Shawn Sorter
With both the Chargers and Broncos already losing, the game kicks off with the winner knowing they will be in sole possession of first place. That turned out to be the Kansas City Chiefs who are now, 6-and-4.
The Good
The 2nd drive had some really creative play calling. It led to a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
The Chiefs were tackling really well, especially our secondary. Tyrann Mathieu was all over Darren Waller and wrapped him up nicely after each catch he had. L’Jarius Sneed had 2 really nice tackles in the first half, one on a 3rd down in space to force the punt.
Did any Chiefs fans know that Melvin Ingram could play the run too?
He stuck the Raider back for a loss on a really solid hit.
Darrel Williams ran strong and hard all night long, and had a lot of yards receiving too. I was thrilled to see us finally calling a lot of throws to the backs.
Travis Kelcie was featured between the 20’s in the first half, Tyreek got 2 touchdowns before the intermission.
Overall Andrew Wylie was solid. To get that sort of effort from your 3rd string Right Tackle I’ll take every time, especially against the pass rush he was facing.
Jarran Reed had his best night as a Chief. He recorded his first sack and made an impact several other times.
The fake punt was called at a perfect time and really put the game away. I’ve always wondered why teams don’t do it more.
Now seeing how Tommy Townsend throws the ball, here’s hoping it will come out from time to time.
Darrel Williams catch on a terrible Patrick Mahomes throw for a touchdown was absolutely amazing.
I never would have guessed he could make that play. I’m more used to thinking he will have balls bounce off his helmet. Williams had 144 total yards.
I enjoyed Chris Jones having back to back rejections. I’m so glad he’s moved back to mostly playing inside. That move seems to help the entire defense.
The Chiefs led in yards 516 to 299 and much of the Raiders yards came in garbage time with many of the defensive starters sitting.
Patrick was being Patrick and having 5 touchdowns was great to see. Still, little things to clean up, but a sigh of relief was heard all over Chiefs Kingdom to see our Franchise Guy playing so well again.
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The Faid
On the 2nd play of the game I was reminded just how slow Darrel Williams is. On at least two plays in the 1st half it was clear his vision is lacking. He just often goes the wrong way. I’m still wishing Gore would be the primary ball carrier.
Tyreek’s strength does not seem to be contested deep balls, but we tend to throw them a lot. Matter of fact it may sound picky but I still believe we are trying to force the ball deep way too much. We did not connect once on a deep throw tonight and many of them were thrown into double coverage.
I’m also not thrilled we still are afraid of running the ball on 1st and goal from the 2. Our line is built for that yet we didn’t run on either of the first 2 downs. Thankfully we still got a touchdown.
It seemed odd to see Hitchens covering a receiver 30 yards downfield. I haven’t noticed that being a thing very often.
Hardman was stopped just short of the endzone on a play that it appeared he didn’t want badly enough. Dive into the end zone my guy.
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The Ugly
Mike Hughes had a great punt return, but did not secure the ball well at the end of it and got the ball dislodged by the punter of all people.
The score ended up being 7-7 after that when it likely would have been 14-0 and the rout would have started that much earlier. I still don’t understand the call being changed though on the field. I would have thought that having the ball secured between an arm and a hip would count as control going to the ground, but evidently I was wrong.
The Raiders did Raider things again and had two cheap shots on the same drive. The first one was called when Maxx Crosby slammed Darrel Williams to the ground. The second one was not called when a defender hit Tyreek Hill when he was clearly out of bounds.
This was the most enjoyable game to watch of the season and it was great to finally play like I know we can and pull away in the end. Putting anything in the negative categories just seems picky, but this team is still capable of so much more. It took a bit to get back where we belong, but 1st place does feel good.
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Shawn Sorter — ArrowheadOne
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