Ranking the biggest Chiefs vs. Raiders games in rivalry history

2018 Season – Week 17

There are a couple reasons this game was important. In order to wrap up the top seed in the AFC Playoffs, the Kansas City Chiefs had to down their hated rival from the west. The New England Patriots trailed the Chiefs in the win column, but a Chiefs loss to end the season would hand home-field advantage to the Patriots who held the tie breaker.

That was the reason that truly mattered, but the other reason was one for which Chiefs Kingdom had waited just as eagerly for. To have a quarterback that was so special, so electric, that he could accomplish something only a few will likely ever accomplish in a 16-game season.

To join future Hall of Famer and all-time great Peyton Manning as the only quarterbacks to throw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns, the city’s golden boy Patrick Mahomes needed a 176 yard and two touchdown performance.

As fate would have it, both goals would be achieved in spectacular fashion. The Chiefs offense and defense put together one of their most complimentary games, the defense holding a dismal Oakland Raiders team to their lowest point output against the Chiefs in 21 seasons.

The offense didn’t have it’s best day, but still managed to score 28 points. With just under nine minutes left to play in the third, Patrick Mahomes would cast his name in the record books with an 89-yard bomb to teammate and friend Demarcus Robinson.

The game was a special culmination of things for the Chiefs franchise, and the beaten down kingdom in which it resided. Though the season itself ended in defeat, the accomplishments were like a bright star in the sky leading to far greater things at the end of the journey.