As they say, all good things must come to an end, and Thursday night, the Oakland Raiders six-game winning streak came to a close as the Silver and Black were bested by the Kansas City Chiefs 21-13 at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Raiders defense was able to pitch a shutout in the second half, but the offense just wasn't able to take advantage of its opportunities, and as a result, the Silver and Black flew back to the Bay Area without a win.
Following the loss, Head Coach Jack Del Rio's squad has slipped to 10-3, and fallen behind the Chiefs in the AFC West standings with three games left on the regular season schedule.
The Raiders won't take the field again until Dec. 18 in San Diego, so with Thursday night's game now behind us, let's take a look at playtime percentages from the clash with the Chiefs, and see what we can learn from the numbers.
Offense
Alexander fills the void– The Raiders offensive line has arguably been the team's most-consistent unit throughout the course of the regular season, and Mike Tice's group was forced to adjust yet again Thursday night after starting left guard Kelechi Osemele was a late scratch due to illness. In his stead, rookie lineman Vadal Alexander stepped up and played 66 offensive snaps (88%) in the Week 14 loss to the Chiefs. While quarterback Derek Carr was unable to find any type of offensive rhythm, it was not because he was under duress, as the big guys up front surrendered just one sack to the Chiefs defensive front all night.
Carr struggles to find his rhythm– No. 4 played all 75 offensive snaps for the Silver and Black Thursday night, but throughout the game it became apparent that the Raiders signal-caller was having a hard time finding any sort of offensive rhythm. Who knows the reasons why, but at the end of the day, Carr had delivered an uncharacteristically poor performance, finishing the Week 14 loss with just 117 yards and one touchdown.
"It was definitely a bad night," said Carr postgame. ""There's no getting around that. I hate to have the bad night come on this one, out of all the games that we've had, but obviously, we didn't do enough. We all took turns, and I feel very responsible for that because as the leader of the offense and the team, I feel sick to my stomach when we put something like that out on film."
Murray provides a bright spot– While the Silver and Black weren't able to put together the type of offensive performance we've been grown accustomed to seeing, running back Latavius Murray did provide a bright spot Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium. The Pro Bowl running back played 52 snaps (69%) in the 21-13 loss, rushing the ball 22 times for 103 yards and one touchdown. Murray now has 12 touchdowns this season, which ties him for third most in in a season in franchise history with Marcus Allen.
Defense
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Mack makes his impact again **– Khalil Mack just keeps on rolling. The Raiders All-Pro defensive end played 52 snaps (95%) in Thursday's loss to the Chiefs, finishing the game with three tackles, one sack, and a forced fumble. No. 52 has now recorded a sack in eight consecutive games, which ties a franchise record, and it seems like each week, the dynamic edge rusher keeps padding his stats in a bid to be the Defensive Player of the Year.
Carrie records his first interception of 2016– TJ Carrie has seen an uptick in his defensive snaps as of late, following the season-ending injury to DJ Hayden, and Thursday night, No. 38 played 23 snaps (42%) in the 21-13 loss to the Chiefs. Carrie finished his evening with one tackle, and two passes defensed, as well as his first interception of 2016. Carrie was able to pick off an errant Alex Smith pass in the early stages of the third quarter, and the Raiders were able to turn the turnover into three points.
Allen paces the defense– Karl Joseph was ruled out of the clash with the Chiefs earlier in the week, so veteran safety Nate Allen got the start Thursday night, playing all 55 defensive snaps at Arrowhead Stadium. Allen finished the game with a team-leading eight tackles, as well as adding three tackles on special teams.
