Raiders hot start vs Chiefs suffers familiar fizzling finish
We weren’t 18 minutes into the Raiders’ game against the Chiefs Sunday and the Raiders were already up 14-0. And they could’ve been up 17-0 had Daniel Carlson not missed a chipshot 30-yard field goal on their second drive. That would have been three Raiders drives, all for scores and two punts for the Chiefs with just one first down.
That was as good as it got for the Raiders.
After that everything flipped. The Chiefs offense got going and the Raiders’ offense fell flat. Specifically, the Chiefs outscored the Raiders 31-3 over the final 42 minutes to win 31-17.
It was an all too familiar pattern for these Raiders.
It was still anyone’s game at the half. The score was tied 14-14. It was similar to last week in Miami when it was a 14-13 game at the half. In both case things ground to a halt after that.
This one saw Davante Adams catch five passes on five targets for 73 yards to start things off. Then he had just two targets with no catches for nearly three quarters.
Josh Jacobs also had big numbers early on, running for 94 yards and a TD on 12 carries (7.8 yards per carry) including a huge 63-yard burst for the Raiders second touchdown. Then he got just 16 yards on eight runs (2.0 ypc) in the second half without picking up a single first down on the ground.
When that Jacobs TD run put the Raiders up 14-0, the Chiefs had just one first down and 13 yards of offense on two possessions. Then they went on a run, scoring touchdowns on three straight drives and four touchdowns on their next five drives. Any positive feelings early on were a distant memory.
“I don’t think you just jump up 14-0 if you weren’t gonna be aggressive and feel that way,” said Pierce after the game. “I think we knew early on we could run the ball with Josh we did that. We knew we had a great opportunity there with Tay on outside and we took advantage of that. And then at a point you know like every game is gonna come to a point where offense stalls and then how do you rebound from that and what we’re struggling with right now is just rebounding from those dry moments and you see them, it’s very evident in the game.”
Last week the Raiders offense was shut out in the second half. Just as they had been in Josh McDaniels’s final game in Week 8 against the Lions. In this game, the Raiders would get just five first downs in the entire second half and manage just three points.
The Raiders seemed to have stopped these late collapses in their first two games under Antonio Pierce when they beat the Giants and Jets in consecutive weeks. But it appears now that perhaps that was more a product of playing inspired football against two bad teams. Two weeks later after two very good teams, they just couldn’t hang. Simply put, they just faced better teams.
“Yeah squeezing all we can,” Pierce said. “Obviously 14-0, that’s a great start. But you knew at some point, World Champs, Patrick [Mahomes] and those guys will start making plays.”
From here the Raiders have a bye week before hosting the currently 6-5 Vikings.
