Kansas City Chiefs: Getting to know Oakland Raiders before week 13
By Cullen Jekel
On Sunday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs clash with the Oakland Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium. Let’s get to know the enemy a little more.
The Kansas City Chiefs, 7-4, are coming off a bye week after defeating the Los Angeles Chargers in Mexico City. The Raiders, on the other hand, just got absolutely manhandled by the New York Jets, 34-3, to drop to 6-5.
To get to know the Raiders before this second meeting between these two teams in 2019, I’ve reached out to Justin Fried, a contributor for Golden State Sports. Justin was kind enough to answer eight questions that I had for him.
Here’s our Q-&-A.
What happened to the Raiders against the Jets?
Fried: Simply put, the Raiders just didn’t show up against the Jets on Sunday. They were wholly outplayed, out-coached, and out-hustled and it showed on the field. The defense was gashed by Sam Darnold and the Jets offense while Derek Carr and the Raiders offense couldn’t get anything going. The Jets’ No. 1 ranked run defense shut down star running back Josh Jacobs, which proved to be a problem for Oakland’s offense that relies on the ground game to initiate success.
Altogether, you saw a Raiders team fail to show up at the worst possible time and suffer an embarrassing defeat as a result.
How can they rebound back from that 34-3 loss?
Fried: This week will present the Raiders with an even more daunting task of facing the Chiefs on the road in Arrowhead Stadium — a place where they have historically struggled. The Raiders can rebound by establishing the run game early allowing the offense to get into a rhythm. This will, in turn, help the defense out in a game that they’re certainly going to need some help.
The team can ill-afford another performance like last week so it will be on head coach Jon Gruden, Carr, and the entire Raiders team to motivate themselves and come out strong against their division rivals.