Raiders at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 8-4

"Chiefs have not lost a Sunday division game since 2014." This was the stat of the day shared by Mitch on the post-game radio show, and this is truly amazing. One of the terrific things about Andy Reid is his dominance against our division. Just an update overall: All-time we are 65-54 against the Broncos. We are 63-55 against the Chargers. And we are now 66-52 against the Raiders. That's pretty cool.

But for now? We've simply got to handle other teams out of our division. Here's one of those things with Andy Reid. Here's precisely why I just fear we're not going anywhere in the way of glory with him and his amazing playmaking ability leading the team.

In the middle of the 1st quarter we had the ball deep in Raiders territory, up 7-0, with a 3rd-&-1. Reid runs Darrel Williams into the line, no gain. On 4th-&-1 he runs Williams again into the line. No gain.

See, if this guy has all this amazing playmaking ability, what good is it if we don't use it? What good is it unless we use it to get good yardage and more points? Here we are in the middle of the 1st quarter ready to put the Raiders away, and we get vanilla with the game calling.

How about this? How about our head coach, no matter the score or situation, just runs the plays? How about putting confidence in the best quarterback in the NFL and on that 4th-&-1 do some play action, roll out Mahomes, and have him pass it to Kelce for the 1st down?

Why is Andy Reid so scared?

Remember, even though we pounded the Raiders today, what will happen when we are in that close game? A nice pasting of the Raiders is fun, but we really need those critical games when Andy has absolutely got to adjust his playmaking to be better than the opponent late in a very close playoff game.

Yes! I am Monday Morning Quarterbacking, I am! I confess! And it's not even Monday! Aagh I'm sorry! But we are all so good at it! We do it for most all of January just about every year!

As for the bulk of this one, the weather was poor today, and we just played a Raiders team that was woefully overmatched. Ngck. Don't get me wrong. I'm really pleased with this. We're now in total control of the AFC West at 8-4. Maybe it'll be good we're playing New England next week so we can tough out a reeeally close game and we can -- ngcknghghnkck -- you know it --------

Practice winning a close game that will result in winning a playoff game that we actually do win because we truly fully actually 

TOOK CARE OF BUSINESS.

Some really good things about today's game, just to put 'em down.

Tyreek Hill did his job again. Routes, catches, acceleration. Awesome in only a few catches. I also like Sammy Watkins still drawing lots of attention. Don't get down on him. Watkins' play makes things wide open for Hill and Kelce.

One of those particularly nice Mahomes throws to Hill was a dime that helped lead to our first TD. He also threw an amazing pass to Kelce, while backpedaling, perfect for Kelce to jump up and nicely snatch it right at the 1st down marker.

When we were up 31-3 in the 4th quarter, we decided to let rookie Darwin Thompson run the ball, get him experience, chew clock. He really responded by essentially single-handedly matriculating the ball all the way down the field capped by a rushing touchdown.

Our defense was solid today, frustrating Derek Carr making his day at Arrowhead yet again just miserable. The highlight was the play of another rookie, Juan Thornhill, who had a terrific stop on a Raiders 4th down, and just a bit later read a slant pass play like a book and picked it taking it to the house.

Harrison Butker, on a blustery day, banged through a 50-yard field goal. Speaking of special teams, at the very end of the game we got a blocked PAT returned for two points, neat. But yeah. Can we get one of those to win an incredible playoff game, if we need some crazy wonderful play like that to win then? Can we?

And our discipline across the board was very strong, no penalties! Can you believe it! None, zero! That's major. This is only the third time in all of Chiefs history when they've had a game with no penalties at all. (I should note they had a penalty but the Raiders had one on the same play so they were offsetting.) The Raiders were abysmal with the penalties, 12 all together and most were big. They even got hit with a PI that had to be reviewed in New York, an INT that was reversed and followed by a Chiefs touchdown shortly afterwards.

On to the game of the year against the Patriots!
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