Raiders Coach Doesn’t Regret Taking Points Off Board

The Las Vegas Raiders lost to the Kansas City Chiefs by three points on Sunday, 30-27, and coach Klint Kubiak took three points off the board early in the third quarter. These two things are at least somewhat connected, but Kubiak said he doesn’t regret the decision he made to take a penalty after a made field goal. 

Matt Gay had sent a 41-yard field goal through the uprights to make the score 16-10 and add to the Raiders lead. But the Chiefs had lined up with too many players on one side of the ball for an illegal formation, per Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk, and  Kubiak elected to accept the penalty and go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Kansas City 18-yard line.

The problem was that the effort to get the first down failed, as a pass from quarterback Kirk Cousins to running back Aston Jeanty fell incomplete. It was a turning point in the game, but Kubiak doesn’t regret the decision, which was based on a prior decision to be aggressive going in. He regrets not getting the first down, but not the choice to take points off the board. 

Time for some interpretation. Kubiak got a little full of himself before halftime, as he declared in his interview that the Raiders were going to win the game. They were leading 13-10, and the coach seemed to forget that the quarterback on the other side was Patrick Mahomes, who knows a thing or two about comebacks after being down at the half. 

So was this decision a mistake? Yes and no. If you pump Kubiak full of truth serum, he’d probably tell you he should have taken the points given the advantages of hindsight. 

But the no part of this is about his team. Players love when their coaches back them with risky decisions like this, and it’s almost expected in today’s game, especially given the degree that analytics tend to dictate strategy. 

It would have been an awful look if Kubiak had backed off on this decision and admitted it was a mistake, regardless of whether it actually was one. The Raiders coach is just starting a complete roster rebuild, and he’s also trying to build confidence in younger players who are going through these kinds of tests for the first time. Kubiak played the hand he dealt himself, largely because he really had no choice.