’ star pass-rusher Maxx Crosby probably shouldn’t have played. He didn’t practice all week due to a knee injury and was listed as doubtful to play. But Crosby, who has never missed a game, gutted it out. He had one tackle, a sack of Mahomes. He has 11.5 sacks in 12 games and is one sack shy of matching his career high, set last season. The bye week is coming at a good times for their best defensive player.

No penalties:

Here’s a positive; The Raiders were not penalized once.

Still learning the ropes:
Pierce made an odd decision to challenge a ball replacement and second down and inches. The play stood on review and the Raiders lost a challenge. They then converted the very easy play on third down. Pierce needs to realize how valuable his challenges are.

Tough calls:

The Raiders wasted a 14-play, 69-yard drive on their second drive of the game when usually-automatic kicker Daniel Carlson missed a 30-yard chip shot … badly. The Raiders didn’t go for it on fourth and 1 from the Chiefs’ 13 despite having early success. Then, in the fourth quarter, the Raiders ran a strange, slow run play on fourth and one from their own 19, which basically ended their chances. Like Pierce, interim Raiders’ Bo Hardegree is often taken his lumps. And, yes, the Raiders’ offense has scored more than 19 points in just one game this season. It had scored 46 points and scored four touchdowns in the past three games

Peters benched:

Starting Raiders’ cornerback Marcus Peters was benched in the second quarter in favor of Jack Jones, who is in his second game with the Raiders after being claimed off waivers from New England. Peters was standing on the sideline by himself and then he appeared to get in a spirited chat with Pierce. After the game, Pierce confirmed the benching. It will be worth monitoring moving forward.

Back-to-back scores:

Kansas City scored a touchdown on the final drive of the first half and then went 75 yards on 10 plays to open the third quarter. It was the first time the Chiefs scored in the second half in four games.