Will Las Vegas Raiders bounce back after embarrassing AFC West loss to Kansas City Chiefs?
There were plenty of reasons why the Las Vegas Raiders lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 41-14 Sunday night.
There were missed tackles, penalties (9-68 yards), schemes and very bad execution that resulted in the lopsided AFC West loss that sent the Raiders to 5-4.
Even NBC Sports color commentator Cris Collinsworth was surprised.
“I expected much more out of the Raiders tonight,” he told the viewers. “I have to say that. Maybe it’s just too much of all the things that happened this season. It’s too much to expect.”
No excuses. The Raiders should have played better. It wasn’t just because of DeSean Jackson’s fumble in the third quarter.
It started earlier after the Raiders trailed 17-7 at halftime. Las Vegas was outgained 241-82 and penalized four times for 28 yards. And Kansas City had 15 first downs to the Raiders’ five.
The Chiefs came into the game struggling of sorts, but it was the Raiders that struggled mightily and found themselves searching for answers.
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“There are a lot of things to improve on,” Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “We just got to be better in every phase. We didn’t play well tonight. We know that and just got to bounce back and get ready for Cincy.”
Can the Raiders recover?
Maybe the good news is Las Vegas has another home game Sunday, but against a much-improved Cincinnati Bengals team that’s 5-4 and coming off a bye.
The rested Bengals are coming off an embarrassing loss, too. Cincinnati lost 41-16 to the Cleveland Browns for their second straight defeat.
Las Vegas has the talent to turn the season and hope for the postseason, but the offense needs to get going before it’s too late.
“We didn’t find a rhythm,” Raiders wide receiver Hunter Renfrow said. “We just have to start faster. That’s the one thing we’ve talked about all year. We can’t always rely on coming out getting down 14-0 to the Ravens and whoever and come back and win. We got to start fast and get on top of these teams early.”
The Raiders entered the bye week with momentum at 5-2. But after a promising start, it’s beginning to look like another stumble to the finish, yet again.
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Raiders wide receiver Bryan Edwards is confident his team will turn it around.
“I don’t feel like we’re in a bad place because we have great leaders on this team,” he said. “We have DC, Maxx, Yannick, and these guys are the voice of the team and they lead us. We never let things get too low or too high. We just try to stay right here. I feel like we’ve been doing a good job at that and I feel like we will bounce back from these two losses.”
