Around the AFC West: Kansas City Chiefs regain stranglehold on division
By Ellen Mathis
Let’s take a look around the AFC West after the Chiefs crushed the Denver Broncos and the Oakland Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers stumbled as well.
Welcome back to another edition of Around the AFC West. Man, it has been a tumultuous few days in Chiefs Kingdom. Ask my husband if I shed a tear on Thursday night when Patrick Mahomes went down, and he will show photographic proof. While reports have since surfaced that this was a best case scenario (more about that later), it truly was a low 16 hours or so.
Before we get into the roller coaster of emotions we all felt, let’s take a look at the rest of the AFC West and what that means for the Chiefs as they look to secure the AFC West crown.
Oakland Raiders
Last week, the Oakland Raiders traveled to Green Bay in hopes of upsetting Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. The team seemed to have found their footing having put together a few impressive wins including one against the vaunted Chicago Bears defense in London. However, Rodgers had something to say about that; he put up a career game throwing for five touchdowns, rushing for one, and posting a perfect passer rating for the first time in his career. Rodgers was simply incredible. A master at work.
On the other side, this will be remembered as the game in which we learned that Derek Carr doesn’t learn. Back in 2017, Derek Carr fumbled into the end zone resulting in a touchback turnover. Low and behold, it happened again. As the minutes ticked down in the second half, Carr went diving for the pylon but lost control of the ball and fumbled into the end zone resulting in a touchback turnover to Green Bay.
We always say that you can’t give the best quarterbacks those kinds of opportunities and it’s for good reason. Rodgers marched down the field for a touchdown. Green Bay then received the second half kick and marched down the field again. The game got out of control quickly and the Raiders could not recover.
One bright spot was rookie running back Josh Jacobs. He continues to impress with his toughness and grit. At one point, he demolished Adrian Amos on an impressive run. Regardless, the Raiders lost 42-24 and dropped to .500 on the season.
The Raiders did not have any injuries coming out of the game, but made an interesting move during the week. On Monday, it was reported that the Raiders traded former first round cornerback Gareon Conley to the Houston Texans for a 3rd round draft pick. This will be an interesting storyline heading into next week.
Speaking of, the Raiders travel to Houston next week to take on Deshaun Watson and the Texans (and their new cornerback). The Texans are coming off a loss to division rival Indianapolis Colts. The Texans will need to win to keep pace in the race for their division and the race for the playoffs. The Raiders, on the other hand, will have to win to remain within breathing distance of the AFC West title.
Given the injury to Patrick Mahomes and his questionable availability the next few weeks, it is not out of the question that the Raiders could vie for the crown. This makes the game all the more important, but I predict the Texans pull this one out without much difficulty.
Opening line odds for the Raiders in Week 8: +7.0.
Game time is 3:25 p.m.