The worst loss in the Mahomes ERA!
This Christmas day Kansas City was the city that Santa Claus forgot as the nearly 80,000 Chiefs fans that packed Arrowhead Stadium left without their Christmas gifts or their Christmas wishes being answered. The Las Vegas Raiders were the beneficiary of the worst loss in the Patrick Mahomes era as they won the game 20-14 thanks to 7 seconds of Chief’s mistakes and the same hosts of mistakes that have been part of every Chiefs game this season.
The loss was really far worse than the score indicates as the score says it was a close game. That ignores the facts that the Chiefs lost the game far more than the Raiders won the game. The Raiders did nothing on Offense except for one long drive in the first quarter that lasted over 8 minutes, pointing out a recurring slow start by the Chiefs’ otherwise good Defense. The game was lost in the Second Quarter when a trick play to a just back from Shoulder surgery Isiah Pacheco resulted in a scoop and score fumble recovery by Bilal Nichols. To make things worse the next offensive play was a pick-six interception to Jack Jones, completing the two touchdown scoring 7 seconds of game time.
The Raiders didn’t even complete a pass after the first quarter. Yes, they won the game on the road without a completed pass for the last three quarters. Safe to say the Chiefs offense has reached the bottom. From the first game of the season against the Detroit Lions the Wide Receiver position group has been a huge problem. That continued today with very few open receivers, dropped passes, an offensive offsides penalty and receivers just lost on the field and giving up plays where the ball was being thrown to them. Marquez Valdes-Scantling literally stopped running a route as the ball was in the air to him.
Many plays ended the same way with Patrick Mahomes scrambling behind the line to try and find someone open and either taking off or being sacked when there was no answer. The Raiders played the Chiefs with no fear at all as they pushed the receivers on the short routes and jumped routes because they probably decided that the Chiefs wouldn’t catch the ball anyways and if they did they couldn’t do five or six times. With no stretching the field vertically and a below average running game there was just nothing to be afraid of from the Chiefs.
The few big plays really amounted to nothing till the end of the games when Richie James’ 45 yard reception set up a Touchdown. The game was quickly decided when the Chiefs gave up a 43 yard carry to Zamir White that ended the game.
What this means is there needs to be a focus on the Offensive Skill players this offseason as really out of the whole offense only Rashee Rice has been significantly above average, Travis Kelce and Pacheco have had some big games but have been hurt and ineffective just as often, give Justin Watson and Noah Gray average production and everyone else well below. Mahomes has played amazingly well considering what he has had to drag up and down the field this year.
There are two more regular season games for the Chiefs but they won’t answer any questions as they are against the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Chargers with backup Quarterbacks. The next chance to answer a question for the Chiefs will come in the Playoffs and more likely in the Off-Season when they go to rebuilding the offense.
