Raiders start hot, crumble down the stretch against Chiefs, 31-17

Raiders fade away in the second half

To start the second half, it was more of the same from the Chiefs offense as the Las Vegas defense simply had no answers for Andy Reid’s play calling. 

On offense, the play calling from Bo Hardagree was much too conservative, and quite frankly, the coaching staff appeared scared to lose at times. 

Never was this more apparent than on a fourth down play late in the game where the team absolutely needed to convert to stay in the game down by two scores and they just turned and handed it to Jacobs. 

Of course, getting Jacobs the ball in those situations is never a bad thing but it’s the stunning lack of creativity that stuck out as the Kansas City defense blew the play up before it even had a chance. 

The Chiefs would continue to pour it on, as they typically do against the Raiders, and, after a 14-0 lead early on, Las Vegas would be outscored 31-3 the rest of the way en route to a 31-17 loss. 

Obviously, the Chiefs are just a better team than the Raiders right now and no one is questioning that. However, it definitely felt as if the team had a chance to pull off an upset here early on before the play-calling and fearful coaching overtook the energy of the team. 

Antonio Pierce has certainly changed the energy around the team since the firing of Josh McDaniels, but a loss like this will weigh heavy on Mark Davis’s eventual decision on whether to keep him around for the long haul as the Raiders drop to 5-7 heading into the bye week.