Game Overview ::
By PAPY324 >>
- The Chiefs are remarkably healthy. RB Brashard Smith missed practice Wednesday with an illness and LT Josh Simmons sat out for personal reasons. Everyone else practiced.
- TE Brock Bowers, RB Dylan Laube, and WR Jakobi Meyers missed practice Wednesday for the Raiders with a knee, hammy, and toe injury, respectively.
- The Chiefs’ record doesn’t reflect how well they’ve played, and they will finally have all their offensive weapons available.
- Rashee Rice is set for his first real game action in over a year. It’s difficult to know exactly how he’ll be utilized, but there is a good chance he steps back into his old role.
- Isiah Pacheco played over 60% of the snaps the past two weeks.
- Travis Kelce has enough juice left to be a productive role player, but he can no longer carry an offense as the primary receiving threat.
- The Chiefs’ O-line has returned to performing at a top-five level, something they’ve been sorely missing the past two seasons.
- Geno Smith has been a major disappointment.
- Ashton Jeanty gets a lot of opportunities, but he’s running behind the worst run-blocking O-line in the league and has a limited pass-catching role.
- Meyers hasn’t seen volume the past four weeks.
- Michael Mayer is too cheap for being a full-time player with Bowers likely to miss another week.
JM’S JOURNAL ::
Find JM’s Journal on Friday in The Scroll. If you are an Inner Circle member, you can read JM’s Journal on Thursday in Discord.
How LAS VEGAS Will Try To Win ::
The 2-4 Raiders come into Week 7 playing for their season. Since 1990, 163 teams started 2-5 and only 10 made the playoffs. There is no reason to think the Raiders would be an exception to the rule, with three other teams in their division that could all finish with winning records. If they drop this game, they might as well start thinking about next year’s draft. The Raiders have been leaning on the run (23rd in PROE). That makes sense after using a premium draft pick on a running back. They brought in Smith to rejuvenate their passing game and it was expected that offensive coordinator Chip Kelly would play with pace, as he’s done during most of his career. Curiously, Kelly has decided to play slowly (30th in seconds per play), which makes even less sense when you consider that the Raiders are 2-4 with a minus-46 point differential. When you take away pace from a Kelly offense, it starts to look like what we saw from offensive coordinators in the 1990s.
Crash the leaderboards
PFP the OWS pennant
The Chiefs have been adequate (16th in DVOA) against the run and middling (17th in DVOA) against the pass. This is the most vulnerable Chiefs’ defense in years, but they aren’t especially weak in one area. The Raiders don’t have a reason to tilt their game plan away from trying to win on the ground. The main reason the Raiders offense has struggled is their O-line. They’ve been poor (28th-ranked by PFF) and have been especially bad at run blocking. It’s difficult to get a fair read on Jeanty as a player because he so often gets hit at or behind the line of scrimmage. Kelly wants to feed him the rock, but last week against the Titans’ soft underbelly Jeanty averaged only 3.3 YPC on 23 attempts. That’s poor against anyone but is made worse by the fact that the Titans entered the game ranked as a bottom-five run defense. The Raiders aren’t much better at pass blocking, ranking 21st in pass-blocking efficiency after allowing seven pressures on only 25 pass plays against the Titans. The Raiders are going to stick with the ground game, but it’s never going to be efficient without better blocking. Expect Vegas to try and win on the ground, but don’t be surprised if they fail.
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