Patrick Mahomes will make a statement against the Raiders

The Kansas City Chiefs aren’t fulfilling their potential, but in Week 13, Patrick Mahomes will elevate this team against the reeling Oakland Raiders and show why the Chiefs are indeed legitimate Super Bowl contenders in the AFC.

If the Kansas City Chiefs could get it all to click, they would be the best team in the AFC. After all, they were one coin toss or Dee Ford offsides away from beating the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl last season and managed to go toe-to-toe with two of the NFL’s best teams when Patrick Mahomes was out with a dislocated kneecap.

However, the Chiefs haven’t quite put it all together yet in 2019. They are clearly the class of the AFC West with a 7-4 record, but that’s hardly much of an accomplishment when looking at the landscape of the division. No, the Chiefs don’t want to be the best of a mediocre bunch; their aim is to be the best of the best.

This Sunday, Kansas City will take on a reeling Oakland Raiders team coming off a shocking 34-3 loss to the hapless New York Jets. The story is Derek Carr’s benching, but it should be about the poor play of a Raiders defense littered with questions marks.

Question marks who will be exploited in the worst way possible by Mahomes.

The Chiefs star quarterback is in the midst of another ridiculously efficient season. Mahomes has a 110.0 QB Rating, averages a hefty 312 passing yards per game, and leads the league with 9.6 adjusted yards per pass attempt. He slings the ball to his vertical targets, piles up touchdowns, and only rarely gives the ball away. Statistically, Mahomes is the best pure passer in the NFL, boasting a 19:2 TD:INT ratio in 2019.

Mahomes is the Chiefs’ great equalizer. While the defense ranks 31st in first downs allowed, cannot stop the run to save their lives, and ranks near the bottom of the league in total yards allowed, the offense is a top-five unit across the board. And when looking at passing efficiency and yards per game, Kansas City is a top-three unit.

All of this spells disaster for the Raiders defense. They are ill-equipped to stop Mahomes, who has piled up big numbers while throwing it to the likes of Byron Pringle as  primary target. In Week 13, the MVP-caliber passer will once again have his full array of attacking weaponry. Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, and Sammy Watkins will all be ready to hand Oakland another embarrassment.

Fresh off a bye week, the Chiefs need to pick up a statement victory. Even though they defeated the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 11 to bounce back from a last-gasp loss to the Tennessee Titans, they only won by one score. For a team with Super Bowl aspirations, a bigger cushion is needed against clearly inferior competition.

When looking at the talent on both rosters, Oakland shouldn’t be on the same playing field as the Chiefs, even when accounting for the defensive issues on Andy Reid’s team. Because when the defense was forced to step up, such as when Mahomes went down on Thursday Night Football  against the Denver Broncos, they delivered.

While the Chiefs sort out their inconsistencies, they will look to Mahomes for leadership against a rival. This is Mahomes’ chance to remind NFL fans why he should always be in the MVP race, even if it seems like Lamar Jackson’s MVP triumph is a foregone conclusion. Mahomes must meet either Jackson in the postseason or Tom Brady in a rematch against the New England Patriots elite defense, but before then, he needs to elevate his team in rivalry games like this one.

The Chiefs weren’t convincing against Los Angeles, but Mahomes will have his team refocused for this bigger game against a 6-5 Raiders team. And the Raiders will be determined to start this game hot, avenging their awful Week 12 loss to the Jets.

Unfortunately for the Raiders, it won’t be enough. Mahomes will be ruthless in his execution, reenergized by the bye week and healthier after his rapid return from a dislocated knee. He’ll provide throwbacks to earlier in 2019 when he looked unstoppable.

Remember, Mahomes had 10 touchdowns and zero interceptions in his first three games, never putting up fewer than 374 passing yards or a completion percentage below 68%. When he last faced the Raiders in Week 2, Mahomes had a season-high 443 yards and four touchdowns, ending Jon Gruden’s team before they knew what hit them.

Don’t underestimate what a bye week can do for an offense, especially when it’s led by a quarterback who may have still been in pain after a knee injury. Mahomes is destined for a scary end to the 2019 regular season before the playoffs hit, and he will make an example out of the Raiders defense in a process of showing the NFL world he is the most special passer in the business.

More importantly, he’ll show the NFL world the Chiefs are right there with the Baltimore Ravens and Patriots as the AFC’s creme de la creme.