Patrick Mahomes scrambles left before throwing the ball to Jerick McKinnon for a touchdown. There is a 0:29
The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Las Vegas Raiders 31-13 to get the top seed in the playoffs. The Chiefs locked up a first-round bye with a Week 15 win over the Houston Texans and will play their final game of the season on Saturday.
The quarterback position is going to be a topic of discussion for the Raiders in the off-season. Carr stepped away from the team to make room for a new coach, who went 2-0 in place of him. The Raiders missed out on the playoffs for the second year in a row.
This might seem odd for a team that has won five in a row, finished the season with a 14-3 record, and is the top seed in the playoffs.
There were no close games against the opponent. No helping that opponent with mistakes.
The win over the Raiders was a solid one for the Chiefs. Just in time for the playoffs, the Chiefs played a complete game for the first time since Week 7.
Buying Kadarius Toney's performance is like buying a close friend. When Toney is healthy, he looms as an important player, like he was against the Raiders, when the Chiefs found ways to get him the ball. In the playoffs, look for the Chiefs to put Toney in a similar position.
The Chiefs were last in the league in field goal percentage and near the bottom in PAT percentage heading into the weekend, so it's no big deal that Harrison Butker made all of his kicks. It wasn't much, but it gave Butker some confidence going into the playoffs.
Hunter Renfrow scored the first touchdown of the day for the Raiders as he found a hole in the wall.
The Raiders accomplished all three of their goals in the loss to the Chiefs. They played their most inspired game of the season last week, but lost in overtime to the 49ers.
The Raiders had little to no answers on either side of the ball as the Chiefs played "Ring around the Rosie" in a red zone huddle. The addition of All-Pro receiver Davante Adams and a new offensive scheme gave the team high expectations. A playoff team a year ago at 10-7, the Raiders saw their roller-coaster season, which included the benching of franchise QB Carr, end with a 6-11 record.
Bill Bellichick might say that the Raiders are into the next season.
The 49ers' top-ranked defense was put to the test by the second career start of Stidham, to see if he could duplicate last week's performance. The tape was watched by the chiefs as well. The defense of Kansas City harassed the quarterback, who was sacked five times and forced to make two turnovers. The quarterback who will become a free agent and could be in the mix to replace Carr next season completed 22 of 36 attempts for 219 yards and a touchdown.
It happened so early for the Raiders that it probably wouldn't have mattered, but given the number of ridiculous highlight reel catches Adams had this season. The Raiders had to settle for a field goal instead of answering the Chiefs' first touchdown.
Josh Jacobs, who missed practice this week due to his father's illness, was held to 45 yards rushing. He extended his lead for the league's rushing title to 205 yards. Jacobs has 1,663 yards and Chubb has 1,448 Stay on top of the situation. Adams has caught at least 100 passes in three of the last four seasons. Maxx Crosby had a sack to give him a career-high 12.5.
For the first time this season, the Raiders had multiple eight-minute drives on offense. A field goal was achieved by those two drives. It's not going to happen, and whoever the Raiders' QB is next season has some work to do to fix it.
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