Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs 2nd half open thread

The Chiefs started out with the ball at Arrowhead stadium for the rematch with the Raiders. They appeared to get a big gain of 24 yards right away but an offensive pass interference penalty brought the play back. Then it appeared they'd have a 3rd and short play but a holding call brought that play back too. They ended up having to punt after failing to get a first on their 3rd and 18 play.

The Raiders started near their own 10 yard line but they were lucky not to have a terrible special teams play bite them. T.J. Carrie tried fielding the punt running backwards and was swallowed up by K.C.'s special teams unit. The Raiders did manage to get a first down (on a 3rd and 1 run, yay!) but a strong Chiefs pass rush got a sack and an errant throw on Derek Carr to force a Raiders punt. The Chiefs got a good return on the punt and ended up with starting position on the Raiders side of the field.

The Chiefs did absolutely nothing with their great field position. They got one first down off of a Raiders penalty but that was all. The Raiders defense exploded into the backfield to stop Jamaal Charles on a 3rd and 2 play forcing a punt.  No drama on this one as Carrie fair caught the ball right around the 10 this time. He gripped the ball tightly with both arms, a sign he was likely talked to about ball security after his previous scare on punt return duties.

The Raiders got extremely lucky on their next drive because of a heads up play by Latavius Murray. After Oakland got one first down they ended up in a 2nd and 15 play that they tried a screen pass on. The ball bounced off of Murray's back who wasn't ready for the pass and it appeared to be intercepted by a lineman. However, Murray turned around quick enough and knocked the ball out of the lineman's hands. The play was ruled incomplete, though it appeared to me like an interception and a fumble that would have given the Raiders a first down.

Oakland did not challenge the ruling on the field of an incomplete pass and failed to get a first down. They did not learn from their first punt though and punted a returnable ball again to D'Anthony Thomas. This time he wasn't content with reaching midfield and instead used his world class speed to run untouched to the endzone. The 81 yard punt return gave the Chiefs the lead 7-0. Maybe don't punt the ball to Thomas next time Raiders, give him the Devin Hester treatment and punt it out of bounds instead.

The Raiders responded to the big return with a penalty on their kick return, the 6th (?! Come on Refs!) penalty between the two teams already in just the first quarter. They did get a nice 25 yard run from Latavius Murray and an 8 yard run from Darren McFadden but that was all. Carr was pressured big on 3rd and two and almost threw another interception but it would have been a great play by the defender. It was still a good play that caused another Oakland punt though, this one intelligently booted out of bounds at the Chiefs 13 yard line.

K.C. very quickly got into Oakland territory, a 20 yard play to TE Travis Kelce being a main culprit in their efficiency. They almost had a deep completion but Alex Smith just overthrew it thanks to strong pressure on him from the outside. The drive came down to a 3rd and 6 play that Smith tried running for, and it looked like he might just get it too before a Raider just barely knocked him out of bounds short. It was a points saving tackle because the Chiefs missed the 44 yard field goal afterward.

The Raiders celebrated their luck and their best field position of the day with immediately having a false start penalty on Khalif Barnes, his 2nd of the day. They followed that up with an incompletion, a short pass to James Jones, and another incompletion for a 3 and out. The punt was fielded by D'Anthony Thomas but the Raiders covered it well this time. Still, the Chiefs were able to start again in decent field position at their own 32 , they have dominated the field position battle all day.

The Chiefs were stopped on a short run and then had a holding penalty pushing them back, however they followed that up with a 48 yard pass that D.J. Hayden was completely burned on. They were lucky Smith threw the ball way short otherwise it would have been an easy TD. Then they went deep again for a near completion to Dwayne Bowe. It was called incomplete, challenged, and upheld as incomplete. After that the Chiefs drive faltered and they settled for a 41 yard field goal that made the score 10-0 Kansas City.

The Chiefs should be winning by a lot more, they have dominated this game. That didn't change with the Raiders next possession, they sent three and out again with two ugly runs and an incompletion. Marquette King came out again had to come out to punt and again the Chiefs started with decent field position. The Raiders defense has been huge though and forced a Chiefs punt anyway after they passed midfield.

The punt was ridiculous with a fake fake punt, and that's not a typo. The Chiefs punter pretended to throw the ball to buy time for what looked like a sure blocked punt. It worked perfectly, as did the punt afterwards as it was downed at the Raiders 5 yard line. You have to give credit where credit is due though, it was a great play by the punter Dustin Colquitt.

Oakland did finally get a first down with a great catch on a contested throw for Andre Holmes. That's all the good that happened though with some possible very bad sprinkled in too. Carr got his legs rolled up on and was definitely hurting from it. He still threw another pass for 3rd down on the following play but he his mobility on it was noticeably effected, and the result was a quick pass to James Jones that was gobbled up to force yet another King punt with 2 minutes left in the half.

The first play for the Chiefs was a failed screen but it was due to a defensive holding call on Justin Tuck which he was very much guilty of. Then they hit Dwayne Bowe over the middle for a 37 yard catch and run that had K.C. Into field goal range already with a minute and a half left in the 2nd quarter. The Raider defense stopped the Chiefs with a 3 and out but they decided to take a holding penalty to push the Chiefs back out of field goal range. An incompletion after that proved it to be a prudent decision by Sparano as it forced another Kansas City punt.

Despite the scare on the previous drive it was still Derek Carr at QB. The first play on the drive was a first down to James Jones, followed by a 9 yard pass to Andre Holmes who dove to get out of bounds and stop the clock. A 3rd and 1 first down run by Latavius Murray and that was followed by two more completions to get into long field goal range. Sebastian Janikowski was able to kick the 53 yard field goal threw for a huge field goal to end the half at 10-3 Chiefs.

Kansas City really dominated this half but they couldn't capitalize on several big plays. The last second field goal got the Raiders to within a touchdown and they start the 2nd half with the football. That can be huge for momentum, hopefully the 2nd half of the game shows how big it can be!