Oakland Raiders: Victory checklist for Week 3 against Minnesota Vikings
By Kevin Saito
4. Stop the Shots Downfield
Needless to say, the second quarter against the Chiefs was a disaster on a multitude of levels. There’s just no sugarcoating that. Oakland’s revamped secondary was an absolute dumpster fire.
Not having rookie Jonathan Abram didn’t help but the secondary was getting lit up so bad, even his hard-hitting presence may not have stopped the Kansas City track meet going on in Oakland’s defensive backfield.
Four Chiefs touchdowns — the shortest of which was a 27-yard toss to Travis Kelce — spelled the end of Oakland’s day. In the quarter, Mahomes threw for the vast majority of his 443 yards on the day and all four touchdowns.
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The Raiders secondary simply had no answers for Mahomes and an offense that scored on passes of 44, 42, 27, and 39 yards in that second 15-minute frame.
And what should terrify Raiders fans is that the Chiefs did that without their best receiver in Tyreek Hill.
Coming up against an offense that has the same sort of explosive receivers as Kansas City, it’s critical the Raiders do a better job of defending the pass.
While nobody would ever mistake Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs, and Kyle Rudolph for Hill, Sammy Watkins, and Travis Kelce, that Minnesota trio can still do some serious damage if given the opportunity. And let’s not forget that Cook is also a very serious receiving threat out of the backfield.
Oakland’s defense got exposed against Kansas City — particularly the secondary. There is no understating the importance of patching the holes in the secondary or the entire team is going to get pulled under.