The Kansas City Chiefs wrapped up Week 5 with a 30-29 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Travis Kelce shone with 4 touchdowns while the Raiders missed the chance to win with too many small errors.
Chiefs vs. Raiders: At a Glance
- Travis Kelce was ultra-efficient, scoring 4 touchdowns in a game while also setting a negative record.
- The Raiders started furiously, dominating the line of scrimmage and finally lost the thread after rather anxious decisions by head coach Josh McDaniels, which brought the opponent back.
- The game was overshadowed by another controversial roughing-the-passer call, which, even when looked at several times, looks like a clear wrong decision by the referee in favor of the Raiders.
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Las Vegas Raiders: Die Analyse
The game started with some imperfections on both sides. From the Raiders’ point of view, it was mainly a bad drop from wide receiver Mack Hollins on a deep shot. In addition, offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor made two 15-yard penalties (chop block, block in the back).
But that didn’t stop the Raiders from taking an early lead. On 4th down, Derek Carr fired a 58-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams after play action. On the play, the Raiders only ran two routes – tight end Darren Waller ran a shallow crosser, Adams ran a deep crosser to the other side and was in man coverage while the safety all bit the PA, clearing the way for Adams. After the drive, Waller had to go out with a hamstring injury and didn’t come back.
In return, kicker Matthew Wright missed a field goal from 41 yards, after which the Raiders reached Adams before the end zone thanks to two pass interference penalties (Rashad Fenton, Jaylen Watson). From there, Josh Jacobs completed the 14-0 from one yard.
The Raiders then kept their foot on the gas for a moment, forced another Chiefs punt and marched into the opposing half again. At 4th&1, however, they ran out of courage. Instead of remaining aggressive this time and playing the fourth attempt analytically correctly, the ball was kicked. 17-0 thanks to a 53-yard field goal from Daniel Carlson.
Chiefs vs. Raiders: Kansas City wakes up after questionable 4th down call
That seemed to ratchet up the Chiefs, because after that they took over the game. Running back Jerick McKinnon hit two explosive runs, one for 30 yards, finally taking advantage of the easy boxes they were constantly being offered. A little later, Patrick Mahomes caught up with Travis Kelce.
What followed was a highly contentious scene: Against the background of Sunday’s questionable roughing-the-passer penalty (Grady Jarrett vs. Tom Brady), the referees went one better and negated a strip sack by Chris Jones against Carr because of the Defensive lineman allegedly landed full body weight on the QB. However, video footage shows that Jones Carr knocked the ball out of his hand, effectively conquered it, and then even used his left arm to cushion his fall as it landed on the ground.
What should have been a brilliant turnover turned into a gift for the guests. Those, however, made little of it and were once again content with a field goal. They even had enough time on the clock for Mahomes to get his team within range for a Wright kick before the break. And this time he sunk his shot from 59 yards.
Chiefs vs. Raiders: Guests at a loss after the break
With that momentum behind them, the Chiefs came out of the dressing room in high spirits and turned the game around in just 12 minutes – Mahomes finding Kelce in the end zone twice more.
And the Raiders? Suddenly they had hardly any access with their temporarily dominant front. And it also became more difficult offensively, because the home side were now better able to generate pressure, which led to Car now successively throwing shorter and shorter passes. Only when they returned to the power run game towards the end of the third quarter did things improve for Las Vegas.
However, the third quarter ended with a long sack from Darius Harris and early in the final quarter Carr was lucky as safety Juan Thornhill dropped a deep shot towards Hollins in the end zone. Then Carlson shortened with a 47-yard field goal to 23:24.
As a result, the Raiders drew short-term hope from a stop at 3rd down after another double-safety blitz. And Wright then even missed a 37-yard field goal, but the joy didn’t last long because edge rusher Malcolm Koonce was caught with a kick while holding – new 1st down for KC and – of course – the fourth touchdown for Kelce. However, the subsequent two-point conversion was awarded, so that the 7-point lead remained 7:25 minutes on the clock.
