Patrick Mahomes works his 4th quarter magic in Chiefs road win over Raiders
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs avenged their only loss of the season by taking out the Las Vegas Raiders at home on Sunday night.
The Las Vegas Raiders were anxious to prove their Week 5 win wasn’t a fluke. The Kansas City Chiefs were ready for some revenge. The Sunday night matchup between the Chiefs and Raiders was one of the most important AFC West matchups in recent years, and the competition lived up to billing with a close game that came down to a thrilling fourth quarter—one in which Patrick Mahomes worked his magic for a close win of 35-31 for the Chiefs.
The offenses for both teams went right to work in the first quarter. The Raiders made quick work of the Chiefs defense with two 25-plus yard passing plays from Derek Carr to Nelson Agholor and Darren Waller. Josh Jacobs finished off the drive for his first touchdown of the night.
The Chiefs came right back with a more methodical drive that ate up half of the first quarter marked by many short passes to Tyreek Hill and nice runs by Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Hill had five catches on the drive, including a 3-yard touchdown that was his 10th score on the season.
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The Raiders came right back with another short touchdown drive, moving 60 yards in 4 minutes. Carr had his first touchdown as the first quarter closed with a 17-yard throw to Agholor in the back corner of the end zone. Raiders were up 14-7 after 15 minutes.
The Chiefs were able to answer with a nice drive of their own, helped along by key penalties against the Raiders. A long 21-yard strike to Travis Kelce moved the chains, and Edwards-Helaire ran it in for his first rushing touchdown since Week 7 against the Denver Broncos.
The Raiders finally came up short, if you can say that, on the ensuing drive when, after once again setting up a long drive with five first downs, the team came up just short at their goal line. Instead of attempt a fourth-and-goal situation, Jon Gruden decided to kick the field goal. Daniel Carlson hit the 35-yard attempt to put Las Vegas up 17-14, which would be the score going into halftime after Raiders corner Trayvon Mullen intercepted Mahomes at the two-yard line just with 19 seconds left.
The Chiefs got the ball to start the second half and they ate up half of the third quarter with a beautiful long touchdown drive of 93 yards on 16 plays. Edwards-Helaire ended the drive with his second touchdown on the night, a 14-yard run to the right side that showed his speed and vision.
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The Raiders kept the rest of the quarter to themselves with a similarly impressive drive of 75 yards capped by a touchdown catch by tight end Darren Waller on a wide open route which put the Raiders back up 24-21.
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The Chiefs and Raiders traded punts early in the fourth quarter, but then Mahomes and company put together a 12-play, 91-yard drive that featured big catches by Kelce and Hill. In the end, Le’Veon Bell enjoyed the first touchdown of his Chiefs career with a six-yard run.
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Derek Carr deserves credit for putting the Raiders up late with less than two minutes to go. The Raiders drove the length of the field before a short throw to Jason Witten—yes, that Jason Witten—gave Carr his third touchdown pass of the night and the Raiders had a three point lead. They also gave Mahomes one timeout and just under two minutes to do his work. He only needed 1:15.
Mahomes began the Chiefs game-winning drive with quick tosses to Hill before finding Mecole Hardman for 16 yards and then Kelce for another 15. Then came this beauty of a move on a long touchdown pass to Kelce.
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1330728944367251456
On the ensuing drive, Carr threw his only interception on the night to safety Dan Sorenson and from there, Mahomes simply knelt to end the game.
The Chiefs moved to 9-1 on the season while the Raiders take a step back to 6-4 after a three-game winning streak.