What we can learn from the Chiefs vs. Raiders score is that Las Vegas ruins Kansas City’s Christmas.
The Las Vegas Raiders shocked everyone by beating their division rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs, 20–14 on the road on Christmas Day. This kept their playoff chances alive.
Patrick Mahomes’s first loss in a division game in November or December was because of Antonio Pierce’s defense.
Pierce’s team limited the Chiefs to just 4.2 yards every play and forced two mistakes, which were both returned for touchdowns.
Even though rookie qb Aidan O’Connell didn’t complete a single pass in the last three quarters of the game, the Raiders held on to win.
The win puts the Raiders in the running for both the AFC playoff spot and the AFC West spot. Now, all three teams have a very long way to go.
It was possible because their defense only let Kansas City score two touchdowns on 11 plays and made two huge stops on fourth downs in the second half.
On Monday night, the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers 33–19. Lamar Jackson threw two touchdowns in 18 seconds at the third quarter, and Brock Purdy was intercepted four times by the Ravens.
It was a big deal for fans to see the top two teams in the NFL play each other, but Jackson as well as the Ravens (12-3) won easily on both sides of the ball.
Kyle Hamilton as well as the defense setting the tone early by picking off Purdy on three of the 49ers’ first four plays (11-4). This was before Jackson took over the game.
On the last play of the first half, he ran 30 yards to set up a field goal that gave the Ravens a 16–12 lead. Early in the third quarter, he helped put the game out of reach.
In the first drive of the second half, Baltimore was forced to punt. Jackson then ended a drive by throwing a touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor from six yards out.
Because of a stinger, Purdy got replaced by Sam Darnold within the fourth quarter. He had thrown for 255 yards and completed 18 of 32 passes.
Patrick Queen then picked off Purdy on the next play in scrimmage. Jackson scored again right away with a touchdown pass of nine yards to Zay Flowers, making the score 30–12.
Most oddsmakers say Jackson is now the favorite to win MVP because he threw for 252 yards and ran for 45 more.
He only really got hurt once, when he was called for intentional grounded in the end zone after almost tripping over the judge, which led to a safety concern in the first quarter.
Purdy had his worst game as a professional quarterback. He threw four interceptions, which was the first time since Colin Kaepernick to 2015 that a 49ers quarterback did so.
He also had a few near-interceptions and wasn’t able to make the big plays which made him the best quarterback in the league going into the game.
Running fullback Christian McCaffrey did much better for San Francisco. He ran for 102 yards and a touchdown and caught passes for 28 yards. He became the team’s record holder by getting at least 100 yards to scrimmage in eight straight games.
This big game was only the second time in NFL history that the teams with the best record across each conference played after Week 16.
Big defensive tackle Bilal Nichols recovered a fumble eight yards for a touchdown, and seven seconds later, Jack Jones took an interception 33 yards to feed another touchdown. This helped the Raiders (7-8) beat the Chiefs for the first time in six games.
Kansas City (9-6) missed a chance to win the AFC West for the eighth year in a row by having one of their worst games under Mahomes.
Also, Harrison Butker botched a chip-shot field goal, there were more fouls and dropped passes, and they failed twice on fourth downs during the second half. The defense scored two touchdowns.