Raiders bail Chiefs out, Chiefs clinch playoffs
The Kansas City Chiefs (11-1) defeat the Las Vegas Raiders (2-10) at Arrowhead, 19-17 after Raiders' choke on final drive.
Whether it is the toe of Isaiah Likely touching the boundary, Leo Chenal blocks a kick or Raiders’ center Jackson Powers-Johnson snapping the ball at the wrong time, the Chiefs have won in just about every single way possible this year. Chris Jones said after the game that ugly wins are better than pretty losses, and that could not be a better way to describe how the Chiefs moved to 11-1 and became the first team to clinch the playoffs. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is happy to stack wins but knows they’re nowhere close to where they want to be, similar to last season.
“When you clinch a playoff spot that's your first goal is to get into the playoffs and give yourself a chance to go for that Super Bowl,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “But we know we have a long ways to go. We got to continue to work, to get better to continue to be a better football team going into the playoffs.”
“We just hold ourselves to such a high standard that we don't feel like we're playing our best football altogether and it seems like every game its offense does good, defense does good, kind of vice versa. We got to find a way to build up so we can play great as a full entire team. It's awesome that we're finding ways to get wins at the end of the day, that's what you're going for, but our goal is to get to that Super Bowl, so we're going to try to continue to get better and better so that we're playing our best football hopefully by the end of the year.”
There was much confusion around the Powers-Johnson play, as even the broadcast thought it might have been a deadball penalty. Powers-Johnson heard Aiden O’Connell clapping and the guard next to him tapped him, prompting him to snap the ball before O’Connell was ready for it. The ball hit off O’Connell’s chest, linebacker Nick Bolton recovered and that was the ball game. The Chiefs won 19-17 on the anti-climactic ending to what was shaping up to be a Raiders attempt at a 49-yard field goal or so to win the game. Chris Jones gave Chiefs Kingdom credit for the win after crowd noise had an effect on the Raiders fiasco.
“I praise the crowd, man,” Jones said. “A lot of crowd noise. The center snapped it, quarterback wasn't ready, looking at the sideline and we was able to recover it. (The referees) seen the ball kicked and I don't think the receiver was lined up correctly, so it was like two or three different (penalty) calls on that play, and I was talking with the other ref, I think the side judge and he was like y'all gonna have the ball. I was like it's over with then, let me get off the field, I'm tired anyway, so let's go home.”
The Chiefs carried the momentum throughout the majority of the game, even looking like it might cover the 13-point spread at one point. Late in the third quarter, the Chiefs were driving, looking to make it a 20-3 game. Instead, they were stalled out at the 21-yard line after entering the red zone. Kansas City was putrid in the red zone all game, going one for five in that area and this time ended up being no different as fill-in kicker Matthew Wright drilled his third of four field goals to serve up a 16-3 lead late in the third. Mahomes was very pointed after the game describing how his team played.
“Just too many mistakes at the end of the day,” Mahomes said. “I felt feel like there was times offensively we moved the ball. Didn't execute in the red zone. Didn't execute enough on third down but too many mistakes. We got to clean that up if we want to get to where we want to.”
On the ensuing kickoff, Ameer Abdullah returned it 68 yards and two plays later, O’Connell hit rookie all-star tight end Brock Bowers for a 33-yard touchdown. The Chiefs gained negative one yard on the next drive and were forced to punt. Two plays after that, O’Connell hit wide receiver Trey Tucker in stride for a 58-yard touchdown as safety Justin Reid tripped to the ground before the ball even arrived. Boom, just like that, what was looking like a 20-3 ballgame was a 17-16 Raiders lead in a span of about three minutes.
The Chiefs immediately answered with a five-minute, 11-play drive that resulted in, yet another field go to make it 19-17. From there, the Raiders punted, missed a field goal and fumbled to end the game. Before the fumble, Kansas City had their chance to put the game away. They were midfield, had a third and two opportunity and instead of running the ball, or throwing a higher percentage pass, Reid called for the kill shot. The Raiders showed no coverage over the top, Xavier Worthy had his man beat, but Patrick Mahomes was hit as he threw it and the ball ended up off-target down in the red zone. Kansas City then elected to punt and force the Raiders to drive the field, which they did, with ease, before the fumble.
“I mean, that's one of those catch-22s either way,” Reid said. “I would tell you that our punter was on fire today, doing a great job and he backed them up and I trusted what we would do defensively.”
This game was hard to interpret because the vibes were horrible, but the results of the game were not bad in itself. DeAndre Hopkins proved he is the Chiefs' number one receiver, making plays no other KC receiver can, moving the chains while hauling in 90 yards on just four grabs. Travis Kelce and Mahomes were not in sync, as he had just brought in seven of his 13 targets, but the veteran was heavily involved in the game plan and was effective.
Tight end Noah Gray is a mainstay in the offense and had his third big game in a row, tallying four catches for 58 yards. Worthy is looking more and more like he is finding his role in the offense as well, after catching five of seven targets for 54 yards. Having four weapons produce to this caliber wound up giving Mahomes one of his bigger days of the season, throwing for 306 yards and a touchdown. Kansas City also took care of the football and won the turnover battle.
