The Chiefs and Raiders are both 3-0 for the first time ever when they meet in Las Vegas in Week 4, and that alone gives this AFC West matchup a different kind of edge.
Kansas City’s perfect start is familiar territory under Andy Reid. This is the seventh 3-0 opening of the Reid era, which began in 2013, and the fifth since Patrick Mahomes took over as starter in 2018. Mahomes helped keep that run going Sunday with two touchdown passes in a 24-10 win at Miami.
Las Vegas, meanwhile, has been the early surprise. The Raiders have already matched last season’s win total of 3-14, and they’ve done it by stacking together a home win over the Miami Dolphins, a road victory at the LA Chargers and Sunday’s 35-27 win at New Orleans. In that game, quarterback Kirk Cousins threw for three touchdowns.
After the Saints win, veteran edge rusher Maxx Crosby made sure the locker room knew what was next.
“We got a (freaking) great team coming to town,” he shouted to his teammates in the locker room. “We already know what it is, bro. It’s the (freaking) Kansas City Chiefs.”
The Raiders have reached 3-0 only once since 2002, which puts this start in sharp relief. For Kansas City, it’s a more routine kind of hot start, but still a strong one - and now it gets tested on the road in a place where the Chiefs won on the way to Super Bowl LVII.
The game is Sunday, Oct. 4, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, with kickoff set for 3:25 p.m. Central.
CBS/Paramount will carry the broadcast, with Channel 5 in Kansas City and Channel 12 in Wichita. On radio, the game will air on KFNZ (96.5 FM) in Kansas City and KNSS (98.7 FM) in the Wichita area.
On the betting board, the Chiefs opened as a 5 1/2-point favorite at Draft Kings, with the over/under at 47 1/2. Kansas City is 2-1 against the spread this season, including a cover as a 10 1/2-point favorite in its Week 3 win over the Dolphins.
In Other News...
Former Chiefs LB Leo Chenal In Frightening Injury Situation
Leo Chenals exit from the Commanders Week 3 game against the Seahawks brought a sobering pause to a matchup that had already been demanding physically. The former Chiefs linebacker, now in Washington after four seasons in Kansas City, suffered a neck injury and was taken off the field on a stretcher, turning immediate attention away from the scoreboard and toward his health.
Commanders coach Dan Quinn later said Chenal has feeling in his extremities and is undergoing further testing at the hospital, which offered at least some initial relief after a frightening scene. For Chiefs fans who watched Chenal develop into a reliable piece of their defense, the update is hard to process, and it leaves Washington waiting for more clarity on a player they invested in with a three-year deal. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Broadcast Had An Awkward Taylor Swift Moment Sunday
Taylor Swift had a perfectly good reason to miss the Chiefs-Dolphins game Sunday, since she was in Los Angeles at the MTV Video Music Awards for the debut of her Agent Zero video. Back in Kansas City, Travis Kelce still gave the home crowd something to celebrate, finding the end zone in a game that, for plenty of viewers, had one eye on the field and another on the broadcasts reaction shots.
The awkward part came on the CBS telecast, where the crew briefly went looking for Swift at the stadium without realizing she was halfway across the country. For Chiefs fans, it was a small but familiar reminder of how much attention follows the Kelce-Swift orbit, even on nights when the biggest pop star in the picture is nowhere near the building. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Just Got Dragged Into Another Officiating Firestorm
The latest Chiefs game has once again put the officials under a microscope, this time after a play in which a Kansas City defender grabbed and pulled at Malik Willis helmet while bringing him down, yet no penalty was flagged. The no-call quickly became a flashpoint, with fans across social media zeroing in on what they saw as a clear miss and another example of how every close call involving Kansas City seems to draw instant scrutiny.
For the Chiefs, it is the kind of controversy that has started to follow them even when the football itself is only part of the conversation. Any play like this feeds a larger debate around perceived officiating favoritism, and the reaction was immediate enough to ensure the clip would keep circulating well after the game ended. Whether the league or officials address it directly is one thing, but the bigger issue is that these moments now arrive with built-in suspicion attached. [Read more 🡒]