Las Vegas Raiders Find A Way To Lose, Handing Kansas City Chiefs Another Big Win

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It’s great to win and the Kansas City Chiefs, winners of three Super Bowls the last five seasons, know about that. But it also goes down in the win column when the other team does dumb stuff to lose the game – and that’s what the Las Vegas Raiders did Friday.

The Raiders lost to the Chiefs on Friday. 

It was awkward.

Bizarre.

Embarrassing, almost.

Raiders Lose It – Again

“We came up short yet again,” Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said afterward. “That’s the world champs. That’s twice now I thought this season we played them very hard and had opportunities there to win it. And we put ourselves in position to win it. And the record is what it is. But this is a team that’s prideful, that’s playing for one another, there’s no head down.

“I don’t know what to keep saying after losses, right? We have to keep battling. We take some time off and regroup. But one thing I’m not going to do is take away from the effort, the pride and the way they compete.”

And what you just read is a coach telling you he hasn’t lost the locker room and believes he deserves to keep his job despite the bad record. That’s Pierce’s case to make.

But this loss doesn’t help. Because if you thought the Chicago Bears clinched the most oddball way to lose an NFL game the last couple of days, I introduce the Raiders and their mistimed center snap that catches the quarterback unawares.

Chiefs Struggled To Win

That’s how the Raiders lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 19-17. Well, that and three missed field goals by kicker Daniel Carlson. 

We say lost it because the Raiders seemingly did more to lose this game than the Chiefs did to win. No, that’s not how Chiefs fans may view it. But Chiefs fans aren’t writing this column so they can go chasing their three-peat celebrations, and I’ll go chasing the facts.

The facts are: the Chiefs know they didn’t play well.

“We just hold ourselves to such a high standard that we don’t feel like we’re playing our best football all together,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “We got to find a way to build up so we can play great as a full entire team … at the end of the day, that’s what we’re going for.”

But in the meantime, we present the Raiders. And their 2-10 ways. 

Raiders Wanted To Waste 4 Seconds

Trailing by two points inside 2 minutes to play, the Raiders drove from their own 8-yard line to the Kansas City 32 and still had 15 seconds to spare so as to set up for a winning field goal. 

And with those 15 seconds to play, the Raiders lined up for one final play from scrimmage before giving Carlson another shot at a kick – this one to win the game.

“We were just going to throw the ball out of bounds to kill four or five more seconds, then kick a 49-yard field goal,” Pierce said.

But center Andre James snapped the football to quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who apparently wasn’t ready for the snap. The surprise snap hit O’Connell in the chest, bounced loose, and was kicked by a Las Vegas offensive lineman. 

The muff was eventually recovered by Chiefs’ linebacker Nick Bolton. It gave the Chiefs the ball.

There were 11 seconds left on the clock but, yeah, game over.

Mahomes took a knee. The Chiefs won again.

Chiefs Are Having Problems

They’ve won 14 consecutive one-possession games to break the NFL record previously held by the 2003-2004 New England Patriots.

They’re now 63-1 when leading by 13 points or more in the second half.

And all this comes amid troubles. Problems.

Both Kansas City offensive tackles have been bad this year and were in this game. Right tackle Jawaan Taylor was flagged for illegal formation in the backfield multiple times. Left tackle Wanya Morris is just a middling player who is playing because Kingsley Suamatala is a young player who hasn’t quite developed and recently added D.J. Humphries isn’t ready yet. 

Morris gave up a sack in a key red zone situation. And he was benched in the fourth quarter and replaced by left guard Joe Thuney.

“Wanya was struggling a little bit,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “Pat took a few hits there, so we were struggling at times.”

Mahomes was sacked five times and that was the second consecutive game he was sacked at least five times.

Mahomes: ‘Long Way To Go’

Did I mention the Chiefs scored only one touchdown? One.

“There were too many mistakes at the end of the day,” Mahomes said. “I thought there were times offensively we moved the ball. Didn’t execute in the red zone. Didn’t execute enough on third down. Too many mistakes. We’ve got to clean that up if we want to get where we want to go.” 

The Chiefs defense struggled against O’Connell before the fateful muff. O’Connell hadn’t played in recent weeks because of a finger injury but was forced into the lineup when Gardner Minshew broke his collarbone.

And despite not playing recently, O’Connell lit up the Chiefs to the tune of 340 yards and 2 touchdowns with an interception.

Despite all the struggles, the Chiefs’ victory clinched them a playoff spot.

“You clinch your playoff spot, that’s the first goal to give yourself a chance to go to the Super Bowl,” Mahomes said. “But we know we have a long way to go. We have to continue to work to get better and be a better football team going into the playoffs.”

Indeed, the Chiefs are the first team to clinch a playoff spot this season. It obviously helps to win. And it also helps when the other team does things to lose.