3 Takeaways from Raiders' Week 11 Loss

The Las Vegas Raiders nearly did it again. After handing the Kansas City Chiefs their first loss of the season in Week 5, the Raiders were less than two minutes away from giving them their second. But that ended up being too much time.

Las Vegas fell to Kansas City 35-31 on Sunday night at Allegiant Stadium, as the AFC West rivals split their regular-season series. The Raiders took the lead with 1 minute, 43 seconds remaining when Derek Carr threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Jason Witten. However, the Chiefs quickly took back the lead, as Patrick Mahomes tossed a game-winning 22-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce with 28 seconds to go.

Neither team led by more than seven points in a competitive, back-and-forth affair. But in the end, Las Vegas fell to 6-4, bringing its three-game winning streak to an end.

Here are three takeaways from the Raiders' loss on Sunday.

When the Raiders beat the Chiefs in Week 5, Carr had one of his best showings of 2020. He passed for a season-high 347 yards and three touchdowns in the 40-32 victory. That's the type of performance that's needed for a quarterback to keep pace with Kansas City's offense, led by former NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes.

On Sunday night, Carr played well once again, passing for 275 yards and three touchdowns. Over Las Vegas' previous three games, Carr hadn't thrown for more than 165 yards. And he hadn't had a three-touchdown game since its last meeting with Kansas City.

Carr has passed for 2,431 yards, 19 touchdowns and three interceptions in 10 games this season. And he's certainly played his best when going up against the AFC West-leading Chiefs.

"That’s as good as you can play," Raiders coach Jon Gruden said, per Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Plus, had four or five balls that were magnificent throws that we could have caught but didn’t make the play on. He played tremendous. He was almost flawless."

If Las Vegas would have had more time at the end, perhaps the result would have been different. After Kansas City took the lead, the Raiders got the ball at their own 25-yard line with 19 seconds remaining. Carr tried to force a pass on the first play and was intercepted, thus ending the game. It was one of the few rare blemishes for 29-year-old.

Now in his 17th NFL season, Witten hasn't been too heavily involved in the passing attack in his first year with the Raiders. The 38-year-old tight end hasn't been targeted more than twice in a game this season, and he entered Sunday with only one touchdown in 2020.

But Witten made the most of his lone target against the Chiefs, and it led to him scoring his second touchdown this season. On a 3rd-and-goal at the Kansas City 1-