Kansas City Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon (1) celebrates with guard Joe Thuney (62) after scoring a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023.
Published Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Updated Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023 | 4:21 p.m.
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If Saturday proved anything, the Raiders are still a ways to go from catching the Kansas City Chiefs.
Jarrett Stidham had 269 total yards and a touchdown pass, but the Raiders allowed 202 yards and a touchdown to likely MVP Patrick Mahomes in Las Vegas’ 31-13 loss to the Chiefs in their season finale at Allegiant Stadium today.
Stidham, who became the starter in Week 17 over Derek Carr, completed just 22 of 36 passes and threw an interception in the second quarter. Leading rusher Josh Jacobs was held to 45 yards on 17 carries.
Jacobs, the league’s leading rusher, entered Saturday 140 yards ahead of Cleveland’s Nick Chubb for the rushing title. The fourth-year running back out of Alabama will hit free agency this spring after rushing for 1,653 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson made both field goal attempts for the only Las Vegas points. Carlson has made 34 field goals this season, tying Baltimore’s Justin Tucker for the league lead. Carlson finished the season 34 of 37 with his 91.9% conversion rate fourth in the NFL.
The Raiders were expected to contend in the AFC West this season after acquiring Davante Adams in an offseason trade with Green Bay to bolster the passing attack, while adding Chandler Jones to give the Las Vegas pass rush someone opposite of Maxx Crosby.
While Adams set the single-season receiving record in his first year with the Raiders with 1,516 yards on 100 receptions, the first year of the Josh McDaniels era will be remembered for five losses after squandering double-digit leads and finishing 6-11. Meanwhile, the road to the Super Bowl in the AFC will go through Kansas City with the Chiefs (14-3) clinching the No. 1 seed.
The Los Angeles Chargers will also represent the AFC West in the postseason.
What started as a year full of promise results in an offseason with many questions ahead for the Raiders, starting with what they do at quarterback.
Raiders find the endzone late
The Raiders won’t finish the season without a touchdown in their final game.
Hunter Renfrow caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Jarrett Stidham with 6:37 remaining to cut the Chiefs’ lead to 31-13. Darren Waller initially appeared to haul in a score on the prior play with one referee signaling touchdown.
But “after further discussion,” as the head official told the crowd, the catch was correctly changed to an incomplete. Stidham has ended up with a decent statistics line despite dealing with a great deal of pressure throughout the game, having completed 21 of 31 passes for 210 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Chiefs running up the score
The Raiders gave up long ago against the Chiefs, and the score continues to represent their resignation.
Kansas City leads Las Vegas 30-6 with 11 minutes left in the game as Chiefs’ chants overtake Allegiant Stadium. Isaiah Pacheco became the fourth different Kansas City player to find the end zone with a 1-yard run for the latest score.
Kansas City is averaging 7.2 yards per play to Las Vegas’ 3.9 yards per play.
Kansas City pulling away
It looks like the Raiders will end a disappointing season appropriately, with a blowout loss at home to an archrival.
The Chiefs lead 24-3 at halftime after Kadarius Toney ran in an 11-yard touchdown and kicker Harrison Butker added a 44-yard field goal. The Raiders’ offense had a promising first drive, resulting in a 54-yard Daniel Carlson field goal, but otherwise hasn’t mustered much production.
Jarrett Stidham has taken four sacks, with the most recent one coming by Mike Danna to set up the aforementioned field goal. Pressure has been non-existent on the other side with Patrick Mahomes having picked apart the Raiders’ defense with 175 yards on 14-for-17 passing.
Stidham has completed eight of 13 attempts for 102 yards and an interception.
Chiefs increase lead
Well, the Raiders won’t be shut out but otherwise their final game of the regular season may not be very pretty.
The Chiefs currently lead 14-3 after a two-yard touchdown run by Ronald Jones. Kansas City’s second touchdown drive took just more than a minute, after its first touchdown drive took just more than two minutes.
Big plays sparked both efforts with the latest being a 28-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes to JuJu Smith-Schuster. The Chiefs took over in Raiders’ territory after Jarrett Stidham threw his third interception since taking over the starting quarterback job, forcing a ball into double coverage where Juan Thornhill made the pick.
Chiefs score on their opening drive
The Raiders aren’t off to a god start in Week 18.
