The Kansas City Chiefs play the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, and suddenly it's a rivalry game again.
The Kansas City Chiefs will face an old rival under very new circumstances when they take on the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. Both teams come in at 3-0, and the Chiefs are used to having the Raiders as a divisional punching bag.
Not anymore. The Raiders are one of the NFL’s biggest surprises so far, and they’re actually playing like a well-coached team these days. Klint Kubiak signed quarterback Kirk Cousins to hold the reins while rookie Fernando Mendoza develops, and the formula has been a resounding success so far.
But the Raiders haven’t played top competition so far, so the big question is whether they’re for real. The Chiefs will be looking to prove they’re early frauds as they continue their resurgent season with quarterback Patrick Mahomes looking none the worse for wear after offseason knee surgery.
The Chiefs will also be looking to avoid the kind of slippage that’s plagued them in their last couple of wins. They let the Indianapolis Colts hang around and turn their Sunday night game two weeks ago into a 33-30 track meet that Kansas City won in overtime, and last week they did something analogous against the Miami Dolphins in the Chiefs’ 24-10 win.
Kansas City comes in two offensive flavors so far, with one being the ground-and-pound approach that allowed them to beat the Denver Broncos, 31-10, in their Monday night opener. The last two weeks have been all about Mahomes, however, as the Chiefs have looked closer to the team we’ve seen for the last few seasons before they collapsed down the stretch last year.
There will be some Raiders weaknesses for the Chiefs to exploit defensively. Las Vegas hasn’t run the ball effectively for the last two weeks, and Cousins has taken plenty of shots in the pocket. Kansas City will likely look to make the Raiders one dimensional, then take advantage of Cousins’ lack of mobility to get sacks and shut Las Vegas down.
The big threat they’ll have to be aware of is tight end Brock Bowers, who’s back in a big way after sitting out most of last season due to knee surgery. The Raiders are putting Bowers all over the field to get him open and out in space, so expect double and even triple coverage as the tight end is close to the only threat the Raiders have.
If the Raiders are for real, this should be a fun game with early playoff implications as the Chiefs try to continue their impressive comeback run.
