Four heroes from KC Chiefs win over Las Vegas Raiders
By Matt Conner
Let’s take a look at a few players who put on capes and led the Kansas City Chiefs to an impressive victory on Saturday in Week 18.
The collective sigh you’re hearing from Chiefs Kingdom at the moment is the exhale of relief. For the majority of the Kansas City Chiefs‘ victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday, fans finally saw the sort of well-rounded effort from their favorite team that showcased focus and execution in all phases of the game. It’s why the Chiefs were up 24-3 at halftime and ended up winning by a final score of 31-13.
In a win like this, there are a lot of positives to cover. The offense did pretty much whatever they wanted for most of the day. The defense rose to the occasion with great contributions at all three levels. Special teams looked special once again.
That said, we wanted to look at a handful of heroes who really went above and beyond on Saturday to put the Chiefs over the top—an effort that helped the Chiefs win their 14th game and grab the top seed in the AFC West.
Chris Jones
The Kansas City Chiefs have long relied on Chris Jones to provide the bulk of their pass rush up front for years now as the only elite-level defender on the roster. While the Chiefs have enjoyed some other solid defensive performances in recent years—from Tyrann Mathieu to Frank Clark—the truth is that Jones has shouldered a greater load than anyone else.
What’s amazing, then, about this year is that Jones is having a better season than perhaps ever before. Instead of standing in the shadow of Aaron Donald, Jones’ performance has NFL circles buzzing about him as the league’s most disruptive interior defender in ’22 and he’s a dark horse contender for Defensive Player of the Year.
On Saturday, Jones was all over Jarrett Stidham at all times, forcing one rushed pass after another (or knocking them down entirely). He freed up his teammates to clean up and finished some plays on his own. He ended the game with 2.5 sacks and 6 quarterback hits, which brings his total to 15.5—matching the highest total of his career.
Sometimes you sign a guy to a big-time extension and you can see the effort relaxed from that point forward. For Jones, he’s gotten better at his craft and he’s aging like Travis Kelce, which bodes well for perhaps another extension coming soon.