Kansas City leads 7-0 in Las Vegas after scoring an opening-drive touchdown. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes hit receiver Justin Watson with a 67-yard completion on the second play of the game to get inside the 5-yard line.
Three plays later, Mahomes scrambled to draw the defense away from recent touchdown magnet Jerrick McKinnon, whom then caught a short flip for a score. McKinnon now has receiving touchdowns in six straight games.
The Raiders will need to show some life to avoid being at risk of an all-too-familiar blowout loss to their rivals.
Josh Jacobs not on inactive report
Josh Jacobs’ hold on the NFL lead for rushing yards will tighten in today’s game against the Chiefs. The Raiders’ star running back has been on the field at Allegiant Stadium for warm-ups and is listed as active for the final game of the season.
The fourth-year running back out of Alabama was questionable coming into the Saturday afternoon tilt with hip and oblique injuries but it appears he will play through the pain. He doesn’t project to see the field as much as usual in a meaningless game for the Raiders but still should be out there enough to increase his 160-yard rushing lead over second-place Nick Chubb of the Browns.
Raiders at Chiefs kicks off the NFL’s Week 18 slate, and both teams will be relatively close to full strength not including players they’ve already added to injury reserve.
The Raiders’ inactives list contained no surprises with benched quarterback Derek Carr, wide receiver Chris Lacy, running back Brittain Brown, guard Netane Muti, linebacker Darien Butler, defensive tackle Matthew Butler and defensive end Tashawn Bower. The Chiefs do have some trouble with wide receiver depth as neither rookie Skyy Moore nor veteran Mecole Hardman will play.
PREGAME
The Las Vegas Raiders are reduced to playing a spoiler role in their final game of the season. Having officially been eliminated from playoff contention with last week’s 37-34 overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Las Vegas now has nothing to play for apart from knocking its archrivals off course. The Kansas City Chiefs are in position to go into the playoffs with the AFC’s No. 1 seed for the third time in five years but could lose that status if they fall in Las Vegas. The Chiefs will face a different Raiders quarterback for the first time since 2013, as Jarrett Stidham is set to start his second game since the benching of veteran Derek Carr. Kansas City tormented Carr more than any other team during the quarterback’s nine-year stint with the Raiders, winning 14 of the 17 games he started against them. The last defeat might have been among the most painful, as the Raiders narrowly fell 30-29 in a Week 5 matchup at Arrowhead Stadium despite 193 combined rushing and receiving yards by running back Josh Jacobs.
WEEK 18
• Who: Chiefs (13-3) at Raiders (6-10)
• When: 1:30 p.m.
• Where: Allegiant Stadium
• TV: ABC
• Radio: Raider Nation Radio 920 AM, KOMP 92.3
• Betting line: Chiefs -9.5, over/under 52.5
Favorable matchup: Raiders’ “playing loose” ethos vs. Chiefs’ pressure
Going into a game without any stakes is traditionally considered a negative for a team, but the Raiders believe they can flip that narrative around. They were all but eliminated from the playoffs going into last week, with mathematical models giving them less than a 1% chance to reach the postseason, but top receiver Davante Adams vowed the team would be “playing loose” behind Stidham. And then the first-time starting quarterback embodied that from the moment he stepped on the field, looking less rigid and more free-flowing than Carr en route to a historic performance. Stidham became only the second quarterback in NFL history (alongside current New York Jets signal caller Mike White) to throw for at least 350 yards (he hit 360) and three touchdowns in his debut. Las Vegas clearly followed Stidham’s lead and played like it had nothing to lose. The Raiders did lose, but few expected them to push the 49ers as far as they did as 10-point underdogs. They’re going to try to replicate the effort against the Chiefs, who are facing the type of great pressure to win that can backfire against an unencumbered team like the Raiders.
