Las Vegas Raiders

Report Card: Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

A post-game breakdown of the Oakland Raiders loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, handing out letter grades to each positional group.

After putting together a thrilling six-game winning streak, the Raiders once again came up short against the Chiefs, and were defeated by a score of 21-13. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

There were some obvious negatives to takeaway from this game, as well as a few positives. Here is a breakdown of each positional group, along with letter grades to evaluate each group’s performance.

Dec 8, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (4) throws a pass against the Kansas City Chiefs during a NFL football game at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Offense

Quarterback:

Derek Carr had by far his worst game of the entire season. Carr went 17 of 41 for 117 yards to go along with zero touchdowns, and no interceptions. It was the first time all year that Carr was below a 50% completion percentage for a game. His 117 yards is the 2nd fewest in a game with at least 40 attempts in NFL history.

To be fair, Carr was clearly having mechanical issues with his right pinky. With every throw, he had a slight grimace of pain, and it showed in his overall performance.

So, if you want to praise Carr, you also need to be able to criticize him. This clearly hurt Carr’s case for the MVP award. I don’t want it to sound like I am beating a dead horse here, but Carr averaged 2.9 yards per attempt and 6.8 yards per completion, and had a QB rating of 49.1, which was the lowest of his career.

If you want to state your case for MVP, these are the games you need to show a national audience what you are made of.

Grade: D-

Running Backs:

The running game, on the other hand, played admirably and gained chunks of yards at a time. Latavius Murray had another great game, with 22 carries for 103 yards and 1 touchdown. Jalen Richard also contributed 29 yards on 6 carries.

Both running backs averaged over 4.6 yards per carry and picked up yards in crucial moments when Carr was struggling through the air. Richard and Murray came in and did what they needed to do. It is hard to really knock either one of their performances, especially when the Chiefs nearly turned the Raiders offense one-dimensional.

Why the Raiders decided to throw a fade route to Andre Holmes on 3rd & 1 instead of giving the ball to Murray will be a question some of us will stay up all night thinking about.

Grade: A-

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends:

Drops. Drops. Drops. Need I say more?

But to be serious, this was the worst game we have seen from the wide receiving core for the entire season. If I counted correctly, there were 10 drops that were all significant in their own ways. It really did not help that Carr was struggling as it is, but to then add multiple drops is not helping your cause.

Seth Roberts had only 2 receptions on 9 targets. Michael Crabtree only had 4 receptions for 21 yards. Amari Cooper led all Oakland receivers, but he only posted 5 receptions for 29 yards.

The tight ends also had a rough day. Mychal Rivera had 3 receptions for 26 yards and Clive Walford had 2 receptions for 21 yards. Walford was the only pass-catcher to average over 10 yards per reception.

Grade: F

Offensive Line:

The offensive line had a solid performance Thursday night. The O-Line held the Chiefs vaunted pass rush to only 1 sack and also opened gaping holes for the Raiders running backs.

The right tackle position is a cause for concern at this point. Austin Howard had a horrific game from beginning to end. Howard essentially ended the game when he committed a false start penalty to turn a 4th &1 into a 4th & 6. Complete play-changer.

I am going to grade the offensive line on a slight curve due to the fact that Kelechi Osemele was a late scratch due to an illness.

Grade: B+

Dec 8, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill (10) is defended by Oakland Raiders linebacker Cory James (57) during a NFL football game at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Defense

Defensive Line:

The defensive line had an above-average game by their standards. Although Khalil Mack was the only defensive lineman to register a sack, it came at a very crucial moment in the game in which the Raiders needed to get the ball back.

The run defense was also very stellar in holding the Chiefs running game to a total of 65 yards on 27 carries, which was good for an average of 2.4 yards per carry.

The positive to take from this performance was that these are now back-to-back solid performances we have seen from the defensive line. Baby steps, people.

Jihad Ward led all defensive lineman with 7 tackles.

Grade: B+

Linebackers:

The linebackers had their moments in this game, but were absolutely owned by Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

After Kelce had a rather quiet game during the first go-around in Week 6, he came alive Thursday night with 5 receptions for 101 yards, many of which came on linebacker Malcolm Smith.

Perry Riley was another solid contributor in the run game, as well as a quality pass defender over the middle when called upon. The tight end position has been of concern when discussing this Raiders defense for quite some time now, and it will continue to be an Achilles heel unless they can prove otherwise.

Grade: C+

Defensive Backs:

After a sorry performance from the Oakland secondary in the first half that saw them give up nearly 200 yards passing — including a 36-yard touchdown to Tyreek Hill — it seemed like the secondary was on course to give up 300+ yards to yet another quarterback.

That was not the case, though, as the defense played much better in the 2nd half, slowing down Alex Smith and the passing attack.

A lot of this was because of cornerback T.J. Carrie, who again had a great game. Pro Football Focus graded him as Oakland’s best defensive player Thursday night, with a grade of 87.2. Carrie picked off an Alex Smith pass on the second play of the 2nd half, which seemed to completely shift the momentum of the game. Unfortunately, the Oakland offense was not able to capitalize on the forced turnover.

David Amerson had his share of bad plays, including surrendering that long touchdown pass to Hill, as well as giving up a 39-yard reception to Chris Conley on the opening possession of the game.

Karl Joseph was missed on Thursday night. Although Nate Allen had a solid game, he struggled to cover tight end Travis Kelce, and he also was burned a few times by Tyreek Hill.

Grade: C

Dec 8, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill (10) rushes for a touchdown on a punt return against Oakland Raiders punter Marquette King (7) during a NFL football game at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Special Teams

Special teams had their worst game of the entire season, and it came at a very bad time.

Marquette King nearly muffed a punt in the 1st quarter and also could not control a high snap on a field goal attempt, which ended up costing the Raiders 3 points. This could be blamed entirely on long snapper, Jon Condo, though, who may have had his worst game as a Raider.

Let’s also not forget about the awful penalty that came in the 2nd quarter in which they punted and seemed to stop dangerous return man Tyreek Hill. Hill got another shot at returning the punt and boy did he make the most of it. Hill returned the punt 78 yards for a touchdown which seemed to completely deflate the Raiders energy.

Sebastian Janikowski was 2/2 from field goal range and converted his only extra point attempt.

The question I really want to ask was why was Carrie returning punts and not Jalen Richard? Carrie fair caught every punt he received, including at inopportune times that caused the Raiders to lose the field position battle on basically every offensive possession.

Grade: D-

Most telling stat:

The Raiders only registered 6 points off of 3 Kansas City turnovers.

But to end this column on a positive note — in the words of Aaron Rodgers, R-E-L-A-X. Relax, Raider Nation.

The Raiders are still 10-3, and have three very winnable games left. The only difference now is that Oakland needs the Chiefs to drop at least one game going down the stretch in order to win the AFC West.