The Las Vegas Raiders find themselves in pretty much must-win mode against the division-rival Kansas City Chiefs on “Monday Night Football.”
Josh McDaniels’ squad is coming off its first win of the season. A loss to the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium would put Vegas in an unenviable position of being three games behind Kansas City in the AFC West through five weeks.
On the other hand, Vegas winning this game would have it just one game out in the division. Talk about a pretty big game for early-to-mid October. Below, we check in on five players to watch for this rivalry game.
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Kansas City Chiefs rookie Jaylen Watson thrown into the fire
With fellow rookie Trent McDuffie currently on injured reserve, Watson is being given a first-hand view of just how hard it is to play cornerback in the NFL. To an extent, he’s more been up to the task. That included a 99-yard pick-six of Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert back in Week 2.
- Jaylen Watson stats (2022): 14 tackles, 4 passes defended, 1 INT, 1 TD, 59% completion, 83.7 QB rating allowed
Monday night might be Watson’s biggest test going up against Davante Adams. The All-Pro receiver is coming off a nine catch performance in last week’s win over the Denver Broncos. While Kansas City will more than likely add shade coverage over the top in the form of safety Juan Thornhill, Watson needs to at least be able to contain Adams in this one.
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The Las Vegas Raiders need Chandler Jones to do something
Vegas made news this past spring by signing this four-time Pro Bowler to a three-year, $51 million contract. The idea was for Jones to team up with fellow Pro Bowler Maxx Crosby in creating a dominating edge pass-rush tandem. Thus far, that has been far from the case.
“He’s making a lot of plays that don’t show up in the stats. And that’s probably going to be not good enough for everybody to listen to, but he’s making plays in the running game, he drew multiple holding penalties yesterday. I mean, there is ways to produce and there is a way to impact the game beyond just the one column that everybody’s looking for.”
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels on Chandler Jones
About the lack of stats. In 225 defensive snaps thus far this season, Jones has accumulated a mere four QB hits with one tackle for loss and zero sacks. If he’s unable to provide pressure Monday night in Kansas City, NFL MVP candidate Patrick Mahomes is going to eat big time.
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Kansas City Chiefs need more consistency from Clyde Edwards-Helaire
A first-round pick of the Chiefs back in 2020, Edwards-Helaire has had his moments with the team. That included putting up 92 yards on 19 carries in a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in Week 4. However, consistency has been an issue for the former LSU standout.
This season alone, Edwards-Helaire put up zero yards on seven attempts against the Indianapolis Colts. Dating back to his sophomore campaign of 2021, the young back has gained less than 40 yards on the ground five different times. Taking on a Raiders run defense that’s yielding just over 100 yards per game and an average of 3.9 yards per rush, the onus will be on Edwards-Helaire to pick up where he left off last week.
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Career-defining moment for Las Vegas Raiders’ Derek Carr
We focused on this a lot leading up to Monday night’s affair. Carr and his Raiders are 1-3 after a season-saving win over the Denver Broncos last week. However, the team now finds itself in must-win mode. A loss here would have the Raiders at 1-4 and in the midst of a lost season. For his part, Carr has not looked great in his first five games under new head coach Josh McDaniels.
- Derek Carr stats (2022): 61% completion, 1,038 yards, 6 TD, 4 INT, 83.2 QB rating
To put this into perspectve, Carr’s completion percentage and QB rating would be his lowest since the quarterback’s rookie season back in 2014. Despite Vegas signing the veteran to an extension this past spring, it can get out of his contract with a low dead cap hit moving forward. There’s no built-in relationship with McDaniels and new Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler. This is a career-defining game for Carr with the Las Vegas Raiders. It’s time he rises to the occasion.
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Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce’s domination of the Las Vegas Raiders
Kelce feasts off the Raiders like no other team the future Hall of Fame tight end has gone up against. Over the course of his past six games against the Raiders dating back to 2019, Kelce has caught 39-of-54 targets for 568 yards and four touchdowns.
From Vegas’ perspective, the hope is that it can pick up where its defense left off in the final meeting against Kansas City last season. The Raiders yielded just 27 yards against Kelce. Unfortunately, opposing tight ends have caught 75% of their targets against the Raiders this season. A repeat of this come Monday night would likely lead to a blowout Kansas City Chiefs win.