Behind Enemy Lines: Previewing Raiders Week 4 game with Chiefs Wire
· Yahoo Sports
The much-anticipated matchup between the 3-0 Raiders and 3-0 Chiefs is on tap this Sunday. Before that happens, we wanted to give our readers tke skinny on the Chiefs from someone who covers them on a daily basis. For that we caught up with John Dillon, lead writer for Chiefs Wire to get him to answer a few questions.
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1. Kenneth Walker has looked elite the past couple weeks. Is he simply having a breakout season or is there something the Chiefs are doing to get him going? And does it seem sustainable?
John Dillon: Walker is single-handedly carrying Kansas City's offense on his back, which is never sustainable. For now, he is able to effectively out-maneuver opposing defenders, breaking tackles at a rate rarely seen in NFL competition. I think he benefits from having Patrick Mahomes under center -- teams are truly forced to pick their poison between two Super Bowl MVPs -- but I'm not sure the Chiefs are doing anything special to open up running lanes. Durability is my only real concern for Walker, but I can't blame Andy Reid for leaning on the veteran rusher so much early in the season.
2. I'm curious how the Chiefs Kingdom is viewing the Raiders 3-0 start. Is it being viewed as they are contenders or pretenders?
JD: Fans in Kansas City are mostly just glad to see a good matchup, I think… I can really only speak for myself here, but these tilts against Las Vegas always felt like "trap games" to me and Andy Reid is notoriously bad about playing down to opponents. I missed Christmas in 2023 to cover a contest exactly like that. There's also a certain dynamic of "Super Bowl contender vs. Team playing for draft position in November" which is always kind of scary. Facing opponents with nothing to lose can be a recipe for disaster. We've been guaranteed two such matchups against the Raiders every year, and I'd be happy to finally see them play competently for 60 minutes.
3. Give me a weak link on each side of the ball you expect the Raiders to try and exploit this week.
JD: Rookie left tackle Kahlil Benson is the obvious choice on offense, but I think Kansas City's entire receiving corps is actually the answer here. The Chiefs played a sloppy brand of football against the Dolphins in Week 3 and weren't helped by a drop-turned-interception from Rashee Rice in the second quarter. The former SMU Mustang rebounded in the second half, and turned in a decent performance on the stat sheet, but Kansas City's other receivers --Xavier Worthy, Tyquan Thornton, Jalen Royals -- only combined for five catches in the game.
4. Give me an under-the-radar player on each side of the ball we should know about.
JD: On offense, I'll go with rookie running back Emmett Johnson. He's a perfect spellback for Kenneth Walker III and can grind out yards as both a rusher and receiver in the backfield. Defensively, Kansas City has been getting big performances from safety Jaden Hicks, who has been getting more playing time with Chamarri Conner sidelined due to injury. Hicks has been far from perfect, but is likely to be among the Chiefs' most productive stat-sheet-stuffers in Week 4.
5. Who wins the game? Why? Final score prediction.
JD: I think Kansas City will probably win this game, if only because the Chiefs' track record at Allegiant Stadium is historically good. Patrick Mahomes has led Kansas City to a 3-0 start in a truncated return from a serious knee injury and looked totally at ease doing it. This Chiefs team is a well-oiled machine entering this AFC West showdown and I don't expect the Raiders to have quite enough firepower to slow Kansas City down, on either side of the ball.
Final score: Chiefs 29, Raiders 19
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Behind Enemy Lines: Previewing Raiders Week 4 game with Chiefs Wire