Arguably the biggest upset in Week 16 of the 2023 NFL regular season came at the expense of the Kansas City Chiefs. Hosting their AFC West rivals in the Las Vegas Raiders at home on Christmas Day, Kansas City had a chance to clinch the AFC West and remain in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the conference. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t in the cards.
The Chiefs lost the game 20-14 as the Raiders spoiled the holiday afternoon for Kansas City fans. It was a bizarre game, as Las Vegas quarterback Aidan O’Connell finished the game with only 62 passing yards and didn’t have a single one after the first quarter.
Despite that, Las Vegas was able to do enough to pull out the victory. They leaned heavily on Zamir White, who was replacing Josh Jacobs in the lineup at running back, and he came through. White gained 145 yards on 22 carries as a one-man wrecking crew, accounting for over 70 percent of the team’s total offense.
NFL News & Rumors: Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs Updates
The Raiders were able to defeat the Chiefs in large part because of a dominant performance by their defense. They held Kansas City to only 308 yards of total offense despite the Chiefs holding a dominant 34:18-25:42 edge on the time of possession battle.
The Las Vegas defense outscored the team’s offense, as a fumble recovery and pick-six accounted for 14 of their 20 points on the afternoon. It was a rough afternoon for the Chiefs offense, which led to quarterback Patrick Mahomes offering a harsh reality check for the team after the game.
“If we clean it up, we’ll be able to score points,” Mahomes said during his postgame press conference. “It’s just, we’ve got to clean it up. We [have] two games left. You have to do it. If we don’t, we’ll be going home (in the playoffs). I think if we clean it up, we can beat anybody. I truly believe that. But we’ve got to prove that we can do it.” (H/T Heavy)
Against the Raiders, Mahomes was under siege all afternoon. He was sacked four times and ran the ball 10 times as his receivers were blanketed by the Las Vegas secondary.
NFL News & Rumors: Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs Updates
During the Mahomes and Andy Reid era, the offense has never been a problem in Kansas City. They could outscore any opponent and just had to hope that their defense would come up with timely stops. This season, the defense has been playing at an elite level but the offense has fallen short in some regard.
Reid and Mahomes have worked a lot of magic during their time together. It will be interesting to see if they can do that again, as those two will need to pull a rabbit out of the hat to get the offense on track despite their shortcomings.
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