Another matchup between the Oakland Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs has come and gone, and again, the Raiders can’t find a way to beat them. Alex Smith and the Chiefs continue to be the Achilles heel of the Raiders. The last time the Raiders beat the Chiefs, Derek Carr and Khalil Mack were rookies and the Raiders were 0-11 leading up to that game. A lot has changed except for the fact that the Raiders can’t beat Andy Reed and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Oakland Raiders Week 14 Takeaways
By Michael Larson
The Best Defense in the NFL…Sometimes
This Raiders defense is so inconsistent. It seems they play great football for about ⅔ of the game. That other third though is really bad. The Chiefs only scored in the second quarter. The Raiders played pretty well in the first quarter, ending drives in nice fashion. However, the Raiders offense couldn’t help out in the first, and as the Raiders defense got tired, that’s when the Chiefs offense turned on the jets…maybe literally.
Tyreek Hill, who many may not know spends his time outside of football defeating other meta-humans as the Flash, broke away for two huge touchdowns and was a pain all game. He burned Raiders safety Reggie Nelson and cornerback David Amerson for a 36 yard score early in the second. Later in that same quarter, he took advantage of the fact that the Raiders had to re-punt, and dusted the gassed Raiders special teams unit.
In the first quarter, his first punt return ended badly when he muffed it, giving it to the Raiders who couldn’t capitalize and ended up with only a field goal. The Chiefs defense held and Hill made up for it by changing the game.
After that torrid second quarter, Khalil Mack continued to build a case for Defensive Player of the Year by getting pressure on Alex Smith right away in the second half, forcing an interception, and then forcing a fumble with a strip-sack for the third straight game. In Mack’s last six games, he has recorded eight sacks, five forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, one interception and one touchdown.
The Raiders defense kept the clamps on and really kept the Raiders in the game by continuing to stop the Chiefs offense from doing any more damage. However, the Raiders offense completely failed to make one of those glorious comebacks.
Carr Couldn’t Connect
Arguably the most talented offense in the NFL struggled against the Kansas City Chiefs defense. The last time the Raiders couldn’t get anything going on offense, they were playing the Kansas City Chiefs in Week Six. Nothing went right for the Raiders in the passing game. Quarterback Derek Carr was uncomfortable all night and could never get the Raiders offense to truly click. Left guard Kelechi Osemele woke up and went to the hospital on Thursday, and was set as inactive for the game.
Carr’s pinky got in the way of running their normal offense and resulted in several inaccurate throws. And the drops. Oh there were so many drops. Seth Roberts dropped what seemed like every pass thrown to him. Out of nine targets, all that Roberts could come up with was two catches for 12 measly yards. He dropped a touchdown and several key receptions. But he wasn’t the only one with drops. Carr’s receivers were unfocused and not ready for the game. Running back Jalen Richard couldn’t pull in a single catch on four dump off passes. That’s embarrassing.
With Osemele out, guards Vadal Alexander and Jon Feliciano rotated in Osemele’s place, and it was obvious he was missed. Carr was pressured more than any other time this year, and the Raiders barely ran the ball to the left. The lone bright spot for the offense was that running back Latavius Murray had his second best game of the season! He ran for 103 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries. Richard was great as the second back, carrying the ball six times for 29 yards. The running game did a really good job which is surprising because of how poorly the passing attack was.
Carr’s injury affected him and the entire offense today. His receivers dropped a lot of passes, but Carr was not helping out his teammates very much. It was so uncharacteristic of him to make so many off passes that it was blatantly obvious this fractured pinky was hurting and causing huge problems. Possibly the biggest problem with that injury is that fact that Carr didn’t take a single snap from under center for the third straight week since the injury. It ruins the flow of the offense to play in shotgun and the pistol on every single snap.
The Raiders thrive with Carr taking the snap under center and working the play action. It is much more difficult to do that when in shotgun for the entire game, as everyone saw.
Fade Route: The Best Red Zone Playcall Ever
Finally, the worst of it all was the missed opportunities. Three times the Kansas City Chiefs turned the ball over, extremely unlike them. Those three turnovers resulted in six points. The Raiders, who have boasted such a great red zone offense this whole year, could only punch the ball into the end zone once, in the last drive of the first half. Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave called five fade patterns in the three red zone appearances. That’s just unacceptable. Fades don’t work well with the Chiefs because safety Eric Berry is exceptional when the field gets smaller as the guardian in the back.The Chiefs corners are also tough and physical and were able to outmuscle the Raiders receivers each time to cause an incompletion.
The Raiders have had some really nice success at times with fade routes. Carr is great at getting the ball where it needs to be, and Roberts, Amari Cooper, and MIchael Crabtree have made some great grabs. However, it will not work all the time and it is not good football to call that play so much that you die by it. A team should never call that many fade patterns in the red zone especially when it doesn’t work.
It would seem after the third incompletion, Musgrave would have figured out that Carr can’t make that accurate of a throw at the moment, and the Chiefs defense is too good! Musgrave had some awful play calls in the red zone and that hurt the Raiders. Those three turnovers should have been the deciding factor in this match-up. Instead, the Raiders couldn’t capitalize and ended up with only 13 points.
It is really disappointing to the see the Raiders again unable to find success against the Chiefs. It brings doubt to how well the Raiders will do in the playoffs. The Raiders are young, and Super Bowl talk might have been premature. Or maybe the Raiders will prove everyone wrong, show that they are ready for the big stage, and learn from their mistakes by stepping it up in the playoffs. There is still plenty of time.
