Raiders vs Chiefs 1st half summary: Turnovers power Raiders to 14-7 halftime lead

The Oakland Raiders started out with the ball in this gigantic rivalry game against the Kansas City Chiefs and it was glorious. Quick throws, an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Chiefs and hard running by Latavius Murray led the Raiders to an opening drive touchdown. Latavius Murray was originally called down by contact inches from the endzone but a Jack Del Rio challenge resulted in the play being overturned into a touchdown, Raiders lead 7-0.

On the ensuing kickoff the Chiefs got a nice return with an illegal hands to the face penalty so they had great field position starting at their own 44. They used it to their advantage to tie the game at 7 in 5:27 of playing time. They were aided on their drive by several Raiders penalties and missed tackles before Alex Smith ran it in for their touchdown.

Jeremy Ross ran into his own blocker on the Raiders kickoff return so they started their next drive at their own 14 yard line. It looked like it wasn't going to matter much with the Raiders offense still on fire but they faltered around the Chiefs 36 yard line. Instead of bringing Sebastian Janikowski out for a 53 yard field goal attempt the Raiders decided to go for it. The pass was right on target for a first down, but Amari Cooper dropped the easy catch for a turnover on downs.

It was a bad drop by Amari Cooper but an even worse decision to go for it on 4th down instead of trying the long field goal. Jack Del Rio was bailed out for that bad decision though because the WR Jeremy Maclin fumbled the ball back to the Raiders on the 2nd play of the Chiefs drive. Who do you guess recovered the ball? Of course it was Charles Woodson, his 15th fumble recovery of his career.

Unfortunately the Raiders offense failed to capitalize on the turnover and had to punt for the first time on the day. There was some excitement as the return man muffed the punt but he was just able to get back on top of the ball for the recovery. A holding penalty had the Chiefs starting at their own 5 yard line for their drive and they failed to get a first down thanks to a Khalil Mack sack on 3rd down.

Both teams traded punts several more times before the Chiefs got a great return on a punt with 1:15 left in the half that had Kansas City in Raiders territory at the Raiders 42. The Chiefs quickly got a big pass to TE Travis Kelce down to the Raiders 26 yard line, but then Charles Woodson struck again by stripping the football from Kelce. Woodson then recovered the ball and returned it all the way to the Chiefs 36 yard line.

This time the Raiders did not waste their great field position. They scored on a beautiful pass to Michael Crabtree for the touchdown with just 13 second left in the half. It was a 25 yard touchdown pass which marked Derek Carr's 9th such touchdown on the season which is the most 25+ yard touchdown passes in the NFL. The score had the Raiders leading at the half 14-7 after the Chiefs kneeled down for the remaining time in the half.