Chiefs 27, Raiders 20
Laddie Morse
This was a great game. The Kansas City Chiefs came away with another victory, their 13th in a row, and ran away with a win. 27-to-20 sounds like a close one and in the end it was, but the game was hardly in doubt most of the way through. The Las Vegas Raiders started out by taking a 10-to-7 lead early in the game. However, the boys in red came through again and the only question then was, how much would they win by? When the Raiders scored a late TD it made the score look closer than it was, and then a failed on-side kick for Vegas sealed the deal for K.C..
TE Travis Kelce came away with ten catches for 90 yards and his longest catch was for 25 yards. The big question on everyone’s mind was: how much would we see our newest WR, DeAndre Hopkins?
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Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star wrote a piece called, “Five things that stood out about the Chiefs’ win vs. the Raiders in Las Vegas” in which he said,
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“DeAndre Hopkins spent the first two snaps of the
game standing on the sideline. He spent the next as
the primary target. Mahomes found Hopkins on the
Chiefs’ initial third down attempt, a 13-yard gain that
moved the marker. Mahomes never took his eyes off
Hopkins after receiving the snap.”
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McDowell’s five observations included:
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In the 4th quarter, the Chiefs Defense stepped up and stopped the Raiders offense on four straight plays right after QB Aptrick Mahomes the=rew an interception.
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The game appeared to be in doubt at that point with the score 17-to-13, but Kingdom fans have come to expect the team to rally in any event. Here’s the four plays the Raiders put together all of which the Chiefs D stuffed.
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Patrick Mahomes had a very good game as we’ve come to expect him to. He completed 27 of 38 attempts averaging 6.9 per catch. He had 2 TD throws, one to Travis Kelce and one to rookie speedster Xavier Worthy (I should also mention that Kareem Hunt had a rushing TD). Mahomes also had an interception which I mentioned earlier. Mahomes Rating ended up at 96.6 which is much improved over his recent Ratings. Here are Mahomes Ratings this year:
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DeAndre Hopkins
Although the Chiefs newest member, WR DeAndre Hopkins, had just two receptions for 29 yards, I believe it’s the attention he drew that allowed Travis Kelce to look like the Kelce of old. His 10 receptions for 90 yards should be attributed to the presence of DHop for sure (0:34).
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Play of the Game
Rookie WR Xavier Worthy catches a ball in the flat and races to beat the Raiders DBs into the end zone (0:42).
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(0:08)
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Player of the Game
The Whole Defense
While the Chiefs Defense started out the game slowly and by allowing the Raiders to march down the field and score a TD on their first possession, they pretty much shut them down after that. So, the whole Defense gets the Game Ball Trophy, as far as I’m concerned. My buddy Chris said:
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“The defensive coaching staff is so
good at making in-game adjustments.”
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You can say that again! BTW… we might just have to give DC Steve Spagnuolo this award if this keeps up.
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Quote of the Game
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“Chiefs RT Jawaan Taylor did not allow a single pressure
across 28 pass blocking matchups against Maxx Crosby
(25 of 28 were one-on-one matchups). Crosby failed to
generate a pressure on any of his 41 pass rushes, the
most pass rushes without recording a pressure in a game
this season. Last time Crosby was held without a pressure
was Week 9, 2022.”
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What did you think of this game?
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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