KANSAS CITY — The Chiefs are the Chiefs again. That should strike fear in the rest of the AFC West and probably the entire NFL.
But a more concerning reality exists for the Raiders, the team Kansas City pulverized 31-0 on Sunday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Despite a Hall of Fame addition to the ownership group, a sharp, young new general manager, a legendary coach and an established starting quarterback, the Raiders are still the Raiders.
The gap between the franchises has rarely been as evident as it was Sunday. And the score could have been a lot worse. Chiefs coach Andy Reid put in backup quarterback Gardner Minshew late in the third quarter and had his offense start kneeling before the 2-minute warning.
Statistics don’t always tell the entire story of a game, but Sunday’s box score should be hung up in a haunted house this Halloween.
It was frightening for the Raiders.
Kansas City led 30-3 in first downs. The Chiefs ran 77 plays for 434 yards, while the Raiders only gained 95 yards on 30 plays.
Kansas City held the ball for 42:08. That was due in large part to the Raiders going 0-for-7 on third down and failing on their only fourth-down attempt of the day.
It was embarrassing. Humiliating. Pathetic.
“Just a terrible performance by us as a team,” rookie running back Ashton Jeanty said. “We couldn’t stop them on defense and on offense we couldn’t get going at all. You’re going to lose a lot of football games playing like that.”
MVP yet again?
It was the Raiders’ most disastrous loss yet in what has become a one-sided rivalry with the Chiefs. Even though Kansas City has won 18 of the last 21 meetings between the two teams, several of those games were competitive.
That wasn’t the case Sunday, but it wasn’t supposed to be that way.
The Chiefs entered this season with plenty of question marks after their blowout loss in Super Bowl 59. Many analysts were predicting the end of their reign in the AFC West.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes clearly heard the doubts. He’s playing at an MVP level and had a flawless performance Sunday.
Kansas City looked incredible on both sides of the ball and could easily win its 10th straight division crown. The Raiders, on the other hand, lost any hopes of salvaging their season Sunday.
Another lost season
The fact the Raiders aren’t going to win the division and the Chiefs likely are isn’t the problem.
It’s that the gap between the two feels like it has grown.
The Raiders hired coach Pete Carroll and traded for quarterback Geno Smith to win football games right away. Carroll said as much this offseason. He often cited the fact he had averaged 10 wins per year for more than two decades and didn’t back down from those expectations.
The apt approach for first-year general manager John Spytek and new minority owner Tom Brady was to enter a full rebuilding project. Instead, the Raiders decided they could add enough veterans around their young players to take a step forward while also looking to the future.
So much for that idea.
“I’m really upset that we’re just not the team I envisioned us being yet,” Smith said. “But we’ll get there.”
Not this year. This team needs major work.
That’s not something fans want to hear or something a 74-year-old coach like Carroll wants to admit. But the Raiders’ current approach doesn’t seem to be working.
The organization should be employing a wrecking ball, not trying to meticulously trim a bonsai tree.
Things must change.
Jeanty, who won 30 games in three years at Boise State before coming to the Raiders, is ready to help make that happen.
“I’ve lost before in my life, but I definitely don’t like losing,” he said. “I don’t work as hard as I do — and I don’t think anyone else in this building does — to lose like that. If we’re being honest, it’s been a losing culture around here for a long time. We have to continue to work to fix that and bring winning back here.”
It might take longer than he hopes.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.