The Las Vegas Raiders handed the Kansas City Chiefs their first loss since last November thanks to an offensive explosion.
The NFL is a copycat league. When one team finds profound success, other teams try to either mirror what they do, or attempt to build their team to stop them. When that team is in your own division, the concept is amplified.
The Kansas City Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl champions and they have surrounded all-world quarterback Patrick Mahomes with speed, speed, and more speed.
The Las Vegas Raiders, whose young, yet up-and-coming defense remained a question mark, had a plan this past offseason. The Raiders figured that it’s almost futile to try and completely shut down the Chiefs offense. So what if they could try and outgun them instead?
Las Vegas Raiders look impressive in Week 5 win over Kansas City Chiefs
This past offseason, the Raiders drafted Henry Ruggs III, a receiver that was perceived as not the most skilled, but definitely the fastest coming into the draft, which coincides with their franchise’s storied history of the love of the long ball.
Las Vegas also signed Nelson Agholor, a receiver who can have drop problems, but someone who is also a bit of a burner in his own right along with ageless wonder Jason Witten at tight end to go along with the talented Darren Waller.
When you factor in one of the leagues best offensive lines and the strong running of second-year back Josh Jacobs, suddenly the Raiders offense was surrounded with a myriad of talent for quarterback Derek Carr to use at his disposal, in an attempt to get him back to his once near-MVP form of 2016.
While there was skepticism at first, the plan has worked as far as the Raiders defeated the Chiefs in Kansas City on Sunday by the score of 40-32 in a game that nobody thought Las Vegas stood a chance in.
The problem with the copycat method of trying to defeat the champions is when they are defeated, the narrative is not how well the team that defeated them played, but rather what went wrong with the champions, and the Chiefs are no different this week.
That should not deter from the fact that the Raiders offense sent a message with their win. Some of the offseason acquisitions paid off in a big way as Ruggs and Agholor, while only having two catches apiece, managed to rack up 118 and 67 yards respectively, and each hauling in a touchdown.
As for the rest of the offense, Jacobs racked up only 77 rushing yards on 23 carries, but he did score two touchdowns while Carr had a great day going 22-of-31 with 347 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception.
Carr may have his critics and doubters, but at the end of the day, he out-dueled Mahomes in Arrowhead, which is something almost nobody can say. Carr also helped the Raiders hang 40 on the road against the defending Super Bowl champions. His performance should be enough to silence the majority of them.
This was arguably the biggest win in a decade for the Raiders. The offense appears to be humming at a good time as they head into the bye week at 3-2. With Jon Gruden being the veteran coach that he is, he should have Las Vegas ready for more when they return to host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in two weeks.
While everyone will be focused on the Chiefs losing, the league should be focused on the statement win that the Raiders, and their offense in particular, just made on Sunday.