Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs
With crappy weather plaguing many NFL games across the country, Arrowhead stadium stayed relatively dry but the gusts of wind certainly affected both teams’ gameplans. Early penalties and turnovers kept the Raiders out of the game for most of the first half. Oakland did not reach the red zone until there were about two minutes left before halftime. Be that as it may, the Raiders’ extended their touchdown slump to 10 quarters before finally snapping the streak with a touchdown just before the game. All in all, it was an ugly loss for the Raiders with a final score of 9-40.
Oakland Raiders
Quarterback
- Derek Carr: 20/30, 222 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT | 3 carries, 7 yards
Derek Carr only had two passing attempts on the Raiders’ first drive and threw an interception on the second. All in all, it was a pretty ugly pick. Carr had all the time in the world to throw and put the ball into double coverage. Carr looked a bit better when the Raiders finally got the ball back, but the Chiefs were still doing a good job bringing the pressure. Most of Carr’s passes were short dunks to his backs. Derek threw another interception, this time for a pick-six, with just a few minutes left in the half. Carr eventually got his team to the red zone on Oakland’s final drive of the first half but still couldn’t capitalize.
Running Backs
- Josh Jacobs: 17 carries, 104 yards
- DeAndre Washington: 2 carries, 5 yards | 3 targets, 3 receptions, 44 yards
The Raiders were not afraid to relentlessly feed Josh Jacobs to begin the game and he totaled four carries and 28 yards on the Raiders’ first drive. Jacobs was looking fantastic in the first half. He was honestly one of the few bright spots for Oakland’s offense with more about 95 yards in the first half. Jacobs also became the first-ever rookie Raider to rush for more than 1000 yards in his first season on the team. The game script limited Jacobs’ carries in the second half but his performance was still impressive.
DeAndre Washington received some consistent work in the passing game near the end of the first quarter. About five PPR fantasy points in the first half wasn’t too shabby for Washington. Although he had his best performance since week 5, Washington’s less than 8 fantasy points isn’t very noteworthy.
Wide Receivers/ Tight Ends
- Darren Waller: 9 targets, 7 receptions, 100 yards
- Trevor Davis: 1 carry, 0 yards
- Zay Jones: 3 targets, 2 receptions, 14 yards
- Derek Carrier: 2 targets, 2 receptions, 10 yards
There simply isn’t much to report here. The Raiders had only one completion to a wide-out (Zay Jones) through three quarters of play.
I’m pretty sure Darren Waller was the first Raiders receiver to come down with a reception, and that didn’t happen until the second quarter. The catch was very impressive though, as the defender was all over Waller. Darren was still the target leader for the Raiders and was easily their best receiving option.
Trevor Davis had a tough go of it in the first half. He fumbled on an early kickoff return and got stuffed on the outside when the Raiders trusted him to convert on fourth and short with a reverse play.
Kansas City Chiefs
Quarterback
- Patrick Mahomes: 15/29, 175 yards, 1 TD | 3 carries, 25 yards, 1 TD
Patrick Mahomes started with average efficiency. He made a few good passes on the run but there were times Mahomes didn’t respect the windy weather. He very nearly threw an interception early in the second quarter when he tried to throw the ball against the wind while rolling out in the opposite direction. That’s not to take anything away from Mahomes’ fantastic arm strength. It seemed like Pat was either rolling out or dropping back 10 to 15 yards on every play and he was still making plays. Mahomes did a great job extending plays with his feet and displayed some impressive speed when he scrambled into the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown. With plenty of called back plays and the Chiefs running efficiently in the red zone, Mahomes’ fantasy performance kept getting held back by game script.
Running Backs
- LeSean McCoy: 5 carries, 10 yards, 1 TD | 3 targets, 3 receptions, 20 yards
- Darrel Williams: 6 carries, 13 yards | 2 targets, 1 reception, 3 yards, 1 TD
- Darwin Thompson: 11 carries, 44 yards, 1 TD
LeSean McCoy was trusted with most of the early-down rushing work but I believe Darrel Williams was given most of the work within the red zone. That led to a nice short reception and touchdown by Williams but he couldn’t pick up the short first down with two attempts on the next drive. Although Williams was more effective, he and McCoy split carries and targets pretty evenly in the first half.
Williams suffered a non-contact injury about halfway through the third quarter, leaving McCoy one of only two active Chiefs running backs and allowing him to walk into the end zone untouched from only three yards out. With Williams out, Darwin Thompson received a bit more work but didn’t do much with it. All he needed to do was pick up first downs. Thompson did have a nice run up the sideline for about ten yards where he hurdled a defender. Darwin did show some impressive strength though, pushing through multiple defenders on the way to his first career touchdown.
Wide Receivers/ Tight Ends
- Tyreek Hill: 8 targets, 5 receptions, 55 yards | 1 carry, -4 yards
- Travis Kelce: 9 targets, 5 receptions, 90 yards
- Sammy Watkins: 3 targets, 0 receptions
- Demarcus Robinson: 1 target, 0 receptions
Travis Kelce began his day with a dropped pass in the end zone. It was pretty out of the ordinary for Kelce, who usually has sure hands. The pass was right in his hands and his likely should have come down with it. He had his first catch to begin the second quarter. Kelce only had about 30 yards on three catches in the first half but he was the clear target leader. He had a bit of a scare when he came up limping and pointing to his right hip after a play, but Kelce was quickly cleared to return and had a huge 47-yard reception in the third quarter.
Sammy Watkins saw a nice downfield target on the Chiefs’ first drive of the game. It looked like the defender could have interfered but the challenge was unsuccessful. Watkins didn’t do much else in the first quarter besides dropping another catchable target before the first half.
Tyreek Hill began his day with a nice 17-yard catch to keep the Chiefs’ opening drive alive. The Chiefs tried to give Hill the ball on a run play early in the second quarter but he was tackled behind his line. Tyreek was given plenty of opportunities early in the second half and had some great catch-and-runs. Demarcus Robinson had multiple big plays called back but didn’t do much else.
–Ryan Kruse (@ryanpkruse)