The Kansas City Chiefs

Raiders-Chiefs score: Spotlight is on Antonio Pierce

Đăng vào bởi Fanentrancenet

One of the primary reasons why Antonio Pierce is the Las Vegas Raiders head coach is the way his team handled the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day in Kansas City.

The Raiders manhandled the Chiefs. Pierce made that his mantra and in February, he talked about having a rule for facing Chiefs’ star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Basically, it was that the Raiders would bully Mahomes and it was their recipe to beating Kansas City.

Sunday, Pierce could offer little resistance to Mahomes as the Chiefs beat the Raiders 27-20 at Allegiant Stadium.

The Raiders have lost four straight games and are 2-6 and have trailed by double digits in all eight games.

There is no juice under Pierce and his staff now that he is the full-time coach. The Raiders have played a full season under Pierce since he became the interim head coach a year ago. They are 7-10.

Sunday’s loss was sponsored by mistakes by the players and coaches as miscues continued to pile up and odd coaching decisions continued to plagued the team on both sides of the ball.

Asked if he is thinking about taking away play-calling duties from first-year offensive coordinator Luke Getsy (who had another rough day), Pierce answered by saying he thinks the issues are more execution based.

Whatever it is, the Raiders have big problems and they’re not going away and no, they aren’t a match for Mahomes and the Chiefs in the big picture.

Here are some key aspects of the game:

Minshew is OK:

Raiders’ quarterback Gardner Minshew as sharp early as he completed his first eight pass attempts. He ended up being 24 of 30 passing for 209 yards. He did lose a fumble in the fourth quarter in Las Vegas territory that setup a Chiefs’ touchdown to give them a 27-13 lead. Minshew has committed 11 turnovers this season, which leads the NFL. The Raiders have a league-leading 17 turnovers as a team through eight weeks. Still, Minshew probably did enough to keep the job for another week as the Raiders head to Cincinnati in Week 9 before their bye

Run game sags again:

The Raiders’ running game has really missed Josh Jacobs all season. Sunday was no different. The Raiders couldn’t get anything going and had 33 yards rushing on 21 attempts. New starter Alexander Mattison had 15 yards on 14 carries. Former starter Zamir White has just 12 yards on five carries in the two games since he returned from an injury. White has 145 yards rushing against the Chiefs on Christmas last season. The Raiders’ ground game issues is a big part of the problem.

Bowers produced again:

Raiders’ star rookie tight end Brock Bowers had some big plays early and he finished with five grabs for 58 yards. His 52 catches is a team record for a tight end after eight games.

Offensive line shaky:

The Raiders’ offensive line has had its share of problems this season and Sunday was no different. In addition to the ground game issues, Minshew was sacked five times by the Chiefs. The Raiders have been dealing with injuries on the line. Sunday, center Andre James went out with ankle injury. If it lingers, we will see rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson at center and Cody Whitehair at left guard.

Third-down success:

The Raiders entered the game with the second best third-down conversion rate. That didn’t concern the Chiefs. They converted on third down 12 out of 16 times, which contributed to the win.

Maxx on O:
The Raiders put star defensive end Maxx Crosby in at fullback near the goal in the third quarter. It will be interesting to see if that continues down the road on occasion.

More Spillane:
Raiders’ linebacker Robert Spillane surpassed the 10-tackle mark for the sixth time this season. The pending free agent is a big piece of this unit.

Weird series:

Trailing 17-10 in the third quarter, the Raiders got a great opportunity a D.J. Turner returned a long punt and then the Chiefs were penalized at the end of the play to give the Raiders the ball at the Kansas City 29. The Raiders then went 14 yards on plays in five minutes, 51 seconds only to settle for a field goal. The Raiders had first and goal at the 4, but then turned that into fourth and goal at the 14 before the field goal. Messy.

Then, this:
The Raiders were in major business after a Tre’von Moehrig interception put them at the Chiefs three-yard line trailing 17-13 in the third quarter. The Raiders couldn’t run the ball. They went for it on fourth down and Gardner Minshew was sacked. Ugly.

Ridder cameo:

Backup quarterback Desmond Ridder, who was signed during the week to replace the injured Aidan O’Connell, came in for a designed play on the third quarter, but there was a false start. It will be interesting to see if he plays any next week at Cincinnati.

Kelce sets record:

Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce record the record of former Chiefs’ tight end Tony Gonzalez with his 115th career reception against the Raiders. It’s the most ever by an opponent. Kelce scored his first touchdown of the season to give the Chiefs a 14-10 lead in the second quarter. Kelce, a noted Raiders’ killer, had his best game of the season with 10 catches for 90 yards.

Weird clock management:
Pierce and his staff has made some odds decision and it happened again Sunday. First, they took a timeout soon after the two-minute warning timeout on defense. Then, they got the ball trailing 14-10 with 1:57 left in the first quarter and on their 30 was very conservative, punting the ball back to Kansas City with 58 seconds left in the half. The Chiefs cruised down the field to kick a field goal with four seconds left to take a 17-10 lead at the half. The Raiders used all of their timeouts before the two-minute warning in the second half so the Chiefs were able to go to victory format leading 27-20 after recovering the onside kick.

Welcome back, Meyers:
Raiders wide receiver Jakobi Meyers, the Raiders’ No. 1 receiver after the Davante Adams trade to the New York Jets, missed the past two games with an ankle injury. He returned Sunday and didn’t waste an time helping the team. He had a first down to extend the Raiders’ opening drive and then he caught a touchdown pass from Minshew to tie the game at 7-7 in the first quarter, Meyers had six catches for 52 yards.

Tough start:
The Chiefs’ offense, which was struggling going into the game, eased down the field, going 70 yards on nine plays in four minutes, 58 seconds to take a 7-0 lead after the first series of the game,

Enemy takeover (again):

Once again, Allegiant Stadium was overtaken by fans of the opposing team. As they do every year in Las Vegas, Chiefs fans account for a good portion of the stadium Sunday. Chiefs fans were so loud they forced the Raiders into a false start on their first offensive play of the game. This is a problem that isn’t going away for the Raiders. The good news is, there likely won’t be many more major takeover this season. The Raiders have four more home games: against Denver, Atlanta, Jacksonville and the Chargers. Broncos’ fans travel the best out of those teams, so the major takeovers will likely have to await for the 2025 season when they host Dallas among other teams.

Posts in same category: