Amari Cooper, limited in practice all week, injured his ankle again.
In first game action since Week 12, receiver re-injures his left ankle in painful pileup
KANSAS CITY >> Amari Cooper screamed in pain as players landed on his ankle. He immediately reached for his lower left leg. He stayed down, surrounded by trainers, an eerily similar sight from two weeks back.
The Raiders wide receiver hobbled off under his own power late in the second quarter Sunday after re-injuring his left ankle while blocking on a pitch to DeAndre Washington. He didn’t play the final 2 ½ quarters.
Cooper practiced only once the past two weeks, participating in a limited capacity on Friday. He suffered a concussion and a sprained left ankle on the same play in Week 12, causing him to miss the next game and a half. Cooper cleared the concussion protocol on Wednesday. He was questionable for Sunday’s contest, but gave it a go.
After catching 11 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns against Kansas City in Week 7, Cooper was targeted once on Sunday. The pass fell incomplete out of bounds.
Asked what he expected of Cooper on Sunday given the recent injury, Raiders’ head coach Jack Del Rio foresaw Cooper’s speed, experience and route-running playing a factor. The Raiders received little of those, if any.
“He got rolled up on. If you are injured before and you get rolled up on, it is likely going to be pretty sore,” Del Rio said. “That is what occurred. He re-injured it. Where that puts him now, we will evaluate as we go through the week.” FRESH START >> In three games since John Pagano took over as defensive coordinator, Bruce Irvin and Denico Autry have played their best football of the year.
Irvin added two more sacks on Sunday, bringing his total in the last three games to five. Autry batted down two more passes, adding to his one batted pass and three sacks in the two games prior to Sunday’s.
Autry now sits tied for second in the NFL among defensive linemen for most passes defended. Irvin, after a slow start to the year, has rediscovered himself as a pass-rusher.
“Bruce is a talented pass-rusher,” linebacker NaVorro Bowman said. “We need him to do those things. He takes that and runs with it and makes those plays that we need.”
Said Irvin: “It’s cool, but we didn’t win. Our objective is to win the game, and that was unfortunate.” TACKLING TROUBLE >> Missed tackles continue to plague the Raiders. One by Karl Joseph, one by Bowman, one by Dexter McDonald. All misses in crucial spots.
Joseph couldn’t corral Travis Kelce on the tight end’s way to the 1-yard line as the first quarter ran out. Chiefs’ running back Kareem Hunt punched it in from there to give Kansas City a 10-0 lead to start the second.
Bowman couldn’t bring down Charcandrick West before the goal line on his 13-yard touchdown run. West, at 5-foot-10 and 205 pounds, plowed right through the 242-pound Bowman to give the Chiefs a 26-0 edge late in the third quarter.
McDonald, on a Chiefs’ third-and-five late in the fourth quarter, couldn’t wrap up Albert Wilson. Wilson gained seven yards with the Raiders down 11, granting the Chiefs another set of downs and milking valuable time off the clock.
“That was a big one from a time standpoint when we are looking at getting the ball back,” Del Rio said of McDonald’s missed tackle. “It wasn’t what we would like it to be ultimately. I don’t know if that was the biggest negative. Certainly it was one.”