Big underdog at home is done in by 3 turnovers
The Chiefs arrived in Oakland with their sights set on the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs this season. The Raiders have a better shot at the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft.
Both teams made progress toward those outcomes Sunday, though the Raiders gave arguably their most inspired performance of the season.
Unable to keep pace with the Chiefs’ potent offense, the Raiders lost 40-33 at the Coliseum to fall to 2-10 on the season, while Kansas City became the first AFC team to doubledigit wins.
With the Cardinals beating the Packers, the Raiders and 49ers are the only two-win teams left in the NFL. The Raiders, underdogs by more than two touchdowns Sunday, stayed with the Chiefs but were undone partly by three lost fumbles by their running backs.
“Yeah, it’s disappointing,” running back Doug Martin said. “And I don’t think it should’ve been that close. I think we should’ve been on top of it. But the turnovers really, really hurt us. Who knows? The better team who didn’t make the most mistakes won.”
In their first 11 games, Raiders running backs lost one fumble. Sunday, Martin, DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard each lost one, leading to 13 points for the Chiefs. Richard remarked after the game that running backs coach Jemal Singleton had told him in warm-ups: “Something bad is going to happen today.”
“I didn’t know it was going to be three fumbles,” Richard said. “We had to play through it. And we did that and still had a chance to win and fought hard. But we’ve definitely got to fix that. We ain’t going to win no games giving anybody the ball three times.”
Much less the Chiefs, who became the third team to score 40-plus points against the Raiders this season while gaining 469 yards and averaging 6.9 yards per play. The Raiders had 442 yards and averaged 6.4 yards per play, but in a foregone conclusion they were officially eliminated from playoff contention.
Facing the Raiders’ 26thranked defense, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed 23 of 38 passes for 295 yards and four touchdowns, giving him an NFLhigh 41 in 12 games and keeping Peyton Manning’s NFL season record of 55 in reach.
“I was outside myself, I was so upset at some of the plays he made today,” Raiders head coach Jon Gruden said. “I was really proud of our quarterback, too. It was a shootout between two great, young quarterbacks.”
Derek Carr completed 29 of 38 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns and led fourth-quarter touchdown drives of 10 and six plays that made the score 33-30 with 6:46 left in the game. Gruden said there was “a thought” of trying an onside kick at that point.
“But we thought with the crowd being in the game, which they were, we had (the Chiefs) backed up, knew we could kick and cover,” Gruden said. “We needed one stop.” They didn’t get it. Mahomes led a 10-play, 75-yard drive that included a touch throw on the run to tight end Travis Kelce for a 25-yard gain to Oakland’s 4-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes delivered the dagger with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Chris Conley with 1:54 remaining.
“He just made more plays than we did,” safety Karl Joseph said of Mahomes. “They made more plays in key situations than we did. But, man, I’m proud of the way we fought.
“It was disappointing. But it’s definitely something we can build off. I thought we played real hard, never gave up, kept fighting, was in the game the whole time.”
The Raiders defense recovered a fumble by Kelce on the game’s first play from scrimmage. But their offense couldn’t capitalize as a 4thand-short conversion was wiped out by a holding penalty on center Rodney Hudson, which Gruden likened to another turnover.
Kelce stormed back to finish the game with 12 catches for 168 yards and two touchdowns. The Raiders’ own tight end, Jared Cook, had seven catches for 100 yards and one touchdown.
“It was a battle of two great tight ends,” Gruden said. “But Kelce and Mahomes, they must live together or something. They made some incredible plays. Credit to those guys. You can’t do anything sometimes but tip your hat.”