The Las Vegas Raiders take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 10 of the 2021 NFL season, and here are three bold predictions in the matchup.
Following a disappointing loss to the New York Giants last week, the Las Vegas Raiders will welcome the division-rival Kansas City Chiefs to Allegiant Stadium for a Sunday Night Football clash. This week ten matchup is arguably the most important game of the year thus far for both teams inside of the ever-close AFC West.
The Chiefs have been able to roll off a couple of wins against the Washington Football Team and the Aaron Rodgers-less Packers after an uncharacteristically slow start to the season, but they still do not quite look like the Chiefs of old.
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City offense have often been careless with the ball, which has done no favors for their already suspect defense. The only team in the NFL with a worse turnover differential than the Chiefs is the New York Jets. While Kansas City has been a top-eight offense in the league in yards per game, sixteen other teams are averaging more points.
They are simply not able to finish drives.
The defense is an even more troubling story for the Chiefs, as they are bottom ten in both yards per game given up and points per game given up.
The eye test maybe even worse than the statistics. The Kansas City defense is allowing opposing pass catchers to run wide open downfield. At the end of the day though, the Chiefs are 5-4 despite all of this because of their superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is just too talented to allow his team to continue to struggle.
The Raiders, on the other hand, have had a roller-coaster of a season. Now, with all of the off-the-field issues hopefully behind them, Las Vegas can finally keep its focus on the goal of on-field success. While the Raiders have shown glimpses of being a great team this year, they have suffered two bad losses to the Bears and the Giants, albeit both games coming at the end of tumultuous weeks.
Derek Carr and the Raiders’ offense struggled last week against New York, scoring just 16 points in a loss. They will need to have a much more explosive performance if they hope to beat the Chiefs on Sunday night.
The Raiders defense, though, has been consistently good all season. On first and second down, the Raiders blitz the least in the NFL, yet create the most pressure on the opposing quarterback. Their unit is created almost perfectly to defend the Chiefs, as they will be able to rush Mahomes without dropping anybody out of coverage.
Sunday Night has all the makings for a game of the year candidate, so let’s take a look at a few bold predictions for the primetime showdown.