KANSAS CITY, Mon –
The Las Vegas Raiders came so close Monday night to finally get the best out of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Then the replay showed that close wasn’t good enough.
Desperate to rally his team in the last minute, Derek Carr threw a pretty pass to Davante Adams, who already had touchdown catches of 58 and 48 yards, on the touchline. The standout wide receiver made the grab with less than a minute left, not only giving the Raiders a first down but putting them in the field goal range position.
But almost immediately the call moved to a video review, and it clearly showed Adams wobbling the ball as he stepped on the white chalk. The ball went back to the Las Vegas side and a subsequent fourth and one-throw was incomplete.
Final score: Chiefs 30, Raiders 29.
It was their fourth straight loss to the Raiders’ nemesis and their ninth in their last 10 meetings. They are 1-4 this season.
“It sucks what our record is. We deserve it,” said Carr, who lost 8-1 at Arrowhead Stadium. “I keep repeating that we have a good team. I’ve been on some teams that aren’t as good as this one. We do the right things.”
They managed most of it on Monday evening.
Josh Jacobs followed a career-best rushing 144 yards and two touchdowns in last week’s win against Denver by rushing for 154 and one hit against the Chiefs. Adams made fun of almost everyone who covered him. Maxx Crosby continued to harass Patrick Mahomes, and the rest of the Raiders defense held Kansas City’s vastly improved ground game at bay.
Daniel Carlson was once again perfect on three field goal attempts and increased his streak to 38 straight.
It still wasn’t enough to beat Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who has improved to 16-3 against the Raiders since arriving in Kansas City, or Mahomes, who is 8-1 against them in his career.
“Congratulations to the Chiefs. They played a few more games than we did,” said Raiders coach Josh McDaniels. “I thought our team really struggled, played how we wanted to play, to get up front, to play from the front. Give a lot of credit to Andy and his team. They hit back, we knew they would . We thought they would and figured it was going to be a four quarter game. They could do a game more than us. So give them credit. We’ll learn a lot from that. We fought hard tonight.”
However, the frustration was still evident as the Raiders left the field. Adams roughly kicked what appeared to be a member of the camera crew to the ground as he walked through Arrowhead Stadium’s tunnel to the dressing room.
“He jumped in front of me as I was coming off the field. I kind of pushed him. He landed on the ground,” Adams later said. “I want to apologize to him for that. That was just frustration mixed with him really just running in front of me.
“I shouldn’t have reacted like that, but that’s how I reacted. I would like to apologize to him for that.”
The loss kept the Raiders bottom in the AFC West, a game behind Denver and well behind the Chiefs, who are seeking their seventh straight division title. They have next week off before taking on the Texans on Oct. 23, the start of a four-game stretch against non-division opponents that could allow them to get back in the running.
“I thought our team fought and gave us a chance,” McDaniels said Monday night. “We didn’t end up doing a game or two there to finish it off.”