The Raiders decided to hold pregame gathering on the Chiefs logo. It went bad after that
Maybe going to the 50-yard line on the Kansas City Chiefs logo wasn’t a good idea for the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Raiders had the ball first and disaster happened.
Josh Jacobs fumbled and the ball was returned by Mike Hughes for a 22-yard touchdown just 13 seconds into the game.
Before the opening kickoff, Raiders defensive end Yannick Ngakoue gathered teammates at midfield for a team huddle on the Chiefs’ logo as a motivational effort.
Of course, Chiefs Kingdom booed in unison as the Raiders went to the locker room.
The Raiders offense got the ball for a second time and ended up punting.
Las Vegas’ defense then came on the field and forced a three-and-out.
The Raiders’ offense never got going for a third time and Las Vegas punted.
Las Vegas’ defense returned to the field, and the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes threw a touchdown pass to Darrel Williams for a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
The Chiefs took a 35-3 lead into halftime and won 48-9.
NFL on CBS analyst Boomer Esiason offered his thoughts at halftime.
“You can imagine what the Chiefs players are saying to themselves in the locker room,” he told the NFL on CBS crew. “It’s not like you need any more motivation to play these games, but the Raiders handed this one to the Chiefs right then and there.”
Derek Carr responded in the postgame when asked that he looked surprise about the pregame midfield meeting.
“One thing I will say is I always have my teammates back,” he said. “I will forever have their back and if that’s what we’re doing, that’s what we’re doing. That’s what I’ll say.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2021 at 10:39 AM.
