Dismantling a division rival 63-21 is an arduous act to follow.
Snapping a six-game losing streak against the defending Super Bowl champions and preventing them from clinching their eighth consecutive AFC West title most certainly qualifies for a tremendous encore, though.
That’s exactly what interim head coach Antonio Pierce’s Las Vegas Raiders did on Christmas, keeping their faint playoff hopes alive and furthering Pierce’s candidacy for a full-time spot as the Silver and Black downed the Kansas City Chiefs, 20-14, on Monday.
“I think the one thing everybody is seeing with this Raider team,” said Pierce, who guided the Raiders to their first Christmas win in three tries, “is a group that’s playing together, having fun with one another, loving one another, playing with a bigger purpose, a will to win, a fight to win and not ever giving up.”
History leans to Monday’s outcome being rather improbable considering the Chiefs’ dominance of the rivalry, but so too did the way the game played out. The Raiders offense was shut out of the end zone, but they became the first team since the 2012 Chicago Bears to score multiple defensive TDs in consecutive games, per NFL Research. That aided mightily in Las Vegas becoming the first team since the 2000 Cincinnati Bengals to win a game after completing zero passes after the first quarter. Despite quarterback Aidan O'Connell going 9 of 21 for 62 yards in the game, the Raiders became the first team to start a rookie signal-caller and defeat Patrick Mahomes.
“That was one of our mantras,” Pierce said, “by any means necessary. We knew it was going to be a gritty game. It wasn’t going to be a high-score (game), we didn’t want it to be a high-scoring game.”
As aforementioned, Las Vegas’ win ended a six-game skid against Kansas City and Pierce became the first Raiders coach to win at Arrowhead Stadium since Jon Gruden in October 2020. It’s just the second Raiders win in the last 13 games against the Chiefs, but an opportunistic defense led the way.
Trailing 7-3 in the second quarter, the Raiders took the lead for good when Bilal Nichols returned a fumble for an 8-yard touchdown and Jack Jones returned an interception 33 yards for a score on the ensuing play from scrimmage.
It was a blur of Silver and Black success that harkened back to a Week 15 avalanche in which the Raiders scored a pair of defensive touchdowns in their 63-21 blowout.
It was likewise emblematic of the Chiefs’ offensive struggles and the life Pierce has breathed into the Raiders, eschewing past failures and making believers of everyone in a Las Vegas jersey, no matter the opponent or the setting.
Currently the Raiders are the 11th seed in the AFC playoff picture and they remain underdogs for a postseason spot. However, with a win such as Monday’s, Pierce, who’s now 4-3 as the team’s head coach, continues to make a massive argument to rid himself of the interim tag and become the future of the franchise on the sidelines.
“We talked about it all week. Ill intent. Violence. Physically. Pain. Enough is enough,” Pierce said of ending the losing streak to the Chiefs in old school Raiders fashion. “That was displayed just right there.”
Merry Silver and Black Christmas, indeed.
