The Las Vegas Raiders did not show up for their Week 7 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. The team was awful on both sides of the ball, as they suffered an embarrassing 31-0 loss to their AFC West division rivals, the biggest such loss in a game where Kansas City shut the Raiders out.
Las Vegas' defense had its best performance of the season last week, as it held the Tennessee Titans to a season-low ten points and 225 total yards while recording a season-high six sacks and three takeaways.
The defensive line was largely successful for the big game, as they consistently pressured Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward. The unit was unable to repeat the performance, however, as they had a terrible showing on Sunday.
Raiders' defensive line suffered a major drop off against Chiefs
The Raiders' defense had been a strength of the team coming into Week 7. While they had allowed 24.8 points per game over their first six contests, they truly only had two bad performances, as they played well in the other four matchups.
Rob Leonard's defensive line group was supposed to be the premier unit on this defense, but they have been anything but that during the 2025 NFL season. After recording 21 pressures in Week 6, the group managed just 11 in Week 7 against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Las Vegas struggled, especially in the first half, against Kansas City's starters. ESPN's Ryan McFadden shared just how bad the defensive line's performance was during the first 30 minutes of the contest.
"#Raiders only managed to pressure Mahomes on 3 of 29 dropbacks (10%) in the first half, per ESPN Research," McFadden wrote. "Kansas City came into the week allowing pressure on 31% of dropbacks, which was 19th in the league."
The inability to create pressure, against a below-average line without its starting left tackle, no less, significantly hurt the Raiders, as Mahomes was seemingly able to get everything he wanted. The Chiefs star finished with 286 passing yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions while completing 74.3% of his pass attempts.
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In fairness to the defensive line, the group lost both Maxx Crosby and Adam Butler to injury on Sunday, which certainly did not help matters. But this lack of production has been a pattern for the group all season long.
Las Vegas' defensive line seemingly holds the keys to victory, as in Week 1, they managed 27 pressures in a win, and in Week 6, they got 21 pressures in a victory. They also recorded 18 against the Chicago Bears in Week 4, which is a game the Raiders would have won if not for a late-game blunder.
During the Raiders' other four losses, the defensive line has managed just 11, 7, 11 and 11 pressures. This stark dropoff is not necessarily the only difference between winning and losing, but it seems like the team is far more likely to stay in or win games when the defensive line balls out.
The Raiders will hope that both Crosby and Butler are able to recover from their injuries during the upcoming bye week. The team will have much bigger questions, however, as the front office will certainly begin to consider which players to move ahead of the November 4 trade deadline.
If they were able to pull off an upset victory against the Chiefs -- or even remain competitive -- it is possible that they would not choose to be sellers. Instead, after Sunday's performance, it is clear Las Vegas' focus should be on the future.