Lackluster offensive showing results in another drubbing as Las Vegas loses in Kansas City

Las Vegas head coach Pete Carroll pictured on the sidelines during the team's, 31-0, loss to AFC West rival Kansas City. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Raiders

Las Vegas was looking for back-to-back wins for the first time this season this week but after failing to do so, resulting in a fifth dropped game in the last six weeks, the team continues to sputter.

In a Week 7 road meeting against the Chiefs, the Raiders fell short, 31-0, from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. It was the team’s first divisional game since losing 20-9 to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 2.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” head coach Pete Carroll said. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do and we’ve got to get guys back. The key guys that missed the game are key guys on our football team and we weren’t able to overcome that.”

Now with five losses in the last six weeks, Carroll and his Las Vegas squad will now head into its bye week as it looks to correct an early season slew of wrongs.

“We’ve got to realize what we’re up against,” he said. “We’ve got to get our guys back, we’ve got to play the game well and we’ve got to get back on the right track.”

For the second time in the last three games, the Raiders were held to six points or less. Furthermore, the team has averaged 8.7 points per game over its last three contests.

Entering the game, Las Vegas was without tight end Brock Bowers (knee) for a third straight game while being without receiver Jakobi Meyers (knee/toe) for the first time this season.

Regardless of who was on the field, the Raiders just couldn’t gain any kind of offensive traction. In the first half, the team ran just 14 offensive plays while at one point being outgained 184 yards to just 34 yards.

Raiders quarterback Geno Smith launches a deep pass on a play action rollout inside GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Raiders

In addition, the team had tallied just two first downs in the game early in the third quarter but faced 22 first downs by its opponent.

“So we had the ball 10 snaps in the first quarter because we couldn’t make first downs and we couldn’t stop them,” Carroll said. “We came into this game really wanting to run the football, figuring that would be a key element of the makeup of this game but we just couldn’t get there.

“We didn’t change our mind about that at all, we didn’t miss that thought. We just couldn’t get in charge of the down-and-distance well enough. It wasn’t what they were doing on the other side other than the fact we didn’t have the ball very long.”

Quarterback Geno Smith went the entire second quarter and most of the third quarter without a completed pass attempt. He’d finish the game with just 67 yards on 10-of-16 passing.

In the fourth quarter, Carroll opted to go to backup quarterback Kenny Pickett, who’d fumble his first snap from center Jordan Meredith.

By the final horn, Las Vegas mustered just three first downs and 95 total yards on 30 offensive plays.

“I think we beat ourselves for the most part,” Smith said. “You think about when we did get some things going, we had penalties that backed us up. We played in some 1st and 20s, that’s tough to do in the NFL. We got about 15 plays in the first half so we didn’t get a chance to get into a rhythm.

“Then in the second half, we didn’t really do much either.”

Las Vegas safety Isaiah Pola-Mao cant' contain Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce as he wrestles away from the tackle. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Raiders

Kansas City made a quarterback change as well but for much different reasons. Starter Patrick Mahomes had a fast start to the win with 113 passing yards in the game’s opening quarter. He and the offense was bolstered by the return of receiver Rashee Rice after being suspended for the first six games of the season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

Rice caught two touchdowns passes in the win while creating opportunities for teammates Hollywood Brown who also hauled in a touchdown pass and Travis Kelce, who led the team with 54 yards on just three receptions.

“It’s those kinds of [chunk] plays that change the field position,” Carroll said. “It’s those chunk plays that change the rhythm of the drive and those have just gone quiet for us.”

It didn’t help the Raiders’ cause either that former All-Pro defensive end Maxx Crosby left the contest with a knee injury after being cut blocked on a pass rush. In addition, the team lost safety Isaiah Pola-Mao to a lower body injury as well.

“Maxx has had a bit of a sore knee,” Carroll said. “But I don’t know how it happened in the game today [...] But he wasn’t his full self but he could play and he wanted to be in there. And he was but we just had to yank him because he didn’t look right.”

With just eight seconds left in the third quarter, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid lifted Mahomes from the game after he went 26-for-35 with 286 yards and three touchdowns. In relief, former Las Vegas quarterback Gardner Minshew entered the game for the three-time Super Bowl winner.

Minshew was at the helm of three straight kneel downs despite there being more than two and a half minutes left in regulation at the time of the start of the drive. Additionally, the Raiders had all three timeouts at the time and opted not to use them.

“They’re a great team, a historically great team,” Smith said. “They understand what it takes to win and we’re a developing team.”