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Busters
Khalif Barnes, Donald Penn
This was one of the worst performance by a pair of Raiders offensive tackles I have seen in a good long time. Derek Carr was under pressure a good percentage of the time and it was cause for many stalled drives.
The first drive featured Khalif Barnes giving up a sack on Carr. Then the drive ended when on third and six, Barnes did his best matador impression and Carr threw the ball incomplete. With this, you knew Barnes was going to be jumpy the rest of the day, and on he had false start penalties on two of the next three series.
Donald Penn also gave up a run stuff on that next drive. Then on the following series, he gave up a pressure on Carr who threw up a desperation pass that was nearly intercepted.
After his second false start help stop the Raiders series with a three-and-out, he ended the next one by giving up another pressure and a hit on Carr on third down. Penn did the same on the next series.
The Raiders were able to mount a good little drive before halftime to put points on the board, but not without having to overcome Barnes giving up yet another pressure on Carr resulting in an incompletion and setting up a third down.
The first two drives were done in by Penn. He gave up a pressure for an incompletion on the first play of the quarter. Then after the Raiders forced a turnover to take over in scoring position at the 15-yard-line, he was called for holding on third down on what was very nearly a touchdown pass. It fell incomplete, the Chiefs declined it and the Raiders settled for another field goal.
Later in the third quarter, following the Chiefs quick onslaught of scores to take a 31-6 lead, Barnes helped ensure the Raiders would have no chance to answer. On third down, he gave up a pressure on Carr who in the clutches of the defender, managed a shovel pass to Latavius Murray that was stopped short of the first down.
The next series it was back to Penn who gave up a sack for a 5-yard loss and helped lead to another three-and-out. By then it was getting late and the chances of the Raiders mounting a comeback down by 25 points were extremely slim. But just for good measure, Penn would give up one more sack on a three-and-out to usher in Chase Daniel for the Chiefs with under four minutes remaining.
Nice work, fellas. Slow claps all around.
Miles Burris
There was a few game stint this season where Burris was not a Buster. Those days are a distant memory now and he is back to being a mainstay here. Things were going pretty well through the first half. The Raiders were down just 10-3 and the only touchdown came via punt return on special teams. That would all change in the third quarter. And when it rained, it poured.
The Chiefs' first touchdown drive started with a short pass in which Burris was oddly playing way off the line of scrimmage, resulting in an easy five yards. The second touchdown came on a short field after a turnover and took two plays to get in the endzone. The second play was a 20-yard catch and run by Travis Kelce in which Burris was apparently just giving Kelce a little chest bump on his way to the endzone.
The third touchdown drive went 70 yards in three plays. Actually, it went 70 yard in one play because first down they got two yards, second down they lost two yards, and on third down Burris gave up a catch to Kniles Davis out of the backfield and couldn't even manage to lay a hand on him as he raced 70 yards for the score. That was the back breaker.
Greg Olson
I covered the coaching job on the offense in greater detail on Monday, so I will try and summarize here. Against one of the worst run defenses in the league with one of the best pass rushing duos in the league, Olson opted for 60 dropbacks by Carr and 16 designed runs. Only 12 runs by Latavius Murray who had gouged the Chiefs last time they played and started out this game averaging 8.0 per carry and had a 25-yard run. SIXTY drop backs. Carr was sacked on four of them and hurried 11 times. A rookie quarterback dropping back to pass 60 times in a game should never happen. And certainly not against a team known to give up a lot of yards on the ground. None of it makes any sense.
As for in-game plays, there were a couple third down plays that were rather puzzling. The first was a third and 2 near the end of the first quarter. It was the third time in the game the Raiders were in 3rd and short. The first time, Latavius ran for a first down. Second time, they ran play action and competed a pass to Rivera for a first down. It was a run, and the threat of the run to set up a pass. Pretty standard stuff. This time, however, no hand-off, no play fake. The result was pressure up the middle and Carr throwing a desperation pass that was nearly picked off.
Then there was a 3rd and 10 late in the second quarter in which Carr threw for a loss of two. Sometimes those plays can work. But the Chiefs weren't fooled for a second by the pass behind the line of scrimmage on 3rd and long. It's bad enough when to watch passes short of the first down marker, but when THAT play is predictable, you've got issues.
