Around the AFC West, Week 12: Chiefs dominate as rivals fall apart

The rest of the West fell apart in Week 12 as the Chiefs continued to gain ground.

After a Thanksgiving hiatus, Around the AFC West is back. I know, I know… you all missed me and my deep thoughts and lame jokes. Well, I’m back after what was the longest week in NFL history. (Thank you, lord!)

Man alive, was it a crazy week. Probably should have had one less beer and spent the time writing. Oh, well. Let’s take a look around the AFC West, however, and see what shook out after Thanksgiving week.

Las Vegas Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders came into Week 12 off a “moral victory” against the Kansas City Chiefs. They lost the game, but put up a fight. This game felt an awful lot like what happened to the Jacksonville Jaguars after they faced the Chiefs a few years ago. Jacksonville walked into Kansas City as the toast of the town with a defense that was supposed to stop Patrick Mahomes and the high flying offense. They couldn’t and it turned out that the rest of their season was ruined and the franchise is now in shambles.

Las Vegas was hoping to log a win against a pretty poor Atlanta Falcons team. I could not believe what happened. The Raiders were blown out—completely blown out —by the Falcons. No one saw that coming with all the talk of Derek Carr as darkhorse MVP candidate, their offense playing so well, and their defense hitting hard. I expected Atlanta to take their loss and move on to potentially select Matt Ryan‘s replacement, but that team showed fight. Was this Atlanta’s Super Bowl?

The Raiders were hilariously blown out by a final score of 43-6. Derek Carr threw a pick-six and had three fumbles.

I’m sorry, but this team looked atrocious. They clearly had a hangover from partying too hard following their moral victory and forgot about the remainder of the season. This put a playoff wild card spot further out of reach. While technically still in the hunt, they are on the outside looking in.

The Raiders have a chance to right the ship next week against the still winless Jets. The Jets are hilariously bad, but I thought the same thing about the Falcons and look what happened. This won’t be a “gimme” game, and the Raiders will need to do some soul-searching or they might just end up being the Jets one win of the season.

Game time is Sunday at 12:00 p.m.