Raiders at Chiefs - Week 14 - Record: 10-3

It is now the beginning of the 4th quarter and because I have work early tomorrow I'm going to begin this now. I simply won't do a 4th quarter play-by-play like I did with the recent Broncos game, but I thought as we move along here I'd just put in the standard Chiefs Game Today thoughts.

I will say that right now it is 21-13 Chiefs, on the strength of a Tyreek Hill deep pass TD reception, a short Charcandrick West TD run, and a Hill TD punt return -- all happening within an eight-minute span in the 2nd quarter.

First first first first first-first-first. That loss of D.J. was crushing. We are all holding our breaths wondering if it really is that Achilles heel again. Even though our defense has been stout in spite of the horrible Chiefs offensive play in the 3rd quarter, there is just that major concern.

As it is Ramik Wilson has made some plays. Daniel Sorenson has made some plays. Eric Berry is right there leading the charge. Alex Smith had two miserable turnovers early in that quarter, a pick and a fumble, but our D held them to only three points. That's big.

We simply aren't running the football. They showed a stat on the television that said the Raiders have the 20-something-th run defense in the NFL, and in the first half we gained a whopping 20 yards rushing. Whuh? We did run the ball a little better in that 3rd quarter, with Ware getting some fine yardage, but we're still not doing anything with it. We had 0 points in the 1st quarter and 0 points in the 3rd quarter.

Our defense has been a bit bendy, but to be honest, it is just looking like Derek Carr is off. He's never had the best games against Kansas City, and he's just not been connecting sharply tonight. It is about 20 degrees out there at Arrowhead and Carr has a wobbly pinky. His receivers have just not been tracking well either, lots of missed connections by everyone -- there was just one right there not completed to a wide-open Amari Cooper. That was a major whew.

Meanwhile, Travis Kelce has been amazing. He has made catch-after-catch-after-catch. And nice deep long ones, too. He has stretched the field like crazy, and it is just head-shaking that we haven't been able to take advantage of that on offense.

Alex Smith will make a phenomenal throw one time -- I mean that pass to Hill for the Chiefs first touchdown was a truly beautiful thing -- but then at another time he'll just do something ridiculous. Towards the end of the 3rd quarter we had a 3rd-&-2 and Smith just threw the ball into a blob of Raiders. Um, wasn't somebody open somewhere else?

This is just the thing. This Raiders defense I'm told is just not the best that there is. And we're just flopping around out there against them. Travis Kelce is really the one exception. Jeremy Maclin had one nice reception on his first game back in a month but he's been invisible. Spencer Ware has had a few nice runs but we're just doing nothing with them, and the runs aren't that much -- again he's gotten more in the 2nd half but our offense... ::sigh::

Yeah, so I said I wouldn't do this, but right now there are about four minutes left in the game, and we're still holding that 21-13 lead. Oakland has the ball (but well in their own territory) and our defense has to stop again. I mention this because I'm just wondering what it would've been like if our offense had just gotten the job done when it should have. Right now the Raiders have a chance to tie this game, and it just shouldn't have been that way.

So many opportunities not consummated.

A colleague at work said he felt the Chiefs have five players who are game changers. Five. He pointed out any team would be lucky to have two or three. The Chiefs have five. And most would agree.

Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Justin Houston, Eric Berry, and Marcus Peters.

Unless we have a game-changing play of some kind here at the end of the game, the Raiders could steal this game. Marcus Peters just batted down a deep ball in the end zone. That could be a game-changer, we'll see.

This is where we need our depth to come through though, really. Especially without D.J. we are going to need our other players to step up. We've seen some of that tonight. As we all know, as I've mentioned a number of times in this blog, Dorsey and Reid have emphasized filling out the roster with players who can take care of business when they must step on to the field.

Okay, there's one. Terrance Mitchell. I don't even know where that guy came from, but he's had a fine game there in the D-backfield. Just now he batted a pass away on a 4th-&-6 with Oakland having driven the ball deep into our territory.

And we get the 1st down and proceed to run out the clock.

Nice. We're 1st in the West with all the tiebreakers.

Again, what won this game. Alex Smith making just enough fine plays. Travis Kelce being the best tight end in the NFL. Tyreek Hill being blazing fast. Our defense with Bob Sutton's strategy, Eric Berry's (and yes definitely Derrick Johnson's) leadership, and ever replenished depth getting it done every single time it was needed. (A TV stat showed that we are 2nd in the NFL in points allowed at around 16 a game. We gave up only 13 tonight.)

And just that passion. These guys play with passion and heart and ferocity and never give up and just plain get the job done.
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