Clean football, strong second half propel Chiefs over Raiders
Tyler Brown
Sunday afternoon did not start how the Chiefs wanted it to, but what has plagued them going back to week eight is what propelled them to victory in week 12 against the Raiders. After getting behind 14-0 to Las Vegas early in the second quarter, the Chiefs stormed back, with 31 points.
17 of those points came in the second half, marking the first time Kansas City put up any points in the final 30 minutes of a game since week seven against the Las Angeles Chargers on October 22nd. The Kansas City Chiefs (8-3) road breakout games from quarterback Patrick Mahomes, wide receiver Rashee Rice and tight end Travis Kelce to a 31-17 win over the Las Vegas Raiders (5-7).
"Yeah, I think it’s all heart at the end of the day,” Mahomes said. “In the second half, it goes down to who wants it more. You could have play designs, but for the most part, you're off your script and you're kind of picking up plays here and there … Even when stuff wasn't pretty, they made stuff happen, and then when coach put us in the right spots, our guys caught the football and I made the right decisions."
The Chiefs have been looking for answers on offense and head coach Andy Reid might have found the recipe. Rice and Kelce combined for 17 targets, 14 catches, 198 yards and one touchdown. This also resulted in one of the more efficient games Mahomes has had in weeks. He completed 27 of his 34 passes for 298 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Aside from simply putting up points in the second half, Reid has spoken recently about the need to clean up the sloppiness of the offense. With as good as the defense is, cleaning up drops, penalties and turnovers are all correctable issues and would leave more margin for victory. Reid was more than happy with the way the offense cleaned that up this week.
"I'm proud of the guys for catching the ball the way they did,” Reid said. “They really did a nice job. I mean, we do all that in practice and they just did a nice job with that. And then the penalties, we were able to cut down on those. Still work in that area and we'll continue to do that. But those unnecessary things, those things where you are kind of shooting yourself in the foot, we eliminated them."
Rice has been on a steady incline all season, but this one felt like a true coming-out party from the rookie out of Southern Methodist University. His performance put all his skills on display with catches on intermediate routes, coming up with contested catches and showcasing his ability to put up yards after the catch.
His knack for yards after the catch was glaring when he took a 4-yard grab 39 yards to the endzone. That was his fifth touchdown of the season and he registered his first 100-yard game of his career, racking up 107. The rookie is now on pace over 800 yards for the season.
" … You saw today some of those coverages where they were doubling Trav [Travis Kelce], or putting a lot of attention on Trav, he was able to make some stuff happen like on that shallow cross,” Mahomes said. “He’s a guy who wants it. I think that's the biggest thing. He has a talent. He wants to be great. But it's going to take us staying on top of it every single week, and he's going to be a great receiver in this league."
Kelce very quietly had a big and steady game for the Chiefs and the offense. Over the previous three games, the tight end had been averaging 38 yards per game. Reid and Mahomes found a way to dial him up in a big way this week, averaging over 15 yards per catch and ending the afternoon with 91 yards.
“I think it's just when you do get those right opportunities (for Kelce), you have to capitalize on that,” Mahomes said. “ … We’re going to have to continue to prove that other guys can make those big plays, and they'll take it out of that, and then we'll go back to Travis and kind of play with that median of how much we're going to put him in there and how much we're going to use him as a decoy.”
One area the Chiefs improved this week was their red zone efficiency. They went three for four in the red area and the one time they did not convert was an end-of-the-game field goal when it was mostly out of hand. The red zone linchpin this week was running back Isiah Pacheco, who did not have a high statistical output, but had two one-yard touchdown runs. Pacheco finished with 55 yards on the ground and 34 through the air.
Mahomes only targeted seven receivers in the game, which is three or four shy of the norm in past weeks. Receivers Justin Watson and Marquez Valdez-Scantling combined for four targets, two catches and only two yards.
The other two that received targets were tight end Noah Gray and receiver Skyy Moore who both tallied over 30 yards, three catches a piece and caught every ball thrown their way. It will be interesting to see if this type of target ratio will be involved in the offensive formula moving forward.
The Chiefs’ defense had been carrying the team for several weeks and allowing 17 points against a team with weapons like running back Josh Jacobs and wide receivers Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers, is nothing to slouch at. There is no doubt though that the Raiders had a good game plan coming in.
At the end of the first quarter, Las Vegas outgained Kansas City 144 to 11. Shortly after that, Jacobs ripped a 63-yard touchdown run and was the first running back to rush for 100 yards on the Chiefs all season.
The Chiefs settled down after that, only allowing three points and 137 yards in the final 42 minutes of the game. To this point, L’Jarius Sneed, Trent McDuffie and company have still only allowed two 100-yard receivers on the season as they limited Adams to 73 and Meyers to 79.
Coming into the week the Chiefs were third in the league in sacks and since Aidan O’Connell had taken over at Quarterback for the Raiders he had been sacked 12 times in the five games. Kansas City did not tally their first sack until Las Vegas’ final drive on third down that essentially sent the Chiefs into victory formation.
On that play, Sneed provided the pressure on a cornerback blitz and George Karlaftis ended it with his eighth sack of the year. Kansas City failed to turn O'Connell over as well after he came in averaging over one per game.
On the injury front, Skyy Moore tweaked his left knee and right guard Trey Smith hurt his right foot, according to Reid. He also noted that the injuries should be nothing too serious. In week 13 the Chiefs head to Lambeau Field to face off against the Green Bay Packers (5-6) for Sunday Night Football. Kickoff will be at 7:20 p.m. CDT on December 3rd.
"Yeah, it was a good day,” Mahomes said. “I still think we can be better. There was plays here and there that we didn't execute at a high enough level. But we're going to be going into Green Bay, playing in a great environment, which I'm really excited about, against a team that's playing really good football right now, and a defense that is playing really good. It'll be another great challenge for us and how can we respond. How can we not have these highs and lows and continue to build throughout the rest of the season."
