Andy Reid highlights two problems in Chiefs’ loss to Raiders

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid highlighted two points in the team’s 40-32 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders: penalties and giving up big plays on defense.

“Those things, we’ve just got to make sure that we clean that up,” said Reid in his post-game press conference. “If you kind of narrow it down, that’s the problem. And I could’ve put our offense in a better position that second half. That didn’t take place. We weren’t able to move the ball very well, so I’ll be able to look at that, too.”

The Chiefs took 10 penalties on the day, surrendering 94 yards. In the second quarter, running back Devonte Booker gashed the Chiefs for a 43-yard run. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr hit six passes of 20 yards or more, including touchdowns of 59 and 72 yards.

“They just got behind us,” Reid noted. “And I’ll look at the tape and see exactly what went on there, but I would say a couple of them were just beat, and then other ones I’m not sure we were doing the right things. That’s how these things go when you have big plays on you.”

Neither team scored in the third quarter, deadlocking the game at 24. In the fourth, the Raiders scored 16 points before the Chiefs could answer. Of the Chiefs’ 14 third downs on the day, five were 10 yards or more — and the Chiefs were only able to convert one.

“In this league when you’re first-and-20, second-and-20, it’s hard to get a first down,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes admitted. “We’ve been spoiled that we’ve kind of done it well these past few years, but you don’t want to be in those positions. Obviously, going to try to clean up the penalties and then whenever we are in those situations, I got to find a way to make it more third-and-manageable and not third-and-20 and try to make a crazy play happen every single time.”

Mahomes felt the team’s woes stemmed from a pure lack of execution — especially in the second half.

“I just think we didn’t execute at a high enough level,” Mahomes said. “The first half, we started off well, we executed at a high level. Obviously, we had some penalties, called some stuff back and then in the second quarter we kind of made plays happen but we weren’t executing at a high-enough level, and the third quarter, we couldn’t execute because we weren’t running the plays the right way and I wasn’t finding the right reads. That carried over and we obviously didn’t play the second half like we wanted to.”

After film and meetings to begin the week, the Chiefs will get right back to work with practice on Thursday in preparation for the Buffalo Bills.