Who would have thought that the Week 4 showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders would be the battle for the AFC West crown and the right to remain undefeated? Probably not many.
It's not surprising to see the Chiefs at 3-0. They've been in this very spot many times over the last decade but it's pretty shocking to see the Raiders right up there with them in the standings over the first three weeks of the season.
But that's the exact situation we're finding ourselves in: The 3-0 Chiefs heading to Sin City to battle the 3-0 Raiders for the lead in the competitive AFC West. One might look at this matchup and think it's a must-win for the Chiefs, but in reality, the Raiders need the win far more than Kansas City does.
For one, the Chiefs have lost tough games before and they know how to bounce back from them. They know how to learn from those mistakes and correct them so that they can prevent that type of thing from biting them again. The Raiders are still a young team with a first-year head coach so those lessons have not been learned by them just yet.
The Raiders are about to find out just how real this start is
Second, while both teams have difficult schedules, we're going to see just how real the Raiders are over the next month of the season. After they host the Chiefs, the Silver and Black follow that up with a road game in New England, back-to-back home tilts against the Bills and Rams, a trip to MetLife to play the Jets, and another road trip to play the 49ers in Santa Clara. Woof.
Say the Raiders do beat the Chiefs. They'd be 4-0 and leading the division but then would head into quite the rough patch when it comes to their schedule. Sure, the Patriots and Jets aren't exactly world beaters but those are both road games. Gillette Stadium can be an intimidating environment and the Jets have looked much better this year. Those games aren't gimmes by any stretch.
We'll truly get to see what the Raiders are made of and how "real" they are when they square off against the Bills, Rams, and 49ers. The Bills and Rams games are in Las Vegas, but, as Chiefs fans know, Allegiant Stadium isn't exactly The Black Hole. It's often filled with more of the opposing fans than Raiders fans, and Bills fans will almost certainly fill that place up in blue and red. That could practically be an away game for the Raiders against one of the best teams in the league.
A Chiefs loss wouldn't carry the same weight
As for the Chiefs, if they drop the game against the Raiders, they then have an early bye to get things figured out before facing off against the Chargers at Arrowhead. That will be a game that helps them right the ship before back-to-back road games in Seattle and Denver.
All of this is to say, we want the Chiefs to win and move to 4-0 but if they don't, no one is going to panic. We know this team is capable of learning from their losses and coming back stronger. The Raiders, on the other hand, might not be able to do that. Who knows, maybe the Raiders are simply last year's Colts, a team that gets off to a hot start and then melts down as the season progresses.
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