A recap, then, that would have seen the Silver and Black wheels come all the way off in recent memory.
The second half began with the Raiders, already leading 13-10, driving to the Kansas City 23-yard line, where Matt Gay drilled a 41-yard field goal. But because the Chiefs were flagged for an illegal formation, it set up that fateful 4th-and-2 and Kubiak gambled and took the points off the board.
You’re not going to beat the Chiefs trading field goals for touchdowns, right? So the Raiders went for it and Kirk Cousins misfired on a pass to Ashton Jeanty.
A dizzying series of fourth-quarter events had Allegiant Stadium swaying.
With the Raiders leading, 19-17, with 3:35 to play and the Chiefs facing 3rd-and-5 from their own 40, Patrick Mahomes’ bomb to Tyquan Thornton was true and got the Chiefs to the Raiders 5-yard line. Unnecessary roughness on Quay Walker for his hit on Mahomes moved the Chiefs to the 2-yard line and an untouched Kenneth Walker scored.
The Raiders held on the two-point conversion attempt and things were looking up as they still had two timeouts and the 2-minute warning remaining while trailing, 23-19.
Alas…Dareke Young fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, the Chiefs recovered and scored one play later and suddenly the Chiefs led by 11 with just over 3 minutes to play.
“We’re going to play until the clock hits zero,” said running back Ashton Jeanty, who rushed for 58 yards on 15 carries.
Indeed, Cousins hit Brock Bowers for a 20-yard TD pass with 1:46 to play and the successful two-point conversion pulled the Raiders back to within…three points.
In fact, the Raiders had the ball at midfield when time essentially ran out on them, Cousins picked off when his throw wobbled out on a hit.
“We’re going to fight and find a way to try to win,” Jeanty insisted. “We fell short today but we’re going to watch the film, re-gather everything and come back to attack next week.”