2023 NFL season, Week 16: What We Learned from Christmas tripleheader

Raiders defense keys win in Kansas City. Last week, the Las Vegas defense had two defensive touchdowns, playing a key role in a 62-point effort against the Chargers.

And the Raiders D put up an arguably more impressive performance this week against the Chiefs, almost single-handedly winning the game for the Raiders while keeping patrick mohames and Co. in check.

They held the Chiefs offense to negative yardage through the first quarter, and though they then gave up a touchdown, they quickly recovered.

On the Chiefs’ first offensive play following their touchdown, Mahomes and Pacheco bobbled a handoff after a direct snap to the RB, and defensive tackle Bilal Nichols scooped up the ball for six points.

And on the Chiefs’ very next play from scrimmage, cornerback Jack Jones jumped in front of the receiver for his second pick-six in as many weeks. Two defensive touchdowns and 14 points in the span of a few seconds, and the Raiders never looked back.

The Raiders are the first team with multiple defensive touchdowns in consecutive games since the 2012 Bears did it, and their five total defensive TDs this year are the most for a Raiders squad since 2000 (also had five).

While the offense wasn’t able to build much on the lead, it was enough to take down their division rivals, keeping Las Vegas’ playoff hopes alive.

Chiefs get off to historically bad start and can’t recover. Kansas City opened up Monday’s game with back-to-back three-and-out drives, and the Chiefs did not get a first down without a penalty until their fourth possession of the day.

Drops by pass-catchers, pressure on Mahomes, and ineffective runs led to the Chiefs finishing the first quarter with -18 yards, the worst first quarter by a team since the Bears had -20 in Week 15, 2004, and the fewest by a team in any quarter since the Chiefs themselves had -19 in Week 14, 2011.

They finally got something going with a 74-yard touchdown drive that ended with a trick play run by Pacheco, but the Chiefs couldn’t build on it, and more of the mistakes seen from the offense all season meant they fell behind and couldn’t climb out of the hole.

A second trick play attempt led to Pacheco fumbling a handoff to Mahomes for a Vegas scoop-and-score, and the next offensive play Mahomes had his 14th interception of the year, a career-high.

Add on a missed field goal and multiple failed fourth-down attempts (including one in the red zone), and it was not a very merry Christmas in Kansas City.

RB White continues to shine as starter. It’s a good thing the Raiders defense found the end zone a couple of times, because the Raiders offense was not nearly as successful at putting points on the board.

Aidan O’Connell led an 87-yard drive early in the game, but had to settle for a field goal, and the Raiders offense would only score one more field goal in the game.

With O’Connell struggling and consistently under pressure — he did not have a completion through the second and third quarters — Las Vegas heavily leaned on running back Zamir White, who another start with Josh Jacobs still injured.

White came through when necessary, accounting for all 25 yards on the Raiders’ second field-goal drive and exploding for 43-yard and 15-yard rushes on the Raiders’ final fourth quarter drive that helped seal the win. He finished with 145 yards on 22 rush attempts.

Next Gen Stat of the game: Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby generated eight pressures on 55 pass rushes (14.5%) against the Chiefs, tying his season-high for pressures in a game this season (Week 14 vs. the Vikings).

NFL Research: Raiders defensive end Malcolm Koonce is the first player ever to sack Patrick Mahomes three-plus times in a game. The previous high was 2.5 for Miami’s Jerome Baker in 2020.

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