The Raiders-Chiefs matchup is bigger than a standard AFC West date. It goes back to the AFL, it runs through the old Oakland days, and it still carries the kind of heat that only comes from decades of repeated collisions. The Hunt and Davis families may be friendly away from the field, but on it, these teams have been enemies for a long, long time.
That history is why Sunday matters even before you get to the 3-0 records. Las Vegas and Kansas City both enter Week 4 unbeaten, which only sharpens a rivalry that already has plenty of edge. This is the latest chapter in a series that has been going since 1960, when the Chiefs were the Dallas Texans and the Raiders were in Oakland for the first time.
Kansas City owns the all-time series 76-56-2, and that gap makes sense when you zoom out to the last quarter-century. The Raiders have spent much of that stretch chasing. But the rivalry has swung back and forth over the decades, starting with Dallas winning five of the first six meetings before the franchise moved and became the Chiefs in 1963.
The Raiders then had their own surge after Al Davis shifted from head coach to general manager, winning eight of the next nine matchups, including a playoff game. Another strong Oakland run arrived in 1973, when the Silver and Black won 10 of 11 games against Kansas City through the end of the 1978 season. That was also the period when Oakland won its first Super Bowl, so the Raiders were on top of both the rivalry and the league.
Kansas City answered with a strong stretch of its own, then the 1990s turned into Chiefs territory in a hurry. The Chiefs won six straight from 1990 to 1992 and took 17 of 19 games in that decade, including a playoff win in 1991.
Oakland briefly flipped the script again at the start of the century, winning five in a row and six of seven, but Kansas City regained control from 2003 to October 2007 without losing to the Raiders. The Chiefs have really owned the matchup since December 2014, dropping only four games to Oakland/Las Vegas since then.
One of those, as noted, wasn’t really a regular-season game.
The lone postseason win for the Raiders over Kansas City came in the 1968 AFL division playoff, and it was a statement from the jump. After splitting the regular-season meetings and finishing 12-2, the teams met at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum after a coin toss gave the Raiders home-field advantage. That coin toss turned out to be a bad omen for the Chiefs.
John Rauch’s Raiders came out blazing, scoring 21 straight points in the first quarter before Kansas City could settle in. Daryle Lamonica carved up Hank Stram’s team, connecting with Fred Biletnikoff for two first-quarter touchdowns and Warren Wells for another.
After the Chiefs trimmed it to 21-6 with a pair of field goals, Lamonica hit Biletnikoff again and then found Wells again. George Blanda added two field goals, and Oakland rolled to a 41-6 blowout.
Lamonica finished with 347 yards and five touchdowns, with three going to Biletnikoff and two to Wells. Biletnikoff had 180 receiving yards and Wells added 93.
Charlie Smith contributed 126 scrimmage yards, while Pete Banaszak had 19 rushing yards. On the other side, Len Dawson threw four interceptions, with Willie Brown, Dan Conners, Jerry Hopkins and Nemiah Wilson each coming up with one.
The most recent meeting was about as far from that classic as you could get. In the final week of the 2025 NFL season, the Raiders beat the Chiefs 14-12 in a game that looked more like a preseason dress rehearsal than a rivalry showdown.
Las Vegas had already locked up the No. 1 pick, and Kansas City was without Patrick Mahomes and Gardner Minshew II. The Raiders were missing Geno Smith, Maxx Crosby, Brock Bowers, Jeremy Chinn and others.
Nobody found the end zone. Daniel Carlson kicked four field goals for Las Vegas, Tyree Wilson recorded a safety on Shane Buechele, and Harrison Butker matched Carlson with four field goals for Kansas City. The numbers were modest across the board: Kenny Pickett went 1-for-4 with an interception, Aidan O’Connell completed 10 of 22 passes for 102 yards, and Kansas City’s quarterbacks combined to go 18-for-31 for 146 yards while taking eight sacks.
Ashton Jeanty posted 94 scrimmage yards, Brashard Smith had 58, and the defensive pressure stood out most for Las Vegas. Tyree Wilson, Charles Snowden and Tonka Hemingway each finished with 2.0 sacks.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was still a win over the Chiefs. And with both teams unbeaten this time around, Sunday has a lot more juice than that 2025 finale ever did.
In Other News...
Raiders Fans Face A Familiar Allegiant Problem Before Chiefs Game
When Allegiant Stadium opened, Raiders fans were told it would give the team a true home-field edge in Las Vegas. Instead, Sundays against Kansas City have often turned into a familiar sight, with plenty of red in the stands and visiting fans making the trip well in advance of kickoff. With the Chiefs coming to town again on Sunday, the Raiders are once more bracing for a crowd that will not look especially friendly.
Raider Nation Radio host JT the Brick has been pushing a message Raiders fans have heard before: keep the tickets in Raiders hands and do not let them end up with opposing fans. Projections suggest 64 percent of the crowd will be wearing silver and black, which would make the Chiefs contingent a little smaller than in some previous meetings, but the bigger question for Las Vegas remains the same. At Allegiant, the home crowd has had to fight to sound and feel like one for a while now. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Get A Brock Bowers Twist Right Before Chiefs Game
Brock Bowers popped up on the injury report Friday with an illness, giving the Raiders a late-week wrinkle heading into Sundays matchup with the Chiefs. The rookie tight end has quickly become one of the more important pieces of Las Vegas offense, and the timing of any concern around him is less than ideal with Kansas City on deck.
The good news for the Raiders is that Bowers is still expected to play, even after being listed questionable. He already worked through an early-season absence after a meniscus trim and came back with a strong showing in Week 3, so Las Vegas has reason to believe this latest issue is more of a brief nuisance than a real setback. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Make Intriguing Chiefs Gameday Shakeup With Young Talent Involved
Aidan OConnell is back in the mix for the Raiders on Sunday, and his return to emergency third-quarterback duty was part of a noticeable Week 4 shuffle as Las Vegas adjusted its game-day roster for the trip to face Kansas City. The bigger personnel wrinkle for the Raiders came on the defensive side, where rookie Dalton Johnson was active for the first time and stepped in at safety, giving the coaching staff a fresh look in the secondary.
Las Vegas also turned to JJ Pegues over Jonah Laulu, another sign that the Raiders were willing to make some young-player decisions on a short week of roster management. It all comes against a Chiefs team missing starting left tackle Josh Simmons, a development that could influence how the matchup unfolds up front even before the Raiders get a chance to test their own new combinations on defense. [Read more 🡒]