Raiders’ hopes of upsetting the Chiefs end with a collision and frustration

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Neither Davante Adams nor Hunter Renfrow saw each other coming. The receivers ran different routes on fourth-and-1 with the Raiders trailing the Chiefs by one point with 47 seconds left in the game, but they ended up in the same place and collided with each other.

Derek Carr was getting pressured — the Chiefs sent a seven-man blitz — and had already let the ball go before the miscue, which explains why the game-sealing incompletion didn’t fall remotely close to anyone.

“I don’t know,” Adams said when asked what went wrong. “I didn’t see anything after I released and got back vertical. We ended up running into each other. … I don’t even know where the ball went or nothing. I was just on the ground.”

Adams and the rest of the offense could only watch from there as Patrick Mahomes II knelt his way into yet another win over the Raiders in a 30-29 barnburner at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. For the fourth time this season, the Raiders had the ball in a one-possession game with a chance to either win it or tie things up. And for the fourth time this season, the Raiders (1-4) fell short.

“We’re right there,” Adams said. “It’s not like we’re getting blown out and we don’t have answers. We’re playing good football. We’re just not playing 60 minutes of it. You have games like this where you have the lead — and we don’t feel comfortable — but having that 10-point lead or whatever it was at halftime, it’s not a bad spot to be in. You just gotta find a way to finish them out.”

GO DEEPER

Chiefs edge Raiders behind Kelce's career day

The Raiders jumped out to a 17-0 first-half lead and were indeed up 10 at halftime, but Kansas City (4-1) marched them down from there and charged ahead 24-20 by the end of the third quarter on the third of Travis Kelce’s career-high four touchdowns. The most frustrating part for the Raiders isn’t that they squandered the lead, but that they let a chance to still pull out the victory slip between their fingers once again.

“It’d be probably less frustrating if you’re not that great of a team, but we’ve got a really good team,” Adams said. “It’s frustrating for it to happen and keep happening.”

That frustration for Adams boiled over in a postgame incident in which he shoved a cameraman to the ground as he exited the field. Adams apologized for the incident in the locker room and also tweeted an apology.

Sorry to the guy I pushed over after the game. Obviously very frustrated at the way the game ended and when he ran infront of me as I exited that was my reaction and I felt horrible immediately. Thats not me..MY APOLOGIES man hope you see this.

— Davante Adams (@tae15adams) October 11, 2022

If the Raiders’ tune after this loss sounds similar, it’s because we’ve heard it before. Their average margin of defeat is just 3.5 points. And, once again, there were multiple chances to come out with a different outcome. When the Raiders got the ball down 30-23 with 7:25 left in the game, the offense responded with a 48-yard touchdown on a beautiful throw from Carr to Adams over the top of a double-team. Instead of playing for the tie with 4:27 remaining, though, coach Josh McDaniels opted to go for the lead on a two-point conversion attempt.

“In that situation, they had a lot of momentum offensively obviously in the second half,” McDaniels said.

That’s a nice way of saying they didn’t believe the defense could get a stop. To be fair, that was for good reason considering it had allowed the Chiefs to score on five consecutive possessions. The Raiders’ offense averaged 6.8 yards per play, had just put together its sixth scoring drive and had no shortage of confidence in its ability to convert.

“I love it. We were all fired up,” Carr said. “I’m all for it.”

The play call was a run up the middle going to Josh Jacobs, who said, “That’s what we wanted.”

The decision and play call were hard to argue with considering they were running the ball extremely well. Jacobs was rolling and finished the game with a career-high 156 rushing yards. They just couldn’t push through.

That could’ve been the game, but the defense that had been doubted forced the Chiefs to punt. Armed with the two-minute warning and a timeout, the offense had another shot. And after picking up two first downs and advancing to the Chiefs’ 48-yard line, the Raiders thought they moved in position to secure the win. Adams got open down the right sideline, Carr dropped the throw in the breadbasket and the receiver secured the ball while apparently tapping his feet in bounds well into Daniel Carlson’s field goal range. It was ruled a catch, but the officials automatically put it under review since there were fewer than two minutes remaining.

“I thought that I was in,” Adams said. “Once I first touched the ball, the ball was possessed. And it was one hand that ended up kind of coming off and going back on the ball, but the ball didn’t move. I mean, they showed it 100 times on the screen, but the ball didn’t move, and I thought that it was a catch.”

After the review, though, the call was overturned. Adams’ catch was no good, and the Raiders needed a first down to keep their drive alive. That’s when McDaniels called the aforementioned pass play. They could’ve theoretically run the ball, but time was a concern.

“It wouldn’t make sense to really call a run right there with the time that we had and the position we was at on the field,” Jacobs said. “So, I knew we was gonna pass and I knew I was gonna have to protect. It was more about just execution.”

The Raiders also could’ve designed a shorter pass play, but nobody had an issue when they dialed up a deep shot to Adams on a fourth-and-1 in the first half that turned into a 58-yard touchdown.

Fourth and one?

GIVE HIM SIX @tae15adams#LVvsKC | ESPN | #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/hi3ZgQjC4o

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) October 11, 2022

Just like on the failed two-point conversion, the decision and play call were fine. As Jacobs said, though, it came down to execution.

Whether it was Adams or Renfrow who messed up isn’t really important. What matters is the Raiders again failed to seal the deal in what’s been the dominant theme of their season.

“Fortunately for us, it’s a marathon,” McDaniels said. “We’re right there at the end. We have to learn how to be able to finish some of those games.”

At some point, though, it won’t matter how close the Raiders are if the losses continue to pile up.

“To know you’re that close, and we know the work we put in and we know how hard we go and the things we want to accomplish this season, so it’s bittersweet,” Jacobs said. “Obviously, you can look at it positively and just be like, ‘OK, you’re right there on the cusp,’ but right there really don’t matter if you don’t win. We’re just trying to figure out a way to put it together.”

The AFC isn’t as fearsome as expected, but they’re quickly losing ground and are tied with the Steelers for the worst record in the conference and are one of six NFL teams with just one win. No matter how it happened, that’s extremely disappointing for a team that made the playoffs last season.

“It’s hard,” Carr said. “I’ve been around a lot of new regimes and all that kind of stuff. I think the frustrating part is it takes time to get everyone on the same page. And once you get on the same page, you get the thing rolling and it’s churning, and it looks great and it’s awesome. We’re right there, but close doesn’t count in this game. It is frustrating. I’m human. I’m going through that again: Seeing where we were and we have a new regime and all this kind of stuff, but I believe in it. I believe in Josh. I believe in our staff. I believe in our players.

“What our record is — we’ve earned that — but I’m just reinforcing that we have a good team. I’ve been on some teams that aren’t as good as this one. We’re doing the right things; just they made more plays than us at the end.”

The Raiders simply cannot let that continue to happen. As wild as it may sound, the playoffs aren’t yet off the table, but they have to come out of the upcoming bye week a different team.

“I don’t have no doubt that we gonna get it together,” Jacobs said. “I think a lot of teams watched this game tonight, I think a lot of America watched this game tonight and they’re like, ‘OK, they might have something up they sleeve.’ I’m not too much concerned about it. I think we just need to come in and work harder and figure it out.”

(Photo of Davante Adams’ late catch that was ruled out of bounds and incomplete: William Purnell / Icon Sportswire via Associated Press)