The Raiders hit back furiously, and Adams hit double coverage for a 48-yard touchdown. Josh McDaniels then got aggressive and went for a two-point conversion himself. The call, however, was extremely uninspired – a shotgun draw with Jacobs through the middle, which was stopped. With 4:27 to play, the Chiefs still had a lead (30:29). However, the Raiders then managed to stop just before the two-minute warning, allowing them to retrieve the ball deep in their own half with a pocketed timeout.
But the defense held after pressure from a corner blitz and because Hunter Renfrow and Adams ran into each other downfield. The Chiefs escaped with a narrow win and otherwise went a full half without edge rusher Frank Clark, who stayed in the dressing room unwell.
Kansas City Chiefs (4-1) – Las Vegas Raiders (1-4)
Result: 30:29 (0:7, 10:13, 13:0, 6:9) BOXSCORE
Chiefs vs. Raiders – the most important statistics
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The first touchdown of the game, a 58-yard TD pass to Adams, was Derek Carr’s 200th touchdown pass in the NFL. Notable: The three QBs drafted before him in 2014 – Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, and Teddy Bridgewater – all threw just 182 combined TD passes.
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Said 58-yard touchdown was loud ESPN Stats & Information the Raiders’ longest offensive touchdown on 4th Down ever. Previously, JaMarcus Russell and Louis Murphy held the record with a 57-yard TD.
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Mathew Wright’s 59-yard field goal at the break was the longest field goal in Arrowhead Stadium history.
- Kelce scored 4 touchdowns in the game but only had 25 receiving yards. That was by far the fewest for a player with 4 touchdowns in the Super Bowl era. The previous record holder, Marvin Jones, had 93 yards for the Lions in 2019.
- The 17-point comeback was the biggest of Mahomes’ career.
The Star of the Game: Travis Kelce (Tight End, Chiefs)
The most efficient player on the pitch was undoubtedly Travis Kelce. Although he wasn’t as dominant as usual, he seemed unbeatable in the red zone. His 4 touchdowns turned the game for the Chiefs, especially since the Raiders just didn’t have an answer for him. However, before the last series, he had to leave the field prematurely with back problems.
Der Flop des Spiels: Josh McDaniels (Head Coach, Raiders)
During the half-time break, Josh faced McDaniels ESPN explains that you always have to be aggressive against these chiefs. Before that, however, he had already chosen the scaredy-cat variant on two 4th & short opportunities and kicked field goals instead of keeping his foot on the gas. From an analytical point of view, the recommendation here was only a medium “go for it”, but if you want to kill the big bad wolf in this division, you have to be aggressive here. The fact that he then chose the two-point conversion after the second Adams score was also a medium go, but playing with 4:27 minutes seemed rather exaggerated and was ultimately the difference in the end result.
Analysis: Chiefs vs. Raiders – the tactics board
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The Raiders often varied between press man and zone in the secondary and sometimes happily mixed up their cornerbacks. At times, all four were on the field, such as the 3rd down double safety blitz that resulted in a sack from Johnathan Abram.
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Accordingly, they always played with light boxes, which the Chiefs simply did not take advantage of until their first good drive in the second quarter. It wasn’t until then that they started to focus more on the run game and were rewarded with two long runs from Jerick McKinnon, breathing new life into the offense and causing the Raiders to pay more attention to the run game.
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Notably, the Raiders only blitzed Mahomes once in the first half. They all generated the remaining pressures with the 4-Men-Rush.
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The Chiefs, in turn, made the odd decision to play mostly Man vs. Adams, which Adams often punished. Both Fenton and Watson were typically outmatched by one of the league’s best wide receivers. However, the Raiders ultimately took advantage of it too seldom. In the end, Adams only had 7 targets (3 REC, 124 YDS, 2 TD). Especially after Waller’s exit, this mismatch should have been attacked more often.
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The Raiders often used heavy packages in the run game, for example with Thayer Munford as an extra blocker, especially after Waller’s early exit. In addition, fullback Jakob Johnson saw a lot of action in the simple lead iso power run game, to which the Chiefs did not react with adjustments for a long time and were punished for it.
- The Raiders tried to cover Kelce with different players. Both safety and cornerbacks tried, with limited success. Kelce hit Duron Harmon twice, plus Nate Hobbs and Trevor Moehrig once each on his touchdowns.