Raiders' Hated Rival Chiefs Still Have Brutal Concern

The Kansas City Chiefs pulled another rabbit out of the hat on Sunday night, defeating the Los Angeles Chargers by a score of 19-17 after third-string kicker Matthew Wright's game-winning field goal clanged off the upright and then trickled between the goal posts.

How do the Chiefs keep doing this?

It's certainly frustrating for Las Vegas Raiders fans, who saw their own team somehow blow a golden opportunity to beat Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium for the second straight year on Black Friday.

The funny thing, the Chiefs topped the Chargers by the exact same score they defeated the Raiders.

Kansas City is now 12-1 on the season, with 10 of its wins coming by one score. Heck, five of those victories came within a field goal.

Perhaps the Chiefs have a late '90s New York Yankees mystique going on, or maybe they're just incredibly lucky and will run out of gas in the playoffs.

Raiders fans can only hope, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Why? Because even in the midst of Kansas City's mind-numbing run, Andy Reid's squad does have some major concerns. And maybe the biggest of all is the protection of Patrick Mahomes.

We saw during Las Vegas' loss to the Chiefs in Week 13 that Mahomes was getting very limited blindside protection, as the Raiders blew by left tackle Wanya Morris all game.

Kansas City signed D.J. Humphries to try and alleviate the issue, but it didn't really solve the problem, as Mahomes was hit a season-high 13 times against Los Angeles. He was sacked three times, bringing that total to 13 over the last three weeks and 35 for the season overall.

For reference, the three-time Super Bowl champion had never been sacked 30 times in any individual campaign prior to 2024.

Clearly, the Chiefs are having some offensive line issues, and it's something that can absolutely derail their chances of winning a third straight championship.

And we don't even have to get into the fact that Mahomes looked really ordinary again on Sunday evening, going 24-for-37 with 210 yards and a touchdown. That was good for a very modest passer rating of 88.8, representing the sixth time he posted a passer rating below 90 this year.

Maybe all of this won't matter in the end. Perhaps Kansas City really does just have this magical thing going on right now and will march through the playoffs regardless of how weird or unorthodox it looks.

Or maybe the Chiefs' fortune will run out in January.

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