This week’s divisional matchups have been so good. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs comeback from being down 17 points in the first half to beat their divisional rivals, the Las Vegas Raiders, 30-29.
FINALLY, a primetime game that was worth watching. One can only go so many weeks watching 1950’s-esque football every Thursday, Sunday, and Monday night before it would drive them insane. Thankfully, the Raiders and the Chiefs took our plight into consideration and put on a great show that was full of drama, high-stakes, physical hits, 50-yard passing bombs, monster runs, and even some more refereeing controversy.
But, before I get to all of that, I should start with how well the Las Vegas Raiders started this game. Considering how the Raiders have only won 3 out of a possible 19 games (with one more this year to be decided) against the Chiefs since 2013, I was sure that the Chiefs were going to blowout the Raiders defense early and stifle their offense in route to a 20-0 halftime lead.
To my surprise, the exact opposite occurred.
The Raiders came out swinging as Derek Carr didn’t shy away from throwing the ball deep on the Chiefs backfield, despite the constant pressure in his face on every pass. On a key 4th and 1 from inside the Raiders half, Carr faked out the Chiefs defense by pretending to hand the ball off to Josh Jacobs, and then launched a 50-yard bomb to a wide-open Davante Adams, giving the Raiders the early 7-0 lead and silenced Arrowhead Stadium.
With how the rest of this game played out, I think we are finally seeing the connection Adams and Carr redeveloped back into the one they shared during their college days at Fresno State. Adams did end the game with 3 REC for 124 yards and 2 TDs, both of which came off 50+ yard deep passes.
Though, if the Raiders want to actually win some games this season, then Carr has to connect with Adams more than just three times a game. The Raiders didn’t spend so much of their draft capital on Adams just for him to catch three balls in key divisional game.
Anyway, back to the game, the Raiders onslaught didn’t stop with that Adams touchdown as the Raiders added another TD through Josh Jacobs. Just after the Chiefs missed a field goal, the Raiders took the ball 70 yards on the back of Josh Jacobs’, who had a fantastic game with 21 CAR, 154 yards, 1 TD, power running and two PI calls on Devante Adams.
Thus, after a 1-yard TD rush by Jacobs, and then another field goal, the Raiders found themselves in completely uncharted territory as they were up 17-0 at Arrowhead Field with a little under halfway to go in the first half. Josh Mcdaniels must have been jumping for joy about the prospect of picking up his second win of the season in such a hostile environment…until he then would have stopped as he realized that Patrick Mahomes was his opponent.
You don’t need me to remind you that, even down by three scores, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are never out of a game. And especially not against such a hated divisional foe like the Raiders.
In no time, Patrick Mahomes connected up with Travis Kelce, which he did many times last night as the tight end finished with four touchdowns, to bring the lead back down 17-7, and then drove his offense down the full length of the field in just 17 seconds to set up rookie kicker Matthew Wright on a 59-yard field goal that again brought the deficient back down to a ten-point Raiders lead at 20-10.
“Oh, so the Raiders scored another field goal just before halftime. That must have come without controversy, right?” Well, obviously that’s wrong or else I wouldn’t have brought it up as this is when more refereeing controversy occurred.
On a crucial 3rd down in that Raiders drive that lead to their field goal, Chiefs DE Chris Jones broke free from his protection and stripped sacked Derek Carr to hand the Chiefs possession inside the Raiders redzone…or so he thought. Just like how Grady Jarrett was wrongfully called for roughing the passer against Tom Brady and the Bucs on Sunday, the refs inexplicably called a dumb roughing the passer call on Jones.
Though, this may have been an even worse call than the Grady Jarrett one as Jones merely ran into Carr, stripped the ball from him, and then let him fall to the ground as he ran off with the football. NOTHING about that play should have been called for a roughing the passer penalty. It’s just another item on a longlist of bad calls these officials have been dishing out ever since Tua Tagovailoa’s unfortunate injury three weeks ago.
These refs are either incompetent to actual ‘roughing the passer’ hits or are overcorrecting each game to save face for the critics of the NFL. Whatever the reason, I’m glad the Chiefs fans gave them hell to show how dumb that line of thinking actually is.
Nonetheless, this call didn’t affect the game nearly as crucially as it did in the Atlanta-Tampa Bay game as Patrick Mahomes kept his offense steamrolling coming out of halftime.
Mahomes threw THREE MORE touchdowns to Travis Kelce, lighting up the Raiders defense for the best TE touchdown performance in nearly ten years, as the Kansas City Chiefs took a 30-29 lead with under two minutes to go in the 4th Quarter.
So, with the stars shining down on Arrowhead and millions of people watching at home, how would Derek Carr and Josh Mcdaniels respond?
They already muffed a would-be two-point conversion after the second Adams touchdown, which was the reason they found themselves down by 1. Surely, they couldn’t pull off an even dumber play than their two-point conversion, right?
Obviously, they did as on 4th and 1, with just 47 seconds left on the clock, Carr threw a deep shot in the direction of Adams…but he wasn’t there to receive the ball as the pass harmlessly fell to the ground. Why wasn’t he there to receive the ball? It was because Hunter Renfrow, HIS OWN TEAMMATE, ran into him and the two fell over early on in the route.
So, with the ball back in the Chiefs hands and the Raiders out of timeouts, KC knelt down and sealed their 30-29 victory.
Even though this game was mired by that Chirs Jones controversy, it was still a blast to watch. The Chiefs proved once again that they are the class of the AFC West, while the Raiders once again proved that the expectations of the offseason and past successes was too much to bear.
Sure, the Raiders played well, but this lost just signifies their entire season thus far. Victory was in sight, but they found a way to trip over themselves before they can reach it. And that’s why they’ll miss the playoffs and loss the division race as they are now 1-4, while the Chiefs have improved to 4-1.
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