Chiefs move to 7-0, dominate Raiders in Vegas

The Kansas City Chiefs (7-0) defeat the Las Vegas Raider (2-6) in Nevada, 27-20 with clutch play from the defense and a big day from Travis Kelce.

The Kansas City Chiefs (7-0) continued their march on, defeating the Las Vegas Raiders (2-6) handily in their own stadium, extending their active win streak to 13. The Chiefs just won by a margin of seven points, but defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo went into a preventive defense on the Raiders' last drive to result in a final score of 27-20 in front of a crowd that looked to have more red than black. 

“Chiefs Kingdom travels well everywhere, but they've done a great job of traveling here to Vegas,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “It's exciting to see whenever you can get into a stadium and you're in an opponent stadium, you just see red everywhere and it shows the support that we have and (the support) we've gotten throughout my entire career. It's a special place and I don't take it for granted because it cost money to travel, it cost money to come to games and people want to show that they support us and we're going to show that same support to them when we're in the community.”

Before that last drive, Kansas City’s defense had them held to 13 points and 158 total yards. There is no doubt, the Chiefs still have room to grow, but they dominated the Raiders in every facet of the game. The NFL’s only unbeaten team went 12 of 16 on third downs, was three for four in the red zone, was even in the turnover margin and held Las Vegas to only 33 yards rushing. 

“It's a rivalry,” Mahomes said. “It goes back further than anyone on that football field. No matter what the records are, you come into this football game, you know it's going to be a fight. You know it's going to be a fight every single snap. There's going to be no give up and they have a lot of guys on that team that have a lot of pride in playing at home and playing in the stadium. We did a good job of executing, they made some plays, we made some plays and at the end of the day we found a way to get a win.”

The defense was once again the most impressive side of the ball for Kansas City. Not only did they hold starting running back Alexander Mattison to 15 yards on 14 carries, good for 1.1 yards per carry, but they also sacked Gardner Minshew five times, easily a season-high for the defensive unit. 

“For us being able to stop the run, that's the primary goal every single week,” defensive end George Karlaftis said. “As a front, as a front seven as a defense, you make them one dimensional, that's where we want it to be.”

The sacks were spread out evenly amongst linebackers Drue Tranquill and Leo Chenal, defensive tackles Tershawn Wharton and Mike Pennel and defensive end Karlaftis. Defensive tackle Chris Jones wreaked havoc too, registering a tackle for loss and a hit on Minshew. The sacks by Karlaftis and Wharton ended drives and Pennel’s forced a fumble that Tranquill recovered. Karlaftis also had a separate pressure that forced an incompletion to induce a field goal. 

Many were swarming the Raiders ball-carriers with linebacker Nick Bolton leading the way, tallying nine tackles. Tranquill was second on the team with six, with three of them behind the line of scrimmage for a loss. Safety Justin Reid laid several hard hits in open space as well. It is not as if Minshew played poorly either, as the veteran finished with an 80 completion percentage with rookie tight end Brock Bowers and wide receiver Jakobi Meyers as his go-to targets, combing for 110 of his 209 yards passing. 

The Raiders stayed in it as long as they could with their low offensive output, even holding the lead up until a little less than two minutes to go in the first half. After a debacle where Kansas City was forced to punt inside their own 10 and then followed up with another interception thrown by Mahomes off a batted pass, the Raiders did find themselves down only four midway through the third quarter. 

Following the interception, the Raiders started their drive on Kansas City’s three-yard line. With four opportunities, Las Vegas could not punch it in, however. Three straight carries by Mattison gained zero yards before Wharton brought down Minshew on the fourth and goal from the three. With that impressive goal-line stand, Kansas City had flipped the momentum on its head and responded by putting together an 87-yard drive that ended in a field goal, followed by a touchdown drive and then three straight kneel-downs to end the game. 

“Unbelievable,” Andy Reid said of the goal-line stand. “Offensively we put the defense in a bad position, but we held up as a defense. We came out and put our foot down and did a nice job there. That was important.”

This marks three straight games where the offense has put up at least 26 points and five straight where they have not allowed more than 20. Kansas City’s offense was a little stop-and-go, but Mahomes did have one of his better statistical games in a while, going 27 for 38 with 262 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Mahomes has still thrown a pick in every game this season, but in the last three games, they have felt a bit unlucky. It was apparent that the chemistry between him and his receivers was more on point Sunday afternoon. 

“I thought Pat had a had a good day,” Reid said “I thought the guys were running good routes, the protection was good. When it wasn't, he moved around and made some plays. I think (offensive coordinator Matt Nagy) had a great plan on third down and the guys believe in what we're doing there and that's a positive thing.”

The offense funneled through tight end Travis Kelce against Las Vegas, and it wound up with him having a season-best performance on National Tight Ends Day. While he did finally have a lateral end up on the ground, he hauled in 10 catches on 12 targets for 90 yards and recorded his first touchdown of the 2024 season. It started from the jump, when he went for his longest gain of the day, 25 yards, on the fourth play of the game. 

Rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy did not have the most efficient game, bringing in four catches on eight targets, but he did end up being second on the team in receiving. He scored the Chiefs' final touchdown to seal the win on a rub-route off the left side. The first-round pick from Texas ended up with 37 yards. 

A change of pace for Mahomes was that he was able to complete passes to nine different receivers. His newest target, DeAndre Hopkins saw three targets in limited action and moved the chains twice on his two catches for 29 yards. It should also be noted that Kelce’s touchdown came off 13-personnel where Hopkins was the only wide receiver on the field, drawing attention away from Kelce. Wide receiver Justin Watson, tight end Noah Gray and running back Samaje Perine all had at least either three catches or 30 yards on the day. 

“I thought (Hopkins) did a great job,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, on third down he had the big catch early in the game and then he had a couple other big plays. I missed him on the one corner route early but he still got open. And then as I looked back at the tablet there was a couple times where in man coverage he was just really working and winning. Even the touchdown to (Kelce) I threw, if you look back on his side he's open too, for a touchdown there. Obviously, I know the type of player he is but you see that on the field it shows that if they're going to play man coverage against him, he's going to get open and I have to give him the chances to go out there and make plays.”

The running game was not anything to write home about, but head coach Andy Reid did stay committed to it. Kareem Hunt had perhaps his worst performance in his reunion with the Chiefs, averaging 2.8 yards per carry on his way to 59 yards, although he did bang his way into the end zone on the Chiefs' first touchdown of the game to give them a 7-0 lead. Even with Kansas City rushing for just 82 yards, it allowed them to control the game for five minutes longer, giving their defense rest. They still outgained Las Vegas by 106 more yards in total. 

Cornerback Nazeeh Johnson left the game with a concussion, leaving Joshua Williams and Christian Roland-Wallace to fill out the lineup. On the Raiders' onside kick attempt, tight end Jody Fortson injured his right knee. Mahomes seemed hobbled with an ankle issue in the first half but appeared fine by the end of the game. 

The Chiefs will now have eight days to get Hopkins more up to speed and integrated into the offense. In week nine they will be back home for the first time since October 7th when they face off against a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that will be without Chris Godwin and likely Mike Evans on Monday Night Football on November 4th at 7:15 p.m.