Week 7: Chiefs vs. Raiders – Game Preview + Predictions

Week 7: Chiefs vs. Raiders – Game Preview + Predictions

Mahomes in the pocket. Darts it near side. Caught. Touchdown. Kansas City. Hollywood Brown is having a night. [Applause] The Kansas City Chiefs are now 3 and three and they can go over 500 for the first time this season. But it’s not just any week. It’s Raiders week. And here come the Raiders probably coming in with some confidence after beating Tennessee. Yeah, this is a Raider team that their record might not show it, but they have some really good players on both sides of the ball. We’ll start with maybe the offense. Ashen Gentine is a guy that you have to know where he is at all times. Number six overall pick in the draft this past year. And sure, his overall stats don’t jump off the page. He has 424 rushing yards this year. But he has 376 yards after first contact, second most in the NFL behind only Jonathan Taylor. Yeah. Leads the league in broken tackles. So when you look at it historically last year, the Raiders were terrible. rushing the ball. In fact, 31st in the league, had 200 more yards than the Raiders had. That’s why it was a priority to get Janty in the draft, the best running back in the draft. But he’s done things now in his rookie year in his first six games that only guys like Josh Jacobs or Marcus Allen have been mentioned with. So, Chanty becomes the first focal point here. Yeah. And for the Chiefs in this game, you just you’re coming off an awesome game against Detroit in all three phases. You can’t let Las Vegas come in here and run the ball effectively to start the game and set the tone for them. Got to come in here if you’re the Chiefs. Stop the run right away. And Gino Smith, a quarterback for them, has turned the ball over quite a bit this year. If they’re running the ball effectively, he won’t have to worry about that. But force the Raiders to become one-dimensional. Force Smith to throw the football. And he’s thrown 10 interceptions this season. That’s most in the NFL. Get a few on the Chiefs defense. What’s interesting about Smith’s interceptions, and normally hasn’t been an interception thrown in his career, is the fact that six of his 10 interceptions have come with no pressure or blitzing. So, this is a chance for the Chiefs defense uh to attack Gino Smith and maybe get some takeaways against an offensive line which has also struggled this year. And if you look at Smith’s weapons in the passing game, he has some good receivers. I think Trey Tucker is having a really nice season and Jacobe Myers, a veteran who’s been around a while, also having a nice season. Myers has 26 targets out of the slot this year, has tied for the third most of any receiver in the NFL, and he’s caught 18 passes for 204 yards on those snaps with 106 yards after the catch. When I’m looking at that, I’m thinking about what the Chiefs did with Trent McDuffy last week against Detroit. They put Trent in the slot on a season high 17 defensive snaps in that game. I’d be interested to see what he can do against Jacobe Meyers here in this one because Trent was awesome in the slot on those snaps last week. He allowed just one catch for four yards. I’m curious if Steve Spagnolo does a similar thing this week against Meyers. But the play of Noah Williams allows that to happen. So because Noah Williams continues to grow in his rookie year at corner, that allows McDuffy to move into the slot where we know how effective he is not just in coverage but as a slot blitzer. So that will be key this week. Not sure if Brock Bowers will play or not. He had a phenomenal historic year last year uh as the Raiders tight end. Michael Meyer is not bad. In fact, he had a good game against Tennessee in the last week, but you have to defend the tight end and a decent wide receiver court. Now, on the defensive side, it all starts with Max Crosby, one of the hardest guys in this league to block. He’s also one of the most durable. We saw the Chiefs use a really good defensive line rotation last week against the Detroit Lions. They had to because of what Detroit does and does well. Max Crosby does not come off the field. In this percentage of snaps, he’s number one in the league among defensive linemen. Really hard to block. He’s been a problem for the Chiefs in the past. Yeah. And if you look at the stats, uh the Raiders defense, at least statistically speaking, you look at it, it’s the number 23 ranked scoring defense in the league, allowing 24.8 points per game. Doesn’t really tell the full story, though, because the Raiders offense has done the Raiders defense no favors. Uh the Raiders defense has taken the field 13 times this year in their own territory because of turnovers on the other side. Very difficult to play good defense and stop the opponent from scoring uh if you’re having to begin in your own territory defensively. And you laid it out. I mean overall they have some really good players particularly up front. All begins with Max Crosby. He has four sacks this year. But as a team they have 14 sacks. It’s near the top of the league right now. Got to make sure you know where Malcolm Coun is at all times. We haven’t seen since the Christmas Day game a couple years ago when he had three sacks in that one. You can’t let that happen again here this time around. Yeah, he missed all of last year with an injury and really was kind of underrated in what he left as a void for the Raiders in 2024, but he’s back in 2025. They’re also solid in special teams. We all know Daniel Carlson, one of the better kickers in the National Football League. This is also a game for the Chiefs of Psychology. If the Chiefs Kingdom is excited about getting their full complement of offensive weapons back and on the field and that’s awesome to have that, you also cannot rest on the Raiders. All you have to do is pull out the Christmas Day video of 2023 and that’ll get your attention. Yeah. Like on one end, this is very exciting having Rashi Rice back. We’ve never seen Rasheed Rice, Hollywood Brown, and Xavier Worthy on the field at the same time. Never. It’s been over a year and a half since all those three were under contract. We’re set to finally see those guys take the field together here in this one. But again, like we talked about earlier, it’s very important for the Chiefs here in this game to carry the momentum from last week. That Lions win was super exciting. That was probably the best football in all three phases they’ve played all year long. We can’t celebrate that though. It’s all about the Raiders this week. What we have seen, though, is the Raiders and Chiefs battle each other since 1960. It’ll be the 133rd game between these two better rivals. [Music]

Voice of the Chiefs Mitch Holthus and senior team reporter Matt McMullen preview the upcoming Week 7 NFL matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.

TUNE IN to Week 7 👇
📺: Chiefs vs Raiders at 12:00 p.m. CT | CBS
📻: 96.5 The Fan (eng) & TICO Sports (esp)

Subscribe for more videos! https://bit.ly/2OuOUnB
More Chiefs NFL action! https://bit.ly/2Moa1VR

Follow Our Social Media!
🔴 Website: https://www.chiefs.com/
🟡 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KansasCityChiefs
🔴 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chiefs
🟡 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chiefs

Download the Chiefs Mobile App:
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id390783578?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yinzcam.nfl.chiefs

#ChiefsKingdom #Chiefs #KansasCityChiefs #NFL #Football