After a season of frustration and ineptitude, the Raiders found a cure for their ills: the Kansas City Chiefs.
Oakland snapped a six-game losing streak by beating the Chiefs 15-0 Sunday at O.co Coliseum to improve to 4-10. Kansas City drops to an NFL-worst 2-12, tied with the Jaguars in the race for the No. 1 overall draft pick in April.
It was the Raiders’ first victory since late October, when they beat the Chiefs in Kansas City. Against the rest of the league, Oakland is 2-10.
Despite not scoring a touchdown, the Raiders dominated the game, scoring on five Sebastian Janikowski field goals of 20, 50, 57, 30 and 41 yards.
The Raiders – who were last in the league in scoring defense going into the game – posted their first shutout since 2002, sacking Chiefs quarterback Brady Quinn four times and holding K.C.’s strong running game to just 10 yards. Jamaal Charles, who was the NFL’s fifth-ranked running running back, could managed just 10 yards in nine carries.
Offensively, the Raiders did what they had hoped to do all year, pounding the ball on the ground with running backs Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson. McFadden rushed for 110 yards on 30 carries, while Goodson added 89 on 13. Quarterback Carson Palmer, who’d been forced to throw early and often in recent games with Oakland in deep holes, was 18-of-29 for 182 yards and no interceptions, with five of those completions going to rookie Rod Streater for 62 yards.
For Raiders fans looking to the future, one interesting aspect of the game was the insertion of No. 3 quarterback Terrelle Pryor.
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Pryor, the former Ohio State standout drafted in the 2011 supplemental draft, had played just one snap in two seasons. In the second quarter Sunday, he played a full series, handing off twice and then throwing an incomplete pass in relief of Palmer – who came back into the game on the next series.
Oakland has just two games remaining, against the Panthers in Carolina next Sunday, and the the season finale in San Diego against the Chargers on Dec. 30.
