The Kansas City Chiefs’ defense completely shut down the Oakland Raiders in Sunday’s 40-9 win. There’s apparently a very good reason for that.
Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu says his defense knew exactly how to defend against Derek Carr because the Raiders’ formations were predictable.
Tyrann Mathieu: "The biggest thing is we knew that when (Carr) did take shots downfield, we understood it pre-snap by the formation, & it put us in position to make a play… TEs, RBs, check-downs, that’s his game. We were able to capitalize when he did try to throw it downfield”
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) December 2, 2019
Mathieu is right — Carr’s game is throwing to his tight ends and running backs. He doesn’t take a lot of shots downfield. The Chiefs seemed to know what was coming as evidenced by the two interceptions they got — one by Mathieu, and another that Juan Thornhill returned for a touchdown.
Oakland was held to just three points until finally scoring their first touchdown of the game with under a minute left. They have only scored 19 points in two games against KC this season, both losses. The Raiders have now dropped two in a row and are 6-6 on the season, while Kansas City is 8-4.
