This rivalry has resumed in earnest ... but Chiefs prevail again with Mahomes magic
Say this for Chiefs-Raiders 2020: What had faded into a mere shell of a relic of a rivalry as the Chiefs dominated the silver and black recently has resumed its relevance.
While the Chiefs on Sunday night in Las Vegas avenged their only loss of the season by fending off the Raiders 35-31, safe to say the Raiders have demystified the spell the Chiefs held as they won 11 of the previous 12 between them entering this season.
But also safe to say that arguably made this outcome all the more hard-earned and gratifying. Particularly in the style with which it was delivered: Patrick Mahomes hitting Travis Kelce with a 22-yard touchdown pass (the Chiefs longest play of the game) with 28 seconds left, just over a minute after the Raiders had taken a 31-28 lead.
“It’s like my dad told me growing up: Players make plays,” Mahomes said on NBC immediately after guiding the Chiefs to yet another exhilarating comeback in his young career.
The Chiefs needed about every one of those plays on a night that started with the Raiders moving at will and staying in position to win all game, very much a version of this team that Kelce called the best he’s seen in his eight NFL seasons. Nevermind that coach Andy Reid was 18-3 in games after bye weeks. Or that Mahomes had never lost to the same team twice in a season.
This took all they had, including a team-record tying 36 first downs, another dazzle display of the Mahomes-Kelce telepathy, some key moment furnished by Demarcus Robinson after a rough first half, Le’Veon Bell’s first touchdown as a Chief and yet another game-clinching interception by Daniel Sorensen.
The Chiefs-Raiders dynamic wasn’t supposed to be like this, of course, not a season after the Raiders went 7-9 and the Chiefs won the Super Bowl and returned their nucleus.
Some of us figured, and stubbornly actually still do, that the Chiefs were well-served in the big picture by that first loss, including responding with a demonstrable fresh edge.
And certainly they figured to be at their best, or at least at their most tuned-in, for the rematch after the Raiders lent some spice to their 40-32 victory at Arrowhead Stadium with a victory lap around the perimeter in the team bus.
“You pretty much could cut the tension in the air,” running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire said, adding that the likes of Mahomes and Kelce had said “understand that those people on the other sideline, they want to embarrass you, and they want to do things to embarrass your team and you need to be able to defend you and your brothers.”
However motivated the Chiefs might have been coming into the game, the Raiders punctured any evident impact or meaning of that by romping 75 yards on six plays to open the game and take a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard-plow by Josh Jacobs. The drive was punctuated by passes of 26 and 29 yards, alarmingly reminiscent of the way the Raiders plundered the Chiefs for 20-plus yards seven times in their first matchup.
And after the Chiefs countered more methodically, 14 plays, 85 yards in 7 minutes 24 seconds to tie it on Mahomes’ 3-yard pass to Tyreek Hill, the Raiders went right back into dissection mode.
Distressing as that was, the Chiefs immediately jabbed back to tie it 14-14. And they at least finally broke serve in the budding touchdown-fest when Charvarius Ward busted up a third-and-goal fade pass for Bryan Edwards in, well, such a way as to reap the added value of drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Raiders bench to leave them settling for a field goal.
If that settled the Raiders pace down a little after they’d scored 54 points in their first five quarters against the Chiefs this season, the Chiefs didn’t exactly pounce on the reprieve. They punted on the ensuing drive, and their bid to take the lead at halftime fizzled when Mahomes was picked off for just the second time this season … each by the Raiders.
Even with the Raiders seemingly overwhelmed by the generally irresistible forces of Hill and Kelce, as symbolized on one late-half play when the Raiders were nabbed holding each of them, the Chiefs trailed 17-14 in part because of a remarkable difference in pass protection on each side of the ball and in part because of an evident miscommunication between Mahomes and Demarcus Robinson on the interception.
After the play, Mahomes could be seen on replays yelling words to the effect of “come back” to the ball to Robinson, who failed to do the same thing earlier in the half and also was called for a facemask with his pinky finger when he had the ball.
That served to amplify how much the Chiefs continue to miss Sammy Watkins, out for the fifth straight game with a hamstring/calf injury and emerging Mecole Hardman, who was active but played sparingly after recently being on the reserve/COVID 19 list. (Later in the game, receiver Byron Pringle went out with an ankle injury).
The Robinson follies continued early in the second half, when he made a short catch for a first down only to jeopardize it by reaching out with the ball as he fell (moving backwards, as it happened) and compelling the Raiders to challenge it.
But in one of the crucial breaks of the game for the Chiefs, the ruling on the field was upheld. So instead of facing fourth and 1 at their 16 they were on the way to the go-ahead touchdown with a 16-play, 93 yard drive that consumed more than half the third quarter (8:37).
It felt like a breakthrough moment for the Chiefs: first lead of the game, Raiders suddenly stranded behind after being nearly unstoppable in the first half.
The Raiders didn’t get the time-to-fold memo, going up 24-21 on Carr’s 3-yard TD pass to a stunningly abandoned Darren Waller.
Even after the Chiefs drove 91 yards to resume the lead at 28-24 on Le’Veon Bell’s first touchdown for Kansas City, culminating a drive keyed by Mahomes’ 9-yard pass to Robinson on fourth and 2 near midfield.
Carr’s touchdown pass to Jason Witten with 1:43 left put them up three … only for Mahomes to find Kelce for the game-winning TD with 28 seconds left.
It was a win, after all, and you could say it restored order to the trend. But it also marked a rivalry rejuvenated … and a win that meant all the more for it.
“This thing could easily have gone the other way,” Reid said. “And it didn’t.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2020 at 10:57 PM with the headline "This rivalry has resumed in earnest ... but Chiefs prevail again with Mahomes magic."