Chiefs deliver dominant 31-0 shutout over Raiders as Rashee Rice shines in return

Patrick Mahomes leads scoring drives on every possession while Kansas City’s defense shuts down Las Vegas in a wire-to-wire route.

The Kansas City Chiefs (4-3) put forth a very business-like Week 7 performance against the Las Vegas Raiders (2-5) in Rashee Rice’s season debut.

The drumming of one of their oldest rivals was so intense that backup quarterback Gardner Minshew entered the game for Patrick Mahomes before the fourth quarter began.

Mahomes’ offense put up points on every possession that he was on the field for, going a perfect five-for-five. They scored touchdowns on their first four drives, with a Harrison Butker field goal capping off the last one.

The game resembled that of a power-five college program defeating a lower-level one. The score of the game at the end of those five drives was 31-0, and wound up being head coach Andy Reid’s first regular-season shutout of his career.

Reid noted how impressive a performance this was, given the emotion it took to defeat the Detroit Lions last week, which was perhaps their most impressive win of the season, taking into account the strength of the opponent.

“It was great,” Reid said. “Any time you can have a win like that, fourth quarter like that, where you can run the ball every snap, and at this level, is a good thing. I appreciate the energy the most. The guys, their whole frame of mind was solid. Now, we got a good team coming in again this week. We got to make sure we’re solid there as we go.”

Rice made an impact early and often in his first action since Week 4 of the 2024 season.

He kicked off the scoring extravaganza by taking a pop-pass on a jet-sweep around the right end of the line of scrimmage to give the Chiefs a quick 7-0 lead to end a nine-play, 92-yard drive.

That was not his only time finding the endzone, though. In making the game 21-0, he showed how he could help the Chiefs become more dangerous in the red zone when he caught a goal-line fade for his second touchdown of the day.

“The back shoulder touchdown, obviously, we’re in that situation, we’re happy to be in the end zone and got a matchup with Rashee (Rice) one-on-one,” Mahomes said. “We worked on that throw all offseason. To be able to do that in the season, kind of like we did in the preseason, was good to see.”

Mahomes was not shy about using his new target. He did so twice as many times as any other weapon at his disposal. His final stat line was seven receptions, which led the team, on 10 targets for 42 yards and two touchdowns, playing 33 of 77 snaps.

Rice was hardly Mahomes’ only target on the day, however. The quarterback completed balls to nine different receivers en route to going 26-for-35 for 286 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also took seven carries for 26 yards.

Tight end Travis Kelce led the team in receiving, hauling in three catches for 54 yards, including an explosive play of 44 yards in the game’s opening drive.

Third-string running back Brashard Smith was actually second on the team in receptions, bringing in all five of the targets Mahomes offered up to him for 42 yards. With much of it coming in garbage time, Smith also tallied 39 yards rushing.

Wide receiver Tyquan Thornton continued to make his presence felt, bringing in a 39-yard deep ball, despite the Raiders’ constant two-high shell looks. Tight end Noah Gray provided a third explosive play, a 28-yard gain. Hollywood Brown caught one of Mahomes’ three touchdown passes, which was Brown’s third touchdown in two weeks and fourth on the season.

Rice’s new phrase, ‘Everybody’s Gotta Eat,’ was put into practice in game one of the whole unit suiting up together.

“He (Rice) said it when he said the EGE thing,” Mahomes said. “We have a lot of weapons. We have a lot of guys, they all love each other, they all want each other to succeed. Having him and Trav (Kelce) working underneath with Hollywood (Brown) and Hollywood downfield, Tyquan (Thornton) downfield, Xavier (Worthy) downfield – you don’t know where it‘s coming from. JuJu (Smith-Schuster) is out there making plays happen.

Guys are just ready to go out there, and when they get their opportunity, they’re going to make the plays, and you saw that throughout the entire game. Everybody made plays. It might be one guy’s game one game and then it might be another guy’s game the next game, but as long as we’re getting better all together, we can go out there and have a lot of success.”

Isiah Pacheco scored the Chiefs’ final touchdown of the day to make the lead 28-0 with over nine minutes to go in the third quarter. Pacheco finished with 57 yards on 15 carries to go along with his first rushing touchdown of the season.

As dominant as the offense was, the defense was even more so. Granted, Geno Smith and his current surrounding cast are not terribly impressive.

Still, the numbers from this one jump off the page.

Smith finished with 67 yards passing and the sixth overall pick, running back Ashton Jeanty, ended with 21 yards on the ground.

“That running back is a good player (Jeanty). I was really impressed with him, and for our guys to do what they did, I thought was tremendous,” Reid said. “It always starts up front with the big guys, and they take care of their job on both sides of the ball, and normally good things happen.”

When comparing the two offensive units, the Chiefs achieved 30 first downs, while the Raiders finished with three. The Chiefs went 4-of-5 in the red zone, which is an area of the field Las Vegas never entered.

The only reason Kansas City was not 100 percent in the red area was that they turned it over on downs with backups less than five minutes to go.

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s unit held the opponent to 95 total yards, with the Chiefs outgaining them by 339 yards. His unit also had the Raiders 0-for-7 on third downs, who also failed on their lone fourth down conversion.

“I think this is probably the most consistent that we’ve seen that we’ve been able to stack games together,” Mahomes said of the offense and defense playing well at the same time. “Obviously, our record is still not where we want it to be, but you can see from the offense (and) defense we’ve had bright moments in this season, and now it seems like we’re coming together as a team.”

The Chiefs controlled the ball for over 24 minutes longer and ran 47 more offensive plays.

To put that in perspective, safety Chamarri Conner led the team in defensive snaps with 26 after also leading the team last week with 54.

Because the Raiders run a lot of bubble screens, cornerback Trent McDuffie led the team in tackles with six. Jones tallied the unit’s lone sack on the afternoon.

“When the offense scores a lot of points, it puts us in position to do what we do best, and that’s rush the passer, and when we have success at rushing the passer, I think, as a defense, it helps us out overall,” Jones said.

Defensive tackle Jerry Tillery landed on the game’s only turnover after Raiders backup quarterback Kenny Pickett fumbled the snap late in the fourth quarter.

This game also marked the second time this season in which Butker did not miss a kick.

The 31-0 victory marks a 4-1 stretch of football for the Chiefs after starting the season 0-2. Kansas City is now tied, albeit without the tie-breaker, with the Los Angeles Chargers for second place in the AFC West, while the Denver Broncos currently lead with a 5-2 record.

INJURIES

Two starting offensive linemen, right guard Trey Smith (back) and Jawaan Taylor (shoulder), exited this game. Rookie defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott (knee) did as well, although timetables are unknown at this time.

UP NEXT

In Week 8, the Chiefs will face the Washington Commanders (3-4) on Monday Night Football, a game in which the team, especially its defense, should be well-rested.