Rookies Rule, Vets Drool: Chiefs Slay Raiders 40-to-9

Rookies Rule, Vets Drool: Chiefs Slay Raiders 40-to-9 – perhaps it’s fitting on Thanksgiving Day weekend. Everybody showed up in Kansas City. That is special teams, offense, defense… and the crowd. Oh, man, what a great day it was! Our Chiefs laid a 40-9 shellacking on the Raiders.

The Chiefs are the best team in the AFC West. After yesterday’s game, there can be no doubt. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid could have made the score much higher, if he had wanted. However, playing against his former Green Bay Packer comrade-in-arms, Jon Gruden, he took his foot off the pedal in the second half.

The stars of the game were none other than rookies Juan Thornhill, and Mr. D-Train himself, Darwin Thompson. Both scored their first touchdowns of their NFL careers. In doing so, they made GM Brett Veach look like a football genius—which he may well be. Time will tell.

Juan Thornhill – aka, the Black Kite – nabbed an INT beauty from Raiders QB Derek Carr late in the second half and returning it for forty-six yards and six points. A pick-six!

Meanwhile, Darwin Thompson, who the Chiefs finally used (that is worth giving Thanksgiving thanks for right there) was the Chiefs leading rusher with 44 yards on 11 carries including a touchdown in the fourth quarter to put icing on the cake.

Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu also nabbed an INT leading to the Chiefs first TD in the first quarter.

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes went for 15 of 29 for 175 yards including one touchdown pass while rushing for another. Mahomes finished the game with a 81.8% rating.

The Chiefs defense was huge on Sunday, too. Besides Thornhill and the Honey Badger, the Chiefs D registered 56 tackles, along with 2 sacks.

On special teams, the 2-point return at games’ end by CB Charvarius Ward was a thing of beauty. In fact, the special teams unit was nothing short of spectacular, with punter Dustin Colquitt pointing only twice for an average of 40 yards, kicker Harrison Butker good on one field goal, and five extra points.  WR Mecole Hardman returned a kickoff for 23 yards. The fumble recovery was a nice touch, too.

We should also acknowledge what a great job announcer Tony Romo did helping to call the game. After weeks of listening to Chris Collinsworth, Joe Buck, and Dan Fouts… Romo was a breath of fresh air.  He is, undoubtedly, the most knowledgeable guy to take a seat in an NFL broadcast booth since John Madden.

While we bask in the glow of our Thanksgiving Day weekend victory over the most vile and hated of opponents, let’s not forget whom we face next week, the New England Patriots. The game should be a close one, but one we should win. However, much of that has to do with whether the Patriots teammates, the zebras, show up.

Perhaps the cherry on top for the Chiefs was, they accomplished the slaying of the Raiders with… ZERO PENALTIES.

Stay tuned, we’ll see next week.

Michael Travis Rose — ArrowheadOne

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