Las Vegas Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs: 3 Surprises in Week 14
Embarrassing performance on defense
Right before the game, defensive ends Yannick Ngakoue and Maxx Crosby gathered the team on the Chiefs logo and decided to jump around and pump themselves, and the team up before the game. Not only did that not work, but if you’re going to pull a stunt like that, you better be ready to dominate the game.
What ended up happening is that neither Yannick nor Crosby had any effect on this game. Rookie Malcolm Koonce and much-maligned defensive end Clelin Ferrell had the best defensive performances of the game from the defensive end position, and that is not a good thing when the defense has performed the way it has almost all season long.
The run defense couldn’t stop anyone, as every single running back had success against the Raiders, including third-string running back Derrick Gore, who had a 50-yard touchdown run where he was untouched, and the pass defense was terrible as well. Trayvon Mullen made his first start since early October, but maybe they should’ve let him rest one more week because he got cooked today and basically walked the Chiefs down the field due to penalties on one drive in the second half of the game.
Both Carr and linebacker Kj Wright came out after the game and said they didn’t really want to do the logo celebration before the game, but wanted to show support to teammates that had wanted to do it. Maybe the Raiders should become a competent organization before pulling off stunts like that.