Tight end Darren Waller of the Las Vegas Raiders runs with the ball as Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu ... [+]
Transcendent Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes led his team on a seven-play, 75-yard drive with 1:43 left to give Kansas City a 35-31 win against the Las Vegas Raiders.
“He kind of turns it up when it really matters the most,” tight end Travis Kelce said.
Mahomes, who threw for 348 yards, only had one incompletion on the drive before throwing the game-winning touchdown to Kelce. But Mahomes’ heroics shouldn’t gloss over some concerning defensive issues for the Chiefs.
It was the second consecutive game they allowed 31 points, even though they had a bye week to fix their errors.
And this was a defense that should have been foaming at the mouth after allowing 40 to their rival in the previous game between the two.
But in the Chiefs’ revenge game against their AFC West foe, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was rarely pressured and never sacked.
He picked apart the Chiefs defense, completing 74% of his passes, which doesn’t include two dropped passes by fullback Alec Ingold.
In particular Darren Waller victimized the defense with seven catches for 88 yards, including as wide open a touchdown as you’ll ever see.
He even abused some of the Chiefs’ best defenders, using a swim move to get past Tyrann Mathieu, the heart of the Chiefs’ defense, on a 3rd and 3 with 1:22 left in the first quarter. On 2nd and 7 with 8:19 left in the second quarter, he bowled over Mathieu for the first down.
More disturbing were the penalties, some of which were bone-headed and came at the worst times.
On the Raiders’ penultimate drive of the game, cornerback Bashaud Breeland committed two pass interference penalties. On the first one, he allowed a first down to Nelson Agholor despite grabbing him.
And Chris Jones was offside twice, including on a 3rd and inches.
Despite its lack of big plays for much of the contest, the defense did come up with one with 19 seconds left to seal the game when Daniel Sorensen picked off Carr.
“They beared down when needed most,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said.
And the Chiefs run defense, which had been porous this season, limited the Raiders to only 89 yards and 3.4 yards per carry.
Also let’s be careful not to dwell too much on the negative because the win pretty much sealed up the AFC West for the Chiefs, who are three games ahead of the Raiders, for an astounding fifth straight season.
That’s largely because the Raiders defense had just as much trouble stopping the Chiefs offense in the shootout, which hearkened back to the great AFL clashes between the two teams.
“The rivalry between the Raiders and the Chiefs, I think, is a great thing for football,” Reid said. “It’s good for the National Football League.”
The compelling AFC West contest not only turned into a back-and-forth matchup between two accurate quarterbacks, but it also featured two of the game’s best tight ends.
Including that game-winning touchdown, Kelce had his second best statistical game of the season (eight catches for 127 yards) in what is shaping up to be the best season of his career.
Kelce, who signed a four-year, $57.25 million contract to trail only San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle in total value and average just before the regular season, is demonstrating his worth.
He even lined up as a quarterback and threw one underhanded pass (a four-yard completion to Byron Pringle) on a play called Slot Machine Right.
While Waller proved to be a difficult cover for the Chiefs defense, it was Kelce who won the jackpot for Kansas City.
