It’s hard to explain this loss to Oakland. The Chiefs 25th loss in the last 27 games. But you can go back to earlier in the week when Todd Haley said his team had a very small margin for error if they were going to win in any game this season.
Kansas City made the Raiders offense look silly until the final drive of the game. But the Chiefs made repeated offensive mistakes on the field, and let a stellar defensive performance go to waste in a 13-10 loss.
Matt Cassel made his first start at QB for Kansas City after missing the opener and didn’t appear to have any problem with his injured knee. But two interceptions and a questionable decision before the half kept KC from this win.
On their second possession of the game, Cassel led the Chiefs on a 17 play, 74 yard drive that ended with a 23 yard FG from Ryan Succop, Newly acquired Bobby Wade had three receptions in the drive and the Chiefs moved the ball effectively on the ground. In fact, they had doubled their rushing total from a week ago after just two possessions.
Oakland didn’t have a first down until inside the 10 minute mark of the second quarter. But then drove close enough for a Sebastian Janokowski 48 yard FG and a 3-3 tie.
On the next series Brandon Flowers, who missed last week with a shoulder injury, dropped a sure pick six of Russell in the flat. It would be just one of many costly miscues.
Early in the ball game the Chiefs burned two timeouts and it came back to haunt them. Just before the half KC drove to the Raider nine but with no timeouts left Cassel threw a pass to Dantrell Savage who couldn’t get out of bounds and time expired without any points. Why he didn't throw it away or go to the end zone is beyond me.
Offensively, penalties and turnovers gave the Chiefs second half fits. On the first possession of the second half, Michael Huff picked off Cassel over the middle and returned the ball to the KC 49 but the defense held and forced Janokowski to hit a 54 yard FG for a 6-3 Oakland lead.
Kansas City was driving toward a possible score early in the fourth quarter when Cassel overthrew Dwayne Bowe deep and Huff dove for his second interception of the game at the Raider six.
The defense gave KC another shot and they responded late. Cassel engineered a 9 play, 72 yard drive that was highlighted by a diving 29 yard touchdown catch by Dwayne Bowe on a perfectly thrown ball from Cassel with 2:38 to go. If there was a bright spot, this was it.
JaMarcus Russell had just three completions for the game until the final drive but marched the Raiders down the field with a key 28 yard completion to Todd Watkins to the Chiefs 14. Darren McFadden ran in from the five with 1:07 to go and Oakland had a 13-10 lead.
A last gasp attempt by the Chiefs failed. The Chiefs held Russell to 7 of 24 for 99 yards passing and just 11 first downs for the game while KC had 409 yards in offense, including 173 on the ground. But the stat that matters is the win column and Todd Haley is still looking for his first as a head coach.
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