Halftime at Oakland: Chiefs shake off early hiccups, power to big lead over Raiders

It’s been a tale of two quarters as the Chiefs lead the Raiders 28-10 at halftime Sunday.

The Chiefs, who scored on their first seven possessions in last week’s opener at Jacksonville, went scoreless in the first period on Sunday. The first two possessions were punted away.

The offense finally got some traction. On the first play of the second quarter, Patrick Mahomes found Demarcus Robinson open for a 44-yard touchdown pass. Until then, Mahomes had 35 passing yards and the Chiefs trailed 10-0.

The passing game seemed out of sync early. On the first series, Mecole Hardman appeared to not run a correct route, causing a Mahomes’ overthrow on third down. Chiefs’ pass receivers were having a difficult time getting open early.

Hardman’s touchdown

Hardman made up for his mistake later in the first half. On a third down made more challenging by an Austin Reiter holding penalty, the Chiefs needed 20 for the first down.

Instead, Hardman blew past the defense on a post and hauled in Mahomes’ rainbow for his first NFL touchdown. The play covered 42 yards, the drive 95 yards. Mahomes was money on the possession.

The Chiefs started at the 6 on their series and in two plays moved to the Raiders’ 20. The drive finished with Mahomes hit Travis Kelce from 27 yards for the touchdown. It was Kelce’s first touchdown catch of the year.

At that point, Mahomes had thrown for 239 yards in the second quarter. Last week at Jacksonville, his 211 passing yards in the first quarter were the second most in a first quarter in NFL history.

Mathieu’s gaffe

The worst defensive play of the half for the Chiefs? That’s easy. Safety Tyrann Mathieu got turned around on a deep ball from Derek Carr and lost Ryan Grant. Had Mathieu kept his eyes on the ball, he might have come up with a pass breakup or even a pick. Instead, he ran into Grant. The pass interference penalty cost the Chiefs 43 yards.

On third down, Carr hit Tyrell Williams in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.

Big Fish tries, can’t

Left tackle Eric Fisher started the game, but he was out in the first series. His availability was a game-time decision after he departed Friday’s practice early with a groin injury and was listed as questionable for the game. Cam Erving finished the half at the position.

Robinson, twice

Demarcus Robinson caught a pair of touchdown passes from Mahomes, going for 44 and 39 yards, respectively, pushing the score to 28-10 before halftime.

Mahomes and Robinson looked to be locked in, which helped the Chiefs’ passing game with Tyreek Hill sidelined indefinitely with a shoulder injury.

The second TD connection to Robinson gave Mahomes four touchdown passes in the second quarter. The last player to to do that was Aaron Rodgers for the Packers in 2014.