The Las Vegas Raiders took an embarrassing loss to their divisional rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs. The two teams faced off on Sunday, October 15th at Arrowhead Stadium.
The victory for the Chiefs pushes their record to 4-3, which ties them with the Los Angeles Chargers for second place in the AFC West. The Raiders, however, fall to a 2-5 record that puts Vegas further from playoff contention.
Rashee Rice for the Chiefs had an impressive game vs the Raiders, with star quarterback Patrick Mahomes completing seven out of the ten passes intended for him. This gave him 2 touchdowns and 42 yards in total with his longest reception being 12 yards.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is very impressed with Rice’s performance on his first game back after serving a six game suspension from the NFL, with him returning back in the roster right before the Chiefs face their divisional rival the Raiders.
“He did a great job, I was a little conscious with him on the plays and all that but I thought he came out and functioned at a high level, for being gone for the longest time it’s crazy he can come back and do what he did,” says Reid.
The Raiders struggled offensively against the Chiefs, but the young players such as Jack Bech, Ashton Jeanty, and Carter Runyon showed up to provide for their team. Runyon caught his first career NFL pass from quarterback Geno Smith against the Chiefs. Although Tre Tucker led the offense with thirty-three receiving yards, rookie receiver Jack Bech had a nice two receptions for thirteen yards. Standout rookie Jeanty only had twenty-one yards with six carries rushing, and also had a reception out of the backfield resulting in a thirteen yard gain for the Raiders.
Raiders Head Coach Pete Carroll is impressed with the rookie players who showed up for their team this game, and wants to develop them so they could play a bigger role in the offense with years to come. He is especially impressed and happy with rookie wide receiver Runyon who had his first career reception against the Chiefs.
“Carter Runyon caught his first ball there. The ball in the first series right off the bat. He’s out there playing football for us and he’s contributing to special teams. He’s one of the guys that’s really helped us in special teams since he’s been up. And so, yeah, it helps. The more plays that we can log with the new guys, Jack [Bech] and Dont’e [Thornton Jr.], we can show them the things that they need to improve on and the things that they’re not quite as sharp on,¨ says Carroll.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had a great game against the Raiders defense. Mahomes threw for 286 passing yards, completed 26/35 of his passes, and had three touchdown passes.
Reid praised Mahomes for his performance after the game. Specifically, he praised Mahomes’ ability to handle different offensive schemes while also managing the game well.
“I think you saw him execute all the phases in the offense so we have different categories there whether it’s play-pass movements or three-step drop or five-step drop. You know all the concepts and then all the screen game, that goes with that so we do a variety of screens and I just like the way he handled that,” says the coach.
