Oakland Raiders: 5 matchups to watch vs. Kansas City Chiefs in Week 7
By John Buhler
The Oakland Raiders will host their arch rival in the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday Night Football. Here are five matchups to keep an eye on in this game.
Thursday Night Football features one of the NFL’s most storied rivalries. Meeting at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Oct. 19 will be the Kansas City Chiefs (5-1) and the Oakland Raiders (2-4). Kickoff will be at 5:25 p.m. PT, 8:25 p.m. ET. CBS and the NFL Network will have the national broadcast.
This is a huge game for the Raiders. If they can’t come up with a victory, well, then their season is pretty much over. How can you convince yourself that you’re in it if you go on a five-game skid and lose to all three division rivals during that time frame? Calling this game with Kansas City a must-win is an understatement to how important this game is for the Silver and Black.
Kansas City might be the best team in football. The Chiefs are coming off their first loss of the season to their AFC nemesis in the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kansas City has wins over teams like the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, two teams that should be in the playoffs at season’s end.
Oakland and Kansas City have a fierce rivalry, so this game should be an exciting one. Here are five man-on-man matchups that should have our intriguing heading into this first primetime telecast of the week.
Marshawn Lynch vs. Derrick Johnson
This would have been a great matchup four years and guess what, it’s still an enticing one. We’ve got two former perennial Pro Bowlers going at it in Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch and Chiefs inside linebacker Derrick Johnson.
Even during their four-game slide, the Raiders have been able to rush for over 100 yards as a team in four of their six games this season. Oakland is coming off back-to-back 100-yard performances on the ground. Lynch may not be as productive as he once was, but is the featured back in Oakland.
Johnson is a tackling machine in the middle of the Kansas City defense. He’s not the same player he once was. Rupturing that Achilles’ last year was devastating for him. Johnson may be back to 100 percent physically, but he does have to step up in this Chiefs defense the rest of the way. They are without their franchise cornerstone in safety Eric Berry, who suffered a season-ending Achilles’ injury in Week 1 versus New England.
Being able to get yards on the ground will be huge for the Raiders if they want to pull off the slight upset at home. Should Johnson and the Chiefs linebacking corps be able to contain the Raiders’ ground game, it could be a long night for the Oakland offense.