So how did they end up with just 19 points on five trips to the red zone? The answer to that question is two-fold. For the second straight week, Mahomes was sacked five times. Even when he was not brought down, he spent much of the day escaping to get the ball off. The key point to make is that most of these sacks happened on third down, which had a lot to do with the four field goals and five punts.
The play of Wanya Morris got so bad that they kicked Joe Thuney from left guard to left tackle and brought in Mike Caliendo to play left guard. It seemed to stabilize a bit at that point, but I am guessing the newly signed 2021 Pro Bowl left tackle D.J. Humphries is about to get the crash course to the offensive playbook before they play Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa next week.
“Wanya (Morris) was he was struggling a little bit so (we) moved Joe (Thuney) over there, Caliendo in at guard,” Reid said. “I thought it was the right thing to do at that time. Talked to (offensive line coach Andy Heck) about it, he agreed with it and so we made that move just to solidify things. Pat took a few hits there and so we were struggling at times.”
The second piece to the offense's struggles, in my opinion, was that Mahomes dropped back to throw 46 times while Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt only received seven carries a piece. Getting Pacheco back was supposed to be energizing for this offense, but he simply did not get enough touches. He did break off a 34-yard run, but neither he nor Hunt was given an opportunity to establish the ground game. The lack of balance probably did not help the offensive tackles either, with the pass rushers pinning their ears back all game long.
The defense performed similarly to the offense. There were some good signs, and they figured out some puzzle pieces, but the overall product left a lot to be desired. The first thing to feel optimistic about was the pass rush. Defensive end Charles Omenihu returned for the first time this season, and while you will not be able to tell by the box score, he made an impact. He made a key stop on a fourth and one run attempted by the Raiders and he freed up others to rush the quarterback. Defensive end Chris Jones tallied his first sack since week four against the Los Angeles Chargers and actually ended up with two at the end of the day. Defensive end George Karlaftis also got in on the fun, sacking O’Connell for a huge loss.
Coverage and pressure work hand in hand, but at times, the coverage was improved also. To be frank, they had zero answers for Brock Bowers, who went off for 10 catches, 140 yards and a touchdown. The talented Jakobi Meyers was eating cornerback Nazeeh Johnson up to the point that he was benched midway through the first half. Meyers had six catches for 97 yards but was fairly quiet after Joshua Williams came in for Johnson. Williams seemed to play well along the outside.
At the end of the day, the Chiefs only gave up 17 points, which is typically good enough to win a football game. They batted down quite a few passes and came up with key third-down stops over and over. With that said, they were brutalized by big plays, and they were fortunate Raiders’ kicker Daniel Carlson missed three field goals. Another odd thing about this game was Las Vegas ran the ball at 4.6 yards per carry, for a total of 116 yards. What was odd about it was that the Chiefs are third in the NFL in yards allowed on the ground and the Raiders still rush for the fewest yards per game, by far. Bolton did lead the Chiefs in tackles, with 11.
This was the first time the Chiefs have allowed an opposing quarterback to throw for 300 yards in a game since Jalen Hurts did in back in Super Bowl 57. It was perhaps the most dominant defensive run in the history of the Kansas City Chiefs, and it lasted through one full season and 13 weeks of another. With that said, Baker Mayfield, Bo Nix, Josh Allen, Bryce Young and O’Connell have done what they have wanted for the past five weeks, for the most part. If Williams can step in and be a good, physical, man-press corner and Omenihu continues to impact, the defense should be just fine come January. The Raiders had four different receivers go for a 25-plus yard gain at some point in the game. Limiting those is what does have to change.
“I think more so playing disciplined football on defensive-wise,” Jones said. “(We) gave up a lot of errors today, last game also. I think we eliminate the small penalties and eliminate the big plays also, I think we gave up two or three bombs today, we eliminate the big plays and the penalties, I think we'll be where we want to be as a defense.”
“I think it's more so the errors, the things you can correct, you know what I mean, self-inflicted wounds. I have two offsides today, which one gave them a first down and another one moved them closer. I got to be better on that and then just penalties. Pass interference penalties, hands-to-the-face penalties, little things like that can add up throughout the season, especially in the playoffs, we want to kind of get that in check. Eliminate the smaller penalties and then still play physical. Don't take away from the physicality part of how we play in our defense, but just correct errors.”
The Chiefs' next five opponents come against Justin Herbert, Jameis Winston, C.J. Stroud, Russell Wilson and Nix again. They could be quite a bit more dangerous than the last five, aside from Allen. With the caliber of the Chargers, the Cleveland Browns’ defense, the Houston Texans, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Broncos, I do not think the Chiefs are going to be able to luck their way into victories. I think everyone will have a pretty good idea of who exactly the Chiefs are by Christmas Day.
Next up, the Chiefs have the Chargers (7-4), on a much-needed nine days rest. Los Angeles kicks off its road trip with a game against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday before they head to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium for Sunday Night Football on December 8th.
