Raiders Week 14: Stud and Dud

Well, that was disappointing. After crawling their way back into the AFC West race and evening their record to 6-6, the Raiders traveled to Kansas City and put up a pitiful performance versus the Chiefs. Derek Carr and company continued their Arrowhead Stadium miseries and lost to the Chiefs 26-15.

From the first whistle, Kansas City came out, took control of this game, and never looked back. Kareem Hunt returned to form with his first 100 yard rushing game since Week 5.  Travis Kelce physically dominated a soft secondary with his seven catches and 74 yards on the afternoon. Finally, to make the day even worse, the deep ball to speedy wide receivers (Tyreek Hill, Albert Wilson) once again killed the Raiders.

Offensively for Oakland, Todd Downing’s group  did not find any  rhythm. Carr encountered pressure throughout the day (four sacks) and Marshawn Lynch was limited to only seven carries, due to the team playing from behind the majority of the game. Likewise, Amari Cooper injured his ankle midway through the second quarter and Michael Crabtree could not find any room to operate in this one.
With so much on the line and chance to gain some ground on the AFC tiebreakers in this game, the team folded. Let us look at the games best and worst performers.

Stud: Kareem Hunt

The rookie sensation controlled the game from the word go and carried the Chiefs offense to a much needed victory. Kareem Hunt had 25 rushes for 116 yards and one touchdown. Hunt added another 22 yards on three catches. The former Toledo star led a Chiefs team to their first win in over a month. Plus, they keep pace with the red-hot Los Angeles Chargers. Additionally, Hunt dashed and cut through a Raiders defense that had no answer for the running game on Sunday.

Dud: Todd Downing

On a day where the defense did enough to get the win for the Raiders, Todd Downing failed again. Outside of the three third down conversations in the last three minutes of the game, Downing’s group was 2-10 on third down. On top of that, the offense had five three and outs and three turnovers on the day. In the first half, the offense mustered 86 yards of total offense. Pathetic, against a team that  giving up 382.2 yards coming into the game. Predictable play calling and a vanilla scheme once again doomed the Raiders offense. With this much talent offensively, there is no excuse for Downing.