WEEK 12
• Who: Chiefs (7-3) at Raiders (5-6)
• When: 1:25 p.m.
• Where: Allegiant Stadium
• TV: CBS
• Radio: Raider Nation Radio 920 AM, KOMP 92.3 FM
• Betting line: Chiefs -9, over/under: 43
The Chiefs’ offense reclaimed its championship form Sunday afternoon at Allegiant Stadium at the expense of the Raiders.
Las Vegas’ defense more than held its own early against its archrival/defending Super Bowl winner but eventually wore down against two-time NFL and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes. Kansas City scored touchdowns on four of five possessions in the middle of the game to pull away for a 31-17 victory.
Mahomes threw for 298 yards on 27-for-34 passing, outdueling Raiders rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who had 248 yards on 23-for-33 passing, despite a strong start to the game for the latter.
The Raiders came out firing and scored touchdowns on two of their first three possessions. O’Connell found Jakobi Meyers over the middle for an 18-yard score at the start of the game, and then the next time Las Vegas’ offense was on the field, running back Josh Jacobs broke a 63-yard touchdown run.
But, for the second straight week, the Raiders’ offense went cold in the middle of the game. And that’s exactly when the Chiefs heated up.
Mahomes started to improvise more and hit several plays downfield including a few to star tight end Travis Kelce, who had eight catches for 107 yards. The Chiefs’ offense had been failing to pull off as many splash plays this season but were able to break out of the relative slump against the Raiders.
Kansas City running back Isiah Pacheco totaled 88 combined rushing and receiving yards and socred on a pair of one-yard touchdown runs. Pacheco’s first touchdown got the Chiefs on the board midway through the second quarter; his second gave them a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in the third at 21-14.
In between, Mahomes found receiver Justin Watson for a 3-yard touchdown pass. Watson jawed at Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane after the score, drawing a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct.
That type of hostility is inherent in a rivalry as tense as Chiefs vs. Raiders. But the Raiders might need to start beating their enemies soon to keep it that way.
Sunday’s victory was the Chiefs’ sixth straight in the series, as it’s now 6-1 against the Raiders in all but one try since the team moved to Las Vegas.
The Raiders were buoyed by several injured players being ruled active on gameday — Spillane, edge rusher Maxx Crosby, left tackle Kolton Miller and safety Marcus Epps. They all may have given the Raiders a momentary boost, but the home team couldn’t sustain it.
Las Vegas falls to 5-7 on the year and will now go on its bye week before returning home for a Dec. 10 game against the Minnesota Vikings.
This is a developing story. Check back to lasvegassun.com later for more coverage or read below for live updates from throughout the game.
The Raiders’ defense has no answer for the Chiefs.
Kansas City has now scored on three straight drives and leads Las Vegas 21-14 at Allegiant Stadium. To start the second half, the Chiefs went on a 10-play, 75-yard scoring drive.
Isiah Pacheco finished it off with his second one-yard touchdown run of the afternoon.
It feels like long ago when the Raiders’ offense was flying and leading the team out to a surprising 14-0 lead. They’ll need to get back into that rhythm to make this game competitive.
Chiefs tie the game before halftime
The Raiders’ 14-point lead has disappeared in the span of six minutes.
The Chiefs have scored touchdowns on back-to-back drives to tie the game, the latest a 3-yard pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to receiver Justin Watson with 25 seconds remaining until halftime. Mahomes is now 13-for-18 for 136 yards and a touchdown, similar to Raiders quarterback Aidan O’Connell’s statistics line of 138 yards and a touchdown on 13-for-15 passing.
Mahomes got tight end Travis Kelce going on the latest drive, connecting with his longtime favorite target twice including on a double-reverse pass. Kelce has three catches for 62 yards as halftime looms.
Chiefs’ comeback begins
Can’t keep the champions down forever.
The Chiefs just woke up, and got back into the game with the Raiders via an 11-play, 70-yard touchdown drive. Las Vegas leads 14-7 with 6:38 left to play in the second quarter.
Isiah Pacheco scored for Kansas City, taking a handoff from Patrick Mahomes and hesitating before finding an opening in the middle of the line for a 1-yard touchdown.
Las Vegas had flustered Mahomes in the opening two drives, but the two-time MVP quarterback got back into form on the third. Art one point, the Chiefs picked up four first-downs in the span of five plays.
Judging on the early returns, Chiefs at Raiders could be a fun and high-scoring contest. Settle in.
Josh Jacobs breaks one
The Raiders’ first touchdown drive was deliberate; their second one was rapid.
Running back Josh Jacobs just zipped through a hole behind returned left tackle Kolton Miller and went 63 yards for a touchdown. The Raiders are stunning the Chiefs early, 14-0.
The score could be even more lopsided if Daniel Carlson hadn’t missed a 30-yard field goal. The Chiefs have managed only one first down, as the Raiders have dominated every facet of the game.
There’s still 12:41 remaining in the second quarter so time isn’t any sort of issue for the Chiefs to mount a comeback but they need to break out of the malaise they’ve shown to start the game.
Raiders score on their opening drive
The Raiders took a big step in potentially beating their archrivals at Allegiant Stadium for the first time with their opening drive.
Las Vegas went 75 yards on nine plays in 5:38, scoring on an 18-yard pass from Aidan O’Connell to Jakobi Meyers. The Chiefs’ defense, which has been among the NFL’s best this season, seemed to have no answer for O’Connell or running back Josh Jacobs.
O’Connell completed all four of his pass attempts for 57 total yards while Jacobs had five carries for 18 yards. Davante Adams caught the longest pass, a 33-yarder out of play action early in the drive.
Raiders get good news on the injury front
Maxx Crosby will give it a go.
Ditto for Kolton Miller, Robert Spillane and Marcus Epps. The Raiders have avoided the worst-possible scenario for today’s Week 12 game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium as they’ll be mostly healthy against their foremost rival.
That was largely in question before the inactives report was just announced. Crosby headlined the concerns, but he’ll be active and is set to become the first player in the NFL this season to play despite a “doubtful” designation after the final practice of a game week.
The edge rusher has been dealing with a lingering knee injury that apparently worsened in a loss last week at the Dolphins.
The return of Miller, starting left tackle and the Raiders’ best linemen, is just as impactful on the other side of the ball. The veteran has missed the Raiders’ last two games after suffering a shoulder injury in a win over the Giants three weeks ago.
Spillane and Epps, on the other hand, were dealing with ankle and neck injuries, respectively, after the Dolphins game. Everyone mentioned other than Crosby was listed as “questionable” coming into the game.
The Raiders inactives are quarterback Brian Hoyer (emergency quarterback), cornerback Jakorian Bennett, safety Roderic Teamer, linebacker Amari Burney, center Hroniss Grasu, defensive tackle Byron Young and defensive tackle Nesta Jade Silvera.
Teamer is notable because he returned from injured reserve this week but arrested this morning on suspicion of DUI.
“The Raiders are aware of an incident involving Roderic Teamer last night,” the team said in a statement. “The club is in the process of gathering more information and will have no further comment at this time.”
Pregame
The Las Vegas Raiders have gone 5-4 against divisional opponents at Allegiant Stadium since the $2 billion venue opened more than three years ago. That’s not too shabby considering the AFC West has been considered one of the NFL’s best sets of teams in that time frame.
The problem is, three of those four losses have come against the squad most Raider fans consider their most hated rival — the Kansas City Chiefs. Las Vegas narrowly fell to Kansas City at home in the 2021 season but has otherwise suffered a pair of blowout losses. Beating Chiefs quarterback/two-time NFL and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes in front of their home fans would be a seminal moment for the Raiders, and maybe interim coach Antonio Pierce can be the one to coax it out.
Las Vegas has outperformed its expectation by the betting market in all three games under Pierce, even putting up a fight in Miami last week before eventually falling 20-13 as 13-point underdogs. The Raiders also have one player who’s consistently affected, or at least annoyed, Mahomes: edge rusher Maxx Crosby. Mahomes was one of the subjects of Netflix’s hit documentary series "Quarterback" this summer, and one episode spotlighted his frustration with Crosby’s consistent pressure and pest-like behavior in a 30-29 Chiefs win last year in Kansas City.
Favorable matchup: Chiefs’ struggling receiving corps vs. Raiders’ defensive backfield
No unit in the NFL is under more scrutiny at the moment than the Chiefs’ pass catchers. They seemed to cost the team a victory Monday in a Super Bowl rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles. Kansas City had five dropped passes, adding to its NFL-leading mark of 23 on the season. Marquez Valdes-Scantling saw a potential game-winning touchdown pass fall through his hands in the end zone late in the fourth quarter. Kansas City got another chance, but Justin Watson similarly couldn’t haul in a fourth-down pass Mahomes placed in a perfect spot. Even superstar tight end Travis Kelce was part of the problem, losing a fumble inside the 10-yard line to start the fourth quarter and then dropping a third-down conversion later in the frame. The Raiders won’t make it easy on the group, either. Las Vegas’ secondary was banged up going into the Dolphins game, but almost everyone is healthy now — sans safety Marcus Epps, who’s questionable with a neck injury — and playing at a high level. Slot cornerback Nate Hobbs specifically stood out against the Dolphins with a forced fumble and a pass break-up, and may frequently match up with Kelce and promising Kansas City rookie Rashee Rice.
THEY SAID IT
“I told our guys to flush it out of their system. Just like we embrace wins, we embrace the losses and learn from them. And we’re doing that. You would wish this journey for myself and the team that we would be undefeated, but that’s not going to happen. I’m a realist.” -Pierce on how he responded to his first loss as interim coach
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“There is definitely something extra. For the way that they’ve historically won the battle, you would think there wouldn’t be as much (intensity). I think of the way we would approach the Bears game when I was in Green Bay, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh my god, like we got to get up for the Bears.’ It was like a disrespectful approach. … (But) you feel like (the Chiefs) respect the game and take it to the grave.” -Wide receiver Davante Adams on what he learned about the Chiefs’ rivalry after playing in it twice last year
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“(Kansas City) fans are like, ‘(Expletive) Crosby, he’s this and that,’ and I really don’t care. I love it. I’m going to keep going harder so they’re going to have to get used to it.” -Crosby on the reception from the scenes of him getting under Mahomes’ skin on "Quarterback"
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“I guess I doubled George in Purdue years. He was there the whole time I was there and he’s a great guy, a great player. I always thought back in the day that I’m super happy I don’t have to get tackled by this guy.” -O’Connell on his friendship with Karlaftis, who left school early and was drafted in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft while the quarterback spent six years in West Lafayette, Ind.
Problematic matchup: Chiefs’ pass defense vs. Raiders’ sputtering passing offense
This year’s Chiefs are different than any version the Raiders have seen since Mahomes took the reins in 2019 in that they’re led by defense, not offense. The biggest reason Kansas City sits in position to possibly earn the AFC playoffs’ No. 1 seed for the third time in four seasons is the way it's dismantled opposing air attacks. The Chiefs sit third in the NFL — behind only the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns — in allowing 5.5 yards per pass attempt. The coverage has been tight, and the pass rush has arguably been even better with a 10.34% sack rate that trails only the Browns for the best in the league. The Raiders are expected to get back left tackle Kolton Miller, who’s missed phe last two games with a shoulder injury, and that could help give rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell extra time. He’s going to need it to fend off the likes of All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones — who has 7.5 sacks on the year — and Purdue University buddy/edge rusher George Karlaftis — who has seven sacks on the year. O’Connell threw three interceptions last week at the Dolphins, and now must deal with an even-better defensive backfield starring cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, who looks in line to become one of the NFL’s highest-paid players at his position this offseason.
Gamebreaker: Edge rusher Malcolm Koonce
Mahomes may need to worry about someone other than Crosby, who is doubtful to play with a knee injury, when he drops back to pass against the Raiders this time around. For the first time in two years, it’s recently seemed like the Raiders have a consistent rusher other than Crosby in the third-year player Koonce. Crosby has talked up Koonce’s improvements all year, and they’ve finally manifested on the field as the latter has a sack in all three games since Pierce took over as coach. Well, technically he only has two, as his sack against the Dolphins was wiped out by a questionable holding call away from the play. But that third-down planting of quick-trigger Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for an eight-yard loss — as a well as a couple other pressures in the game — illustrated Koonce’s growth. He’s looking quicker than ever and taking advantage of one-on-one matchups with so much attention going toward Crosby. Two weeks ago, in a 16-12 victory against the New York Jets, Koonce blindsided quarterback Zach Wilson for a strip sack that would have been one of the biggest plays of the game had the Raiders recovered the fumble. They didn’t, but with the way Koonce is playing, forcing another takeaway doesn’t feel all that unlikely.
Big Number: 200
That’s how many rushing attempts running back Josh Jacobs has this season, the most in the NFL. Jacobs entered Week 12 with 26 more carries than anyone else in the league. That’s somewhat skewed because the Raiders don’t have their bye until next week, but he’s still second in the league in attempts per game — less than one behind New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, who’s missed three contests with injury. There were a couple situations earlier in the season under former coach Josh McDaniels when Jacobs thought he could have gotten more and/or better opportunities, but he can’t possibly feel that way anymore. Pierce said his intention was to get the offense back to going through Jacobs, and he’s lived up to his word by giving the veteran 67 carries the past three weeks. The Chiefs’ rush defense is not playing to the standard of its pass defense, ranking 28th in the NFL in giving up 4.5 yards per carry. If Las Vegas can keep Kansas City from getting out to a big early lead, it would ideally like to hand off to Jacobs repeatedly. The Raiders want to sustain long drives built through Jacobs picking up four yards or more per rush.
Best Bet (8-3): Travis Kelce over 72.5 receiving yards
Real bold, huh? Taking an over on by far the most-popularly bet player in the NFL proposition-wager market this year. But maybe all the gambling hype on Kelce is starting to die down, and not only because the Raiders’ contest will be the third straight game where Taylor Swift isn’t in the crowd to watch him. He’s also failed to live up to his standards with back-to-back mediocre performances, but nothing should get him back on track better than a meeting with the Raiders. Kelce has tortured Las Vegas throughout his career, and its defense is set up even better for him to tear up this year. The Raiders have been poor covering tight ends and the middle of the field where Kelce does his best work. Las Vegas’ main pass defense focus has been not getting beat deep, but that’s not where Kelce is most dangerous. His over/under yardage got into the 80s earlier this season, so buy on this drop in price.