Chiefs Defense Has No Excuse After Big Raiders QB Injury News

The Chiefs got a major piece of injury news confirmed on Monday that gives the defense no excuse but to have a better effort than it has over the last couple of weeks.

Raiders QB Gardner Minshew is officially done for for the year. Backup Aidan O'Connell might play, though his prognosis is far from promising. Ian Rappoport of NFL Network reported that O'Connell will start for Las Vegas if he can properly grip the football, which sounds like a fairly significant issue as a quarterback.

After giving up 27 points to the Panthers, this has to be a dominant effort from Steve Spagnuolo's group. They no longer have any excuses to make.

Raiders QB Injury News Gives Chiefs Defense Perfect Opportunity to Rebound

The Chiefs are still just a one-loss team in firm control of the AFC, yet they rank 14th in opponent yards per pass attempt (6.5). They let Bryce Young average 7.1 per attempt and engineer a game-tying drive late, looking uncharacteristic based on what we've come to expect.

Facing a lowly rival with no hope provides the perfect opportunity to win in dominating fashion. Kansas City doesn't blow opponents out but the defense certainly shuts them down. Fans all around would feel more confident with a double-digit win.

Oddsmakers certainly expect that type of result. FanDuel Sportsbook has the Chiefs favored by 13.5 points for this Black Friday affair, though a short week could make it more difficult to prepare.

Either way, the Raiders will be in shambles. If O'Connell doesn't play, Desmond Ridder will be under center. The last time we saw him he prompted the Falcons to sign an old Kirk Cousins coming off an Achilles tear, so this isn't a scary group.

Nonetheless, this Friday's result will tell us a lot about the state of the defense entering the final stretch of the regular season.

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