Chiefs vs. Raiders Game Preview: Scheme Spotlight, Matchups to Watch, and More
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The Kansas City Chiefs (8-4) host the Las Vegas Raiders (6-6) Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium.
These two teams met back in Week 10, with the Chiefs leaving Sin City with a decisive 41-14 victory over their divisional rival.
Patrick Mahomes finished that game completing 35-50 for 406 yards and 5 touchdowns, and many fans are hoping this can be a “get-right game” for the Chiefs’ offense, which hasn’t been as efficient as expected through the first 12 games of the season - outside of the last performance against these same Raiders.
Here’s more to watch for on Sunday:
Scheme Spotlight
The Kansas City Chiefs’ offense had their way with the Las Vegas Raiders defense in the first meeting. It was the first and last time in the past eight weeks that the Chiefs offense looked to be truly clicking. The question became whether they had that success through excellent game planning and execution or because the Raiders’ tried to play a different style of defense than everyone else. The answer is probably a little bit of both but there should be a small bit of pushback to the latter part.
The Raiders did come out in single high safety looks far more often than any other team against the Chiefs but they still played some similar coverages. The Raiders played a lot of Cover-3 Buzz, which provides some sort of deep safety help in the middle of the field and a high-hole defender to help defend crossing routes. This is the exact type of coverage the Chiefs have struggled the most against - albeit usually when teams rotate to these looks post-snap - and teams like the Denver Broncos didn’t even try to shy away from it.
Attacking the Raiders Likely Adjustments
The Raiders will almost certainly alter their gameplan a little and like hypothesized on the KC Laboratory Game Preview, they’ll probably try to stick to their guns to some degree. The Raiders don’t want to get out of single high coverages and if they just simply rotate to their Cover-3 Buzz looks post-snap rather than lining up in that look, they can do the exact same things. The other, slightly more drastic adjustment would be to play a ton of Cover-1 Robber like the Broncos and Dallas Cowboys did.
When running Cover-1 Robber, teams are able to provide some presence over Travis Kelce with the Robber Safety in the high hole as well as use that same player to defend against deep crossing routes. The other safety plays deep - usually over Tyreek Hill - to provide assistance on him. This leaves every other defender matched up in one-on-one matchups but that’s something the Chiefs’ third receiving options haven’t been able to take advantage of so far this year.

Enter the mesh concepts the Chiefs were running vs Denver. If the Raiders come out heavily utilizing either of these adjustments, the Chiefs could lean on the West Coast Offense staple. Against man coverage it creates just a series of pick plays or rub routes that usually results in at least one defender getting forced out of phase and to lose the rep vs a wide receiver.
In zone-match coverages, a lot of defenders are going to be playing with outside leverage trying to funnel everything into the help defenders. This makes it difficult to handle passing off three or four different receivers across the middle of the field and not lose sight of any single guy. The mesh concept becomes a little less reliable against these match-zone concepts but that’s when you start working in a high-lo concept on one set of crossing routes.

As teams get hammered by these shallow crossers with success, the Robber safety often will start creeping forward. Defenders will start playing flat-footed preparing to drive underneath and that opens up one of the Chiefs favorite explosive plays, the Deep Over route. This is the single route defenses have set out to stop this year vs the Chiefs but there were a handful of times it got loose against Denver because the mesh concept was pulling defenders forward. If the Raiders look to replicate some of what the past two defenses did against the Chiefs, they could use the one-two combo of Mesh and the Deep Over to move the chains and hit the explosive plays over the top.
What Receiver Will Step Up?
We spent last week discussing how crucial of a game it was going to be for Mecole Hardman’s outlook for the remainder of the season and his time in Kansas City last week.
Hardman played less than ten snaps in the game (16%), wasn’t even featured with manufactured touches, and was relegated to a few bubble routes and some vertical run throughs on the few snaps he was in. Coming out of the bye week, that’s a bad look for a player with exceptional vertical speed that hasn’t been able to put enough together to use it.
The snap count tells the story of what a coach thinks of a player. The leaders in the clubhouse beyond Tyreek Hill at wide receiver? Byron Pringle received 71% of the snaps against the Broncos, and Demarcus Robinson received 54%.
The guys that are out on the field more consistently with Mahomes outside of the Hill and Travis Kelce haven’t done much in the way of providing consistency throughout the year. Heading into the season we speculated that it could be a by-committee approach to the WR2 spot. Late into the season, no one has done much of anything to warrant even that approach.
The closest certainly has been Pringle — who has still had his own struggles with drops and miscommunication with Mahomes as recently as last week. But when he’s the most consistent of the secondary pass catchers, you have issues.
The Chiefs needed Hardman, Pringle, and Robinson to all make marginal improvements. Thus far, only Pringle has come close to that reality. That’s why Josh Gordon was brought in and fast tracked to the active roster in the middle of the season. His impact has yet to be felt either and he only saw 23% of the snaps coming out of the bye.
The lack of reliability is undoubtedly a piece of the struggles this team has experienced offensively for the majority of the year. It’s also part of the solution. Competency with the second and third wide receiver — catching the ball when thrown to, protecting the ball from fumbling, and being on the same page with the quarterback — will go a long way in the competency of this offense.
The ceiling isn’t changing on any individual player, but merely simple execution from these receivers can raise the floor of this offense — something they desperately need right now.
Desean Jackson vs. Chiefs CB’s
The Kansas City Chiefs cornerback group has been playing exceptionally well over the last five weeks, and they’ve shut down some of the NFL’s best receivers in that timespan. Charvarius Ward, L’Jarius Sneed, and Rashad Fenton — and do a lesser extent, Mike Hughes and Deandre Baker — have profited from the Chiefs newfound pass rush, playing physical and creating turnovers and breakups against many different styles of receivers.
On its face, this looks like a much easier matchup for the Chiefs cornerback room. Darren Waller is nursing an injury, taking away or limiting the Raiders’ best receiving weapon. Hunter Renfrow and Bryan Edwards are good receivers, but they operate more in the middle of the field to get “tough” yardage. Combine all of this with a shaky offensive line and a quarterback that struggles to keep his eyes up when pressured, and there’s not much to worry about on a vertical plane for the Chiefs defense — outside of Desean Jackson.
Jackson played his first game for the Raiders against Kansas City in Week 10, and he’s been targeted just six times in their last three contests. However, he’s added an extra vertical element to the Raiders offense that disappeared after Jon Gruden’s departure and Henry Ruggs’ release. Jackson provides that consistent vertical threat that requires attention, especially out of a single-high shell — which is likely to heavy in usage for the Chiefs defense this week.
Derek Carr has been pushing the ball down the field more over the last two weeks — averaging over 9 intended air yards and ranking in the top 5 amongst that week’s quarterbacks — and that has been the direct result of Jackson’s attention by the deep safety. The Chiefs will want to load up to stop Josh Jacobs in the run game and cut underneath routes, leaving that space for Jackson to operate — and putting the responsibility on the Chiefs cornerbacks.
While I expect the group to be up to the task, this savvy veteran may find himself free a bit more often against a cornerback group that lacks elite speed on the whole. If Carr can get himself into a rhythm — particularly when attacking over the top, like we saw in last year’s Chiefs/Raiders contests — this could be a tougher game than expected for the Chiefs defense. However, if the Chiefs cornerbacks can keep that vertical threat in check early, I expect a positive result for the Chiefs defense.