By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Chiefs survived a rough and tumble battle with the AFC West rival Las Vegas Raiders, coming out on top 30-27, and claiming sole posession of the division ahead of their bye week.
The game was back and forth through the first half, with the Chiefs trailing at the halftime break. After Kirk Cousins connected with Ian Thomas for a 27 yard touchdown pass in the first quarter, Kansas City answered on the ensuing drive finishing a 10 play drive with a two yard strike from Patrick Mahomes to Tyquan Thornton. Through the second quarter, the teams traded field goals, first with the Raiders Matt Gay hitting a 32 yard field goal before Harrison Butker tied the game up again knocking through a 28 yard field goal. Gay's 48 yard field goal at the end of the half put Las Vegas up 13-10 as the teams headed into the locker room.
After a scoreless third quarter, the battle continued in the fourth as the Chiefs ended a three play drive, which started near the end of the third quarter, with Thornton finding the endzond for a second time in the game on an eight yard pass from Mahomes, giving Kansas City the lead for the first time in the game. The Raiders though took the lead back with back-to-back drives ending with field goals from Gay, from 44 and 48 yards respectively.
A four play drive ended with a touchdown for the Chiefs to give them the lead back, however during the drive there was also some disaster along the way. A 55 yard completion to Thornton helped set up the touchdown run by Kenneth Walker III from two yards out. However, on the pass Thornton started up on his feet and then crumpled to the ground, pointing to his ankle, and was soon carted to the locker room.
Head coach Andy Reid said following the game "it doesn't look good." He will fly back with the team". It was reported Thornton dislocated his ankle and it was put back in place by team medical staff.
On the kickoff following the touchdown, defense stepped up for Kansas City, as linebacker Jeffrey Bassa punched the ball loose from Raiders kick returner Dareke Young and linebacker Jack Cochrane recovered the ball. One play later, Walker scored his second touchdown of the game breaking around the line and running in from 22 yards out. Las Vegas answered on the ensuing drive on a 20 yard touchdown pass from Cousins to Brock Bowers, and Cousins finished the two point conversion with a pass to Cody White.
A Chiefs drive to end the game stalled and Kanas City was forced to punt, pinning the Raiders at their own one yard line after running back Emmett Johnson saved the ball from bouncing into the endzone. Las Vegas started to put together a drive to get into field goal territory, but with 10 seconds left Cousins threw an interception to safety Xavier Nwankpa to seal the victory for the Chiefs.
Mahomes was 15-of-30 through the air for 225 yards with two touchdowns. Walker ran 22 times for 177 yards with two scores, extending his season total and league leading total to 537 yards, the most rushing yards by any Chiefs player in a four week span. Thornton caught five passes for 111 yards with two touchdowns while Xavier Worthy had four catches for 70 yards.
Kansas City (4-0, 2-0 AFC West) will have a Bye in week 5. The Chiefs will be back in action on October 18th hosting the Los Angeles Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium. Kickoff is at 3:25pm, pregame will air on October 18th at 2pm on both KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM) and Q Country (92.7 FM).
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