The Las Vegas Raiders played the Chiefs on Sunday, or at least appeared on the same field as the Chiefs on Sunday. They were certainly there, in their spiffy white uniforms, in Kansas City, but with Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers both injured and inactive, “played” may have been asking too much.
Vegas never entered the red zone. Only once did the offense cross midfield. On that occasion, they gazed longingly at the end zone from the Chiefs’ 46. In seven attempts, they did not convert a single third down. They totaled 95 yards—70 passing, 25 rushing—to Kansas City's 434. Vegas lost, 31-0.
The Chiefs ran 77 plays. The Raiders ran 30. The Chiefs had 30 first downs. The Raiders had three. Three! Unfortunately, we can’t embed highlights of these plays, because no official highlights exist and each play was of absolutely no consequence. But I can, in a manner respectful of copyright laws, describe them to you:
LV 0, KC 0 - 14:19 remaining in the first quarter: You'll need to wait a bit for a pass thrown beyond the line of scrimmage. On second-and-7, Tre Tucker caught a swing pass from quarterback Geno Smith, and scampered a few yards before diving across the line to gain. CBS color commentator Tony Romo piped up to say this was exactly what he’d just described: If the Raiders kept handing the ball off to Ashton Jeanty (as they’d done on the previous play), the Chiefs would begin to respect Vegas’s run game. “That opens up other people,” Romo said. The run established, the Raiders offense could now get rolling.
Drive result: Punt
LV 0, KC 7 - 5:18 remaining in the first quarter: On this play, Geno Smith took a nine-yard sack. Or so it seemed, until Kansas City defensive back Trent McDuffie was flagged for illegal contact around midfield. Vegas was, mercifully, awarded an automatic first down. “That’s huge,” Romo said, “because this momentum was shifting very quickly.” The momentum retaken, the Raiders offense could now get rolling.
Drive result: Punt
LV 0, KC 31 - 13:13 remaining in the fourth quarter: The Raiders offense now had very little time left to get rolling. Scoring more than 30 points in one quarter almost certainly cannot be done. But momentum was shifting the other way. The Raiders had just forced a three-and-out to start the quarter. Coincidentally, Chiefs backup Gardner Minshew was the quarterback on that drive. But enough about the Chiefs and their exorbitant number of plays. On the first play of this Raiders drive, Tre Tucker—you may recall him from first down No. 1—swooped to the ground to reel in a 14-yard pass. He would finish as his team's receiving leader, with 33 yards on five catches. “They need to keep getting him the ball, but they just need to play faster, get some rhythm going,” Romo said. On the next play, the Raiders were flagged for holding and lost most of this yardage. This past February, the Raiders hired Chip Kelly and made him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL.
Drive result: Punt