They would have just one other third and short in the game, and they handed it to Latavius who picked it up. See how easy that was? That's 3 of a total of 5 total third downs on the day picked up by Murray or the threat of him. To the surprise of no one, the Raiders converted just 28% (5 of 18) of their third down attempts.
Derek Carr
Yes, yes, I know he was under pressure, and bad play calling. Obviously that hindered him greatly as detailed above. But he made his share of mistakes as well. On the Raiders' second drive of the game, after converting on third and short, he didn't recognize Justin Houston was uncovered on the line and he had a free shot at him, causing him to rush his pass and it fell incomplete. He has got to recognize such things and make sure he has a blocker. That whole drive was a mess. The next play he was nearly intercepted, then he was called for delay of game. It ended with a 9-yard pass on 3rd and 20.
The next drive, he was almost intercepted again. He had pressure in his face but he has to know better than to throw a pass up for grabs just for the sake of not taking a sack. Then it was another three-and-out featuring an incompletion that sailed long to a covered Mychal Rivera, and finished off with pass defended.
A few series later, Carr did well to escape the pocket and roll right, but after all that, his pass was low and incomplete. He mounted a good drive just before half but it finished with a poor decision. With :07 seconds on the clock and the Raiders in field goal range, Carr opted for a dump off to Murray right in the middle of the field. He dropped the pass, and with :03 seconds left on the clock, Janikowski came out and kicked a 53-yard field goal. Had Murray NOT dropped the pass, it's very possible the time would have run off the clock and the Raiders would have left with no points. That pass should never have been thrown. He has to be smarter than that.
The first series of the third quarter began with Carr overthrowing his receiver incomplete to begin a three-and-out. The second series began at the Kansas City 15-yard line after a turnover. The first play Carr held the ball too long and was sacked to put them back at the 19-yard line. Then on third down, he had James Jones open in the endzone and threw it short, making the catch more difficult than it had to be, and Jones couldn't pull it in. There was a holding on the play, it was declined, and with zero yards off the turnover, they settled for a field goal.
The next series wasn't even a series. It was one play. Carr fumbled the snap and the Chiefs recovered at the 21-yard line and would score on two plays to take a 24-6 lead. The next possession featured Carr nearly throwing an interception in the flat which would likely have resulted in a pick six. The series ended two plays later when he overthrew Kenbrell Thompkins.
The defense was back on the field again and gave up another touchdown in three plays on a 70-yard catch and run.
It wasn't until the final seconds of the game that the Chiefs let up and allowed Carr to put together a drive for a score. He went 5 for 6 for 53 yards and a touchdown on that drive. The rest of the day he was 22 of 50 for 169 yards (3.38 yards per attempt). He had 110 of his 222 passing yards in the final ten minutes of the game with the touchdown coming with :37 seconds left on the clock. Gotta love those garbage time stats.
Bobby April, T.J. Carrie, Marquette King
What was going on with the Raiders' special teams in this game? The first touchdown of the game came off a punt return. King outpunted his coverage and then with one move, DeAnthony Thomas has a huge escort party to go 81 yards for the touchdown.
In total, King punted 11 times in this game. Only one of those punts was stopped inside the 20-yard line (13). The only other punt not fielded was a dud that traveled 31 yards in the air and was downed at the Oakland 40-yard line. The other 8 punts were fielded with just two of them stopped for no gain.
Even without the 81-yard punt return, DeAnthony Thomas still averaged nearly 11 yards per return and the Chiefs had an average starting position of the 35-yard line. They also averaged 33.0 yards per kick return.
While the coverage teams were at a loss for stopping DAT from making them look like the keystone cops, T.J. Carrie and the return team could do nothing. He had two returns for a total of one yard and of the five punts his way none of them started outside the 12-yard line. This included three fair catches at the 11, 7, and 10 yard line. And before you go thinking I'm being hard on Carrie, he also gave up three catches on third downs in the game - two of them set the Chiefs up in field goal range, the third went for 21 yards on their way to their first offensive touchdown.
James Jones
Three drops in this game. That is pretty much a ‘nuff said' except his stats suggest he had a pretty good game. He finished with 8 catches for 57 yards and a touchdown. Half of those catches as well as the touchdown all came on the final garbage time drive. As of midway through the fourth quarter he had as many drops as he had catches. And one of those catches was for a loss of two yards.
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