How the Chiefs’ defense pitched 1st regular-season shutout of Andy Reid’s career
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Chiefs defense recorded Reid’s first regular-season shutout, dominating Raiders.
- Kansas City limited Las Vegas to 30 plays and zero points through control.
- Coaches and players credited scheme, preparation and execution for the shutout.
In 27 seasons as an NFL head coach with the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, Andy Reid had never recorded a shutout in the regular season.
Of course, that changed with Kansas City’s 31-0 rout of the Las Vegas Raiders — a performance so dominant that his postgame tone was almost apologetic.
“My heart goes out to Pete (Carroll),” Reid said of the Raiders’ head coach. “Pete and I have been doing this a long time, so you see him, and he gets that — the team with the injuries, man, that’s crushing for him, especially when (Maxx Crosby) goes out of the game.
“That’s a tough thing for a guy to go through, and I know it’s the Raiders, and I know we like to get after the Raiders, but you hate seeing that happen to his players.”
To Reid’s point, the Raiders played the Chiefs without two of their most important offensive players — tight end Brock Bowers and wide receiver Jakobi Meyers — and it showed.
In their first two possessions, Las Vegas ran just five plays before punting. The Raiders managed only four more plays the rest of the half, and none of their six second-half drives lasted more than four snaps.
“Shout-out, Spags,” KC cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “He’s the one that came up with the game plan, and everybody else executed it. The offense was rolling, defense was rolling, special teams was rolling — this was a really good game for the whole team.”
As the defense pitched its shutout, Kansas City’s offense kept piling on touchdowns, making it nearly impossible for the Raiders to respond. After the Chiefs went up 14-0 early in the second quarter, Carroll called rookie first-rounder Ashton Jeanty’s number three straight times.
Kansas City bottled up Jeanty on his first carry of the series, then an offensive offsides erased an 8-yard run. The Chiefs stopped Jeanty short of the line on second down and kept quarterback Geno Smith from escaping on third down.
“It was huge, especially their mentality of wanting to run the ball even if they’re down a couple scores,” Leo Chenal said. “We knew they wanted to establish the run and keep that going, so to be able to hold such a good running back to that is a huge credit to our guys, and we practiced for it all week.”
Jeanty had 21 rushing yards over only six carries, which were limited because the Chiefs kept scoring. Kansas City finished the game with 30 first downs; Las Vegas ran only 30 plays in total.
“That’s a testament to preparation throughout the week, the way we’ve been practicing with coach Reid,” defensive tackle Chris Jones said, “how we’ve been honing in on preparation so that we execute well as a whole, as a team, and it was able to show this game.”
Jones registered his first sack since Week 3 following a few games in which his quarterback pressure led to sacks for his teammates.
“I’ve been telling the guys all (week), Christmas gifts have been given out early — Charles (Omenihu) last week, the week before that, Charles again, George (Karlaftis) the week before that. So it’s finally good to touch the quarterback and get him down.”
Jones said he felt as fresh as he had in a long time before smiling wide.
“I played 23 plays,” he said.
