Silver And Black Pride
Put the Chiefs and Raiders side-by-side and you get a stark comparison.
Kansas City has a top 10 offense — both in terms of scoring and yards gained (ninth and eighth, respectively) — and is just outside the top 10 defensively — 11th in points allowed, 12th in yards yielded). Las Vegas, meanwhile, has one the worst offenses (29th in scoring, 23rd in yards gained) and topsy turvy defense (23rd in points allowed, 11th in yards yielded).
The Chiefs boast a franchise quarterback Patrick Mahomes and accomplished head coach Andy Reid — both of whom are headed to Canton when their done. The Raiders trot out a helter skelter signal caller in Geno Smith with a cosmopolitan coach in Pete Carroll — the latter likely a hall of famer when he’s done.
Heck, Kansas City allegedly has the advantage regarding favorable officiating, a UTEP study found.
Despite the differences between the Chiefs (3-3 overall) and Raiders (2-4), there’s a eerie similarity between the two: The kicking game.
Harrison Butker, who has been the Chiefs place kicker since 2017, and Daniel Carlson, the Raiders kicker since 2018, are identical in terms of field goal makes and attempts through six games: 11 made, 14 attempted. The pair of 30-year-old kickers sport twin 78.6 percent conversion rates which puts both under the league average of 83.8 percent.
Butker is perfect from distances of 20 to 39 yards with his misses coming from 40 to 50-plus yards out. In comparison, Carlson is equally perfect from the 20 to 39 yard distances but also 40 to 49. His misses stem from 50-plus yards out (one of them a blocked field goal attempt).
The difference between the two AFC West place kickers lies in extra points. Butker has attempted way more at 17, but his 14 makes gives him a 82.4 percent conversion rate. The league average rate is 95.8 percent. Carlson, for example, has attempted less than half of Butker’s number at eight, but he’s made all of them for a 100 percent rate.
It may seem miniscule and irrelevant — largely due to the Chiefs scoring points in droves — but if Butker made all of his extra points and field goals, Kansas City’s point total would read 170 which would vault the team to the fourth-most points ahead of the Buffalo Bills’ 167 sum.
Flip it to the punters, and there’s similarities between the Raiders’ AJ Cole III and the Chiefs’ Matt Araiza.
Cole has punted the ball 18 times for 884 yards while Araiza has booted the ball to the other team 15 times for 680 yards. Cole has the edge in terms of average yards per punt at 49.1 to Ariaza’s 45.3, but in other categories, Kansas City’s punter has the advantage. Opponent’s have only generated 30 return yards due to Araiza’s hang time and ability to pin nine punts inside the opposition’s 20-yard line. That gives him a 43.3 net yard average per boot.
Returners...
