The Las Vegas Raiders' defense had one of its worst performances of the season in Sunday's 31-0 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. While they have allowed more points in two other games, their 434 total yards allowed and 30 first downs given up were both season-highs.
The unit was unable to do anything to slow Kansas City's offense down, as they allowed touchdowns on the first four drives of the game, and a field goal on the fifth. In fact, they did not keep the Chiefs from scoring until Patrick Mahomes and several other key offensive weapons were out of the game.
Kansas City's offense is a juggernaut, especially with Rashee Rice back in the lineup. But while the defense was awful, it was not due to a lack of opportunities, as they had several chances to make a game-changing play, and failed at every turn.
Raiders defense fails to take advantage of Chiefs few blunders
The Chiefs, ultimately, did not make many mistakes on Sunday, as Patrick Mahomes completed 74.3% of his passes for 286 yards and three touchdowns while the rushing attack added 152 yards and a touchdown. When they did make mistakes, however, the Raiders' defense did not capitalize.
Isaiah Pola-Mao and Jonah Laulu both dropped interceptions in the first half that could have shifted the momentum. Kansas City was also able to pick up a third down conversion on a pass that should have been intercepted, as Tristin McCollum's tipped pass landed in JuJu Smith-Schuster's hands.
Meanwhile, Kansas City also muffed a punt inside their own ten-yard line, but they were able to recover the football. Jamal Adams also had a chance to recover a fumble; however, the ball bounced off his legs right into the hands of Xavier Worthy.
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Each of those five plays that could have helped Las Vegas occurred on drives that eventually resulted in points for Kansas City. Unlike last week, when seemingly every ball bounced the Raiders' way, that was not the case in Week 7.
Kansas City was also 9-15 converting on third down for the day, while Las Vegas was 0-7. Pete Carroll discussed the defense's struggles at making the big play after Sunday's demoralizing defeat.
"We jumped up after we saw what was happening, and we made a couple adjustments, and Patrick [Graham] made a couple calls," Carroll said. "We had the balls hit our guys that they threw right at us. We banged them off us and those were the same concepts that were working earlier. So, we found some ways to get those stopped, but we didn't capitalize on them like we needed to in a game like this."
The Raiders' inability to come up with a big play ultimately plagued them, as they had plenty of opportunities to put an end to the Chiefs' offensive domination by getting a takeaway. Ultimately, however, it may not have made a difference in the final outcome, as Las Vegas' offense finished with just 95 total yards and three first downs.
Still, it would have been an encouraging sign if the defense could have continued its strong play and forced a few turnovers, especially against an elite offense. Now, however, the Raiders will have plenty to evaluate as they head into their bye week coming off of yet another embarrassing loss.