THEY SAID IT
“He hasn’t missed a practice, literally very few reps the entire year. So, to put in that kind of work, that kind of effort, that kind of dedication to his craft when he’s already achieved what he’s achieved prior to being here, I think it speaks to how incredible the person is.” -Raiders coach Josh McDaniels on receiver Davante Adams
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“Honestly, no. What I enjoy more is reading the comments of every Niner fan that said it was incomplete. That makes me a little bit happier than praising myself and patting myself on the back. I like that people are pissed off about it.” -Adams on if he took extra time to appreciate a crazy 45-yard catch he made in the fourth quarter to set the Raiders’ single-season receiving record when watching film of the 49ers’ game
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“Best running back I’ve ever played against in my career, no doubt about it. That dude’s a beast.” -49ers edge rusher, and likely NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Nick Bosa on Raiders running back Josh Jacobs
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“It may seem like we’re not as competitive as other teams or we’re not as good as other teams, but I think anybody in this locker room can play with any team in this league. … I just want to go out there and give the team everything. I know I speak for the team when I say we want to go out there and give it everything we got.” -Cornerback Nate Hobbs on what’s driving the Raiders into their final game of the season
Problematic matchup: Chiefs’ end Travis Kelce vs. Raiders’ defense
Kelce and Adams should make for an interesting head-to-head battle as their respective teams’ top receiving options, given that they are both vying to finish the regular season as the NFL’s leader for receiving touchdowns. Adams has a two-score lead over Kelce, 14-12, after catching two touchdowns from Stidham last week. That may sound like a comfortable margin, but not when considering what Kelce did against the Raiders in the teams’ first game this season. The 10-year veteran set a career high with four touchdown catches, continually finding cracks in the Raiders’ red zone coverage. Of concern for the Raiders’ defense is that it is less equipped to handle Kelce this time around. All of their starting linebackers from the beginning of the season are on injured reserve, and though replacements like Luke Masterson and Harvey Langi have held their own, their strengths are more in run-stuffing than coverage. The Raiders’ most physical cornerback and therefore the one best equipped to cover tight ends, Rock Ya-Sin, is also on injured reserve. Kelce hasn’t scored a touchdown in five straight games, but the Raiders’ defense may offer more opportunities than he’s seen recently.
Gamebreaker: Running back Zamir White
Jacobs’ status for the final game is greatly in doubt after the running back didn’t participate in either of the Raiders’ first two practices of the week. He’s fought through a variety of setbacks all year but is currently listed with hip and oblique injuries after coming out on a couple occasions in last week’s loss to the 49ers. Even if Jacobs does play, it will likely be in a more limited fashion as the Raiders prioritize his health heading into the offseason. That could mean a lot more touches for White, who was expected to have a bigger role this season before Jacobs broke out with a career year. The fourth-round pick out of Georgia has only 16 carries for 66 yards but is expected to be a bigger part of the Raiders’ plans going forward. Both Jacobs and coach Josh McDaniels have praised White’s work ethic and ability, hinting it’s only a matter of time before he makes an impact in the league. Jacobs could still win the NFL’s season rushing title without playing, as his 1,608 yards on the ground are currently 160 more than second-place Nick Chubb and 179 more than third-place Derrick Henry.
Big Number: 1
Davante Adams now owns the top spot in the Raiders’ record book for single-season receiving yards with 1,443, as he topped Tim Brown’s 1997 record of 1,408 yards late in last week’s game against the 49ers. The production has come on 95 catches, which ranks fourth in team history behind Darren Waller’s 107 in 2020, Tim Brown’s 104 in 1997 and Hunter Renfrow’s 103 in 2021. Any questions about how Adams would fare away from the Green Bay Packers and four-time MVP winning quarterback Aaron Rodgers have long since been answered, even though Adams may fall short of setting his own career highs this year. He’s 28 catches and 110 yards behind the numbers he put up last year in his most prolific season in Green Bay. Adams asserted earlier this week that he wanted to stay with the Raiders long-term despite the benching of his close friend Carr, and after his record-breaking first season, the feeling is surely reciprocated from within the organization.
Best Bet (7-9): Davante Adams under 77.5 receiving yards
The Chiefs double-teamed Adams in coverage throughout the Week 5 meeting, and there’s no reason to believe this time will be any different. Especially with Jacobs banged up, Kansas City’s biggest objective will be limiting Adams’ touches. Adams was still able to contribute in a big way despite the attention in the first Chiefs’ game as he hauled in three receptions for 124 yards with two of them deep touchdown passes. But the Raiders’ offensive game plan is unlikely to be as aggressive in a meaningless game with a backup quarterback in the final week of the season. The coaches could also limit Adams’ snaps given his importance to the team going forward. There’s no need to risk injury. Adams and others who play will surely compete as hard as they can but that doesn’t mean the coaching staff will necessarily treat the game the same as any other contest. They won’t put their stars in unnecessarily compromising positions.
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or
