AFC West Roundup: Week 17 Finale
By Justin Smith
A weekly update on the AFC West, to keep up with the Oakland Raiders and the rest of the division.
The Raiders season was much like the old March proverb — in like a lion, out like a lamb. Pardon the cliché, but real words are difficult to come by after a disappointing end to a promising 2016 regular season. Let’s hope Oakland still has some lion left in them. I am not going to do my usual 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th place breakdowns as there isn’t any point any longer. The Raiders lost, and thus, the Chiefs are AFC West champions.
It chokes me to write that, but it is the truth. They earned the division by showing up ready to play against a Chargers team likely playing their last game in San Diego.
The Raiders failed to show up against a Broncos team that was playing for their suddenly retiring coach. Both team’s opponents had motivations beyond football. The Chiefs overcame them. The Raiders could not.
Oakland’s 2016 regular season will always come with a “what if?” caveat. What if Derek Carr remained healthy? He didn’t, forcing the Raiders to send out backup Matt McGloin in the most important game of the season.
McGloin didn’t stay healthy for long, but long enough to show rust and nerves by missing numerous passes early. After being driven hard to the turf by Denver DE Jared Crick, McGloin wasn’t able to return with a shoulder injury.
That meant that in the span of two weeks, the Raiders went from having a viable MVP candidate in Carr behind center to rookie Connor Cook, who was just activated from the practice squad for the first time for the Broncos game. He’d never thrown an official NFL pass.
Yet here he was, trotted out with a deficit in an important game against the #1 pass defense in the league. No big deal.
Cook played quite well at times, and threw the ball with confidence. He did throw an interception and fumbled, but he also completed 66.7% of his passes for 150 yards and a TD on top.
A rookie seeing his first ever NFL action against a motivated Denver team with a lead putting up an 84.5 passer rating is pretty good. That’s 15 points higher than the Broncos allowed during the season.
For comparison, Tom Brady completed 50% of his passes and had a 68.2 rating against Denver. Brady is the best in the game, and the Broncos played him tough. Cook did some things well against a very, very tough defense.
As the Broncos built an early 17-0 lead, Raider fans got in-game updates from the Chiefs-Chargers game. It was encouraging when the Chargers went up 7-0 early, but the Chiefs soon took over. Timely defense, methodical offense and Tyreek Hill took care of the rest.
That’s been a winning formula for the Chiefs since Hill burst onto the scene with his versatile three touchdown performance in late November against the Broncos. Kansas City had done it with methodical offense and timely defense. Then they began using Hill more, and looking for Travis Kelce more.
Boom. The Chiefs offense has been versatile and dynamic ever since, and adding that to a great defense and special teams has been tough for opponents to overcome. That was again the case as Hill’s 95-yard punt return in the 3rd quarter stopped all though of a San Diego.
Alex Smith has quietly played very well this season. Though boring and vanilla most of the time, when called upon he’s hit big downfield throws and ran the ball well at the right times. I’ve never been a Smith fan, but I’m beginning to feel it’s more the offense and less Smith that keeps him shackled.
The Chiefs look dangerous right now. The Raiders looked lost on Sunday, but I fully expect them to rebound and play a better defensive game against Houston in the Wild Card game.
So the state of affairs for the AFC West teams as we head to the playoffs for two, and the offseason for the other two.