Before Sunday's 30-21 defeat against Buffalo, it had been a while since the Kansas City Chiefs lost. In fact, the now 9-1 Chiefs were riding a 15-game win streak entering Sunday, which dated back to Kansas City's 2023-24 season that ended with a Super Bowl 58 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
So, yeah, it had been a long time since we've seen Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes on the losing end of the football game. In fact, most probably don't remember that the last time the Chiefs did lose came on Christmas Day in Week 16 last year.
The game between the Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders was massively entertaining. It featured two defensive touchdowns, including a Patrick Mahomes pick-six, a missed Harrison Butker field goal, and a dominating defensive performance. Let's relive the last time the Chiefs lost, which came a little over 11 months ago.
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Last time Chiefs lost a game: Revisiting Christmas Day upset vs. Raiders
This game wasn't really on anyone's radar coming into it. The Raiders had fired head coach Josh McDaniels in early November, and Las Vegas was 6-8 on the season. Under then-interim head coach Antonio Pierce, the Raiders were 3-3, beating the Los Angeles Chargers 63-21 the week prior in a forgettable Thursday Night Football affair that saw Easton Stick start for L.A.
The Raiders were also riding with rookie quarterback Aidan O'Connell because Week 1 starter Jimmy Garroppolo was benched in favor of Las Vegas' fourth-round draft pick out of Purdue.
In his six games as the Raiders' QB1, O'Connell was playing pretty well, completing 62.50 percent of his passes for 1,300 yards, seven touchdowns, and five interceptions, three of which game during a Week 11 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
As for the Chiefs, Kansas City was having an up-and-down season. KC got off to a hot 6-1 start through the end of October but lost four of their next six games to Denver, Philadelphia, Green Bay, and Buffalo. The week before the home game against the Raiders, the Chiefs won 27-17 on the road against New England.
Kansas City had won the past five straight matchups against the Raiders and outscored Vegas by 99 points in those meetings. Unsurprisingly, Kansas City was an 11.5-point favorite at home on Christmas Day.
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How did the Raiders beat the Chiefs on Christmas Day 2023?
In Kansas City's first three possessions, Mahomes and the offense went three-and-out twice and had one drive that lasted just five plays, resulting in just eight yards. Vegas took the first lead of the day off a Daniel Carlson 24-yard field goal.
Kansas City found the end zone midway through the second quarter, but Vegas' defense kept making plays. In two consecutive possessions, the Raiders scored two defensive touchdowns and forced a Chiefs missed field goal.
- 4:55 left in 2Q: On 1st and 10, Isiah Pacheco fumbles, and Raiders defensive tackle Bilal Nichols returns it eight yards for a touchdown. Vegas' two-point conversion fails, but the Raiders lead 9-7.
- 4:48 left in 2Q: On the Chiefs' very next play Jack Jones picks off Mahomes and returns it 33 yards for a touchdown. Vegas' 2-point try this time is successful. Raiders lead 17-7.
- 0:09 left in 2Q: KC successfully drives down to the Vegas 18-yard-line, but Harrison Butker misses a 36-yard field goal wide left.
In the second half, even KC's second-half adjustments couldn't overcome the Raiders' defense. The Chiefs were held to two turnovers on downs— including one drive that ended on Las Vegas' 7-yard-line — and a punt. The Raiders added to its lead with a 35-yard field goal at the end of the third quarter.
The Chiefs finally found the end zone with 2:42 left, as Mahomes hit Justin Watson for a seven-yard touchdown to make it 20-14.
All Kansas City needed was to stop the Raiders' offense and get the ball back, but Las Vegas running back Zamir White, who was starting for an injured Josh Jacobs that week, had other ideas. He had a 43-yard run to put the Raiders deep into KC territory, and he added another run for a first down as the two-minute warning arrived. O'Connell was able to take a knee, thus sealing the Las Vegas upset victory.
O'Connell didn't have to do much, as he finished with nine completions for just 62 yards on the day. In fact, Vegas became the first NFL team since 2000 to win without completing a pass in the first quarter. The Raiders were also just the fifth team to win a game at Arrowhead without scoring an offensive touchdown.
The road win was won by the Raiders defense. The unit held the Chiefs to:
- -18 yards in the first quarter, the second-lowest for KC since at least 1991
- 5-for-16 on third down
- Just 85 rushing yards
- 4.2 yards per play
"That was one of our mantras," Pierce said after the game. "'By any means necessary.' We knew it was going to be a gritty game. It wasn't going to be a high-score (game), we didn't want it to be a high-scoring game."
With its two defensive touchdowns, Raiders also had their most defensive scores since 2005.
Pierce finished the season 1-1, going 5-4 overall since being named the interim. In mid-January of 2024, the Raiders removed Pierce's interim tag and made him the permanent head coach.
The Chiefs' season ended a little differently after this game. KC won their last six games to repeat as Super Bowl champions, and before Sunday's defeat against the Bills, the Chiefs hadn't lost a single game since this one to the Raiders.
Regardless, it's pretty wild to know that the last team to beat the Chiefs, prior to the Bills, was an interim-coached Raiders, whose quarterback had just 62 yards passing.
