Lap It Up: Raiders Rivalry Revived

Lap It Up: Raiders Rivalry Revived – At long last, the rivalry is back! For close to six years, the bi-annual Chiefs-Raiders game was little more than a bye week with flashes of Silver (more of a shiny grey, IMHO) and Black, with just a smidgen of trash-talk, but since the Oakland/Los Angeles/Las Vegas Raiders (whoever they are this week) unlikely win over our beloved Red and Gold on October 11th of this year, the rivalry lives again, and it is for real!

I won’t delve into the bad blood between the Chiefs and the Raiders. The internet is chock-full of videos, articles, and blogs dedicated to their forever feud. Suffice it to say, the 60 plus year rivalry is arguably the best in the NFL, and, without a doubt, the best in the AFC West. Plus, James S. McGregor not only gave his take on the potential of this rivalry being renewed, but I had this to offer here at ArrowheadOne in which I covered the history of this rivalry over a year ago.

Mind you, it was not the win alone that revived the rivalry. The Raiders deserved to win that game. They controlled the football for over 35 minutes of the game, while the Chiefs had it for less than 25 minutes. Their quarterback, Derek Carr, threw for 347 yards, three touchdowns, and one INT. Our Super Bowl LIV MVP quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, had a pedestrian day (for him), passing for only 340 yards, two touchdowns, and tossing his sole INT of the season. Carr’s passer rating was 126.7%, while Mahomes was an uncharacteristic 83.5%… his lowest this season. So I dare say, without checking, the lowest of his NFL career. The Chiefs rushed for just 80 yards, while the Raiders racked up 144 yards. The Chiefs also converted just 6-of-14 third downs. Perhaps, even more telling is when the fourth quarter clock hit 0:00, the scoreboard read: Chiefs 32, Raiders 40.

The question now: is this newly resuscitated drudge-match triggered more by the Raiders win at Arrowhead in October… or is it because Jon Gruden directed the bus driver to circle the stadium before heading to the airport? Here’s what Gruden is claiming now:

No, it was not the Raiders victory that sparked the revivalry (great word, Laddie!). Nor, did it surprise many in Chiefs Kingdom, who forewarned that the week 5 Chiefs-Raiders matchup had all the makings of a trap game. Heck, stranger things have happened. Shoot, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. The revivalry was sparked not by the win, but when Raiders head coach, Jon Gruden, made the foolish decision to take a “victory lap” around Arrowhead Stadium.

Gruden would blame it on a “smart aleck” bus driver. So, of all the things to motivate the Raiders head coach and hurt his feelings, it was some purported offhand comments by a random Kansas City bus driver? Mind you, this is the same “tough guy” who had to answer to the late curmudgeon Al Davis from 1998 to 2001, was on the losing end of the infamous tuck rule in a 2001 AFC Divisional Championship game against the New England Patriots, and brilliantly portrayed psychopathic Good Guy doll Chucky in over eight American horror films!

I know Las Vegas is not known for cold, inclement weather, but they sure got themselves a $100M snowflake there! However, while I’m glad that Coach Gruden was foolish enough to spark the revivalry. That was a… Big mistake, Jon. Big. Huge!

I love to Raider-Hate. It’s one of my favorite past-times. Scratch that. It is my favorite past-time! However, it would be bush-league and classless of me to hate on, and bash the Raiders, without first providing the ArrowheadOne readers a bullet list of all the things I admire about them:

• The Raiders are in the best division with the best organization in the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Whew! Glad that’s out of the way. That was hard!

To be honest, though, the Chiefs-Raiders rivalry has not really been “a thing,” since former Chiefs head coach Marty Schottenheimer was in charge. He was a notorious Raider-Hater. He was great at it, too. As Chiefs head coach, he was victorious 17 times in his 20 meetings with them a Chiefs skipper. In fact, Schottenheimer, is also an infamous Raider-Slayer, having bested the Silver and Black more times than any other NFL coach, active or retired… in NFL history. Including his record vs the Raiders while he was with the Cleveland Browns, the Chiefs, and the San Diego Chargers.

Coach Reid is not so fervent in his loathing of the Raiders, commenting only:

“It’s two good football teams playing each other. I don’t think either team likes the other that much, as they’ve stated before.”

When Big Red got wind of the Raider’s laughable “victory lap” after their week 5 victory, the seldom-excitable cheeseburger aficionado seemed nonplussed about it:

“Listen, they won the game, so they can do anything they want to do. They ended up winning the game. That’s not our style, but we’ll get ourselves back, ready to play. That’s where we’re at.”

However, Reid delivered a little dig and, perhaps, just perhaps, a hint of payback to come when asked if he thought it was difficult to beat a team twice in a season. The coach replied no, but added, “I think they [must] or they wouldn’t have driven the bus around the stadium.”

Coach Reid has no reputation for running up a score on an opponent. He is, in fact, often criticized for taking his foot off the offensive gas pedal too soon during games when the Chiefs are leading. However, don’t let him fool you, Big Red has his moments. Who can forgot his decision to have his 346-lb. nose tackle, Dontari Poe, toss a touchdown pass with 1:55 left in the game against the Denver Broncos, despite being up, 27-10?

Coach Gruden, it was seriously foolhardy to poke a sleeping walrus. You done messed up, Chucky!

Michael Travis Rose — ArrowheadOne

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