Chiefs hold on against Raiders and prevail 17-13
This was a surprisingly tough football game for the Chiefs as Aaron Brooks drove the Raiders down the field at the end of the game, but rookie DB Jarrad Page intercepted a pass in the end-zone to preserve the victory for the Chiefs.
The Chiefs were very conservative on offense against the Raiders. Trent Green completed 9 of 16 passes for 102 yards. Larry Johnson was the main man, as usual, with 31 carries for 154 yards (5.0 ypc) and 2 TDs. When he needed a break, Michael Bennett came in and carried the ball 3 times for 43 yards (14.3 ypc). Samie Parker was the leading receiver with 3 catches for 44 yards.
Kawika Mitchell (9 tackles), Keyaron Fox (8 tackles) and Sammy Knight (9 tackles) led the way for the Chiefs defense. The Raiders ran the ball decent against the Chiefs with 34 carries for 133 yards (3.9 ypc). The Raiders also completed 15 of 25 passes for 193 net yards passing.
This was a big win for the Chiefs, who improved their record to 6-4 on the season.
Unfortunately, the conservative offense wasn’t all Herm’s fault this time. He was only trying to protect Trent and gradually ween him back into the offense. As much as I bitch about how he plays this conservative style of offense, he was right to do so in this instance. Green appeared to be off que with his throws and timing. If not for a great grab by Kennison and Parker to extend a couple of plays, the Chiefs would have been in serious jeopardy of losing the game. The game could have been blown wide open on the bomb that Green threw to Kennison that was terribly short and almost picked off. Kennison had at least a 5 yard separation on the defender and the ball just didn’t have enough distance on it, so Kennnison had to play the defender.
With a short week of pratice and hopefully the return of Gonzales, maybe Green can get back into the flow of the offense. They will be in dire needs of his arm and accuracy against the tough front seven of Denver. They will not be able to pound LJ all day against that front seven like they’ve been doing against lesser foes.