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Chiefs rout Raiders in decisive 31-0 victory

Pete Sweeney, The Kansas City Star on

Published in Football

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs trounced the Las Vegas Raiders 31-0 on Sunday afternoon at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, improving to a 4-3 this season.

Here are some takeaways from Kansas City’s Week 7 victory:

Turning point: The coin toss?

An argument could be made that the turning point of Sunday’s game was the coin toss.

With the Chiefs leading 14-0 and driving at the Las Vegas 36, Patrick Mahomes looked for Rashee Rice on a slant across the middle. Raiders defensive tackle Jonah Laulu read the play perfectly, stepping in front of Rice — but he dropped the ball.

The 289-pounder may not have taken it to the end zone, but the play could have flipped momentum. On third-and-14,, Mahomes’ next pass was deflected by a Raiders’ defender — yet somehow landed in the hands of JuJu Smith-Schuster for a 19-yard first down.

The Chiefs finished the drive with a touchdown and went into the halftime locker room up 21-0. When the Raiders returned to the field, they did so without Maxx Crosby due to back and knee injuries. As they say, that was all she wrote.

Rapid reaction: When it’s your day, it’s your day.

After months of buildup, Rice finally returned to the lineup — and the offense looked every bit as advertised. Andy Reid made sure to get him involved early, with Mahomes targeting him twice on the first goal-to-go series in the opening quarter.

The Raiders sniffed out a screen before a pop pass gave him a lane for his first touchdown in 392 days. By game’s end, Rice was Mahomes’ most targeted pass-catcher, finishing with seven receptions and two touchdowns.

 

Mahomes continued to play at an MVP level, extending drives with his legs when necessary and finding open receivers downfield. Las Vegas forced the Kansas City to win in the intermediate, and Mahomes and Reid answered the call, with three of the Chiefs’ four touchdown drives spanning 10 plays or more. Mirroring the offense, Kansas City’s defensive effort was outstanding. It looked like the Raiders wanted to get rookie Ashton Jeanty going early, but the Chiefs prevented that from happening.

As the Chiefs ran up the score, the Raiders were forced to pass — exactly the scenario defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo discussed in the game lead-up this week. Kansas City’s front can tee off when an opposing offense becomes one-dimensional, and Sunday played out as the perfect example.

Chris Jones notched his first sack since the Week 3 Sunday night win over the New York Giants.

The Chiefs had more than 400 yards of offense, held the Raiders to less than 100 yards, and Gardner Minshew entered the game in the third quarter.

Every bounce of the ball went Kansas City’s way. When it’s your day, it’s your day.

Critical stat: Red-zone success

With Mahomes in the game, the Chiefs were a perfect 4-of-4 in the red zone. The Raiders never saw the red zone.

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©2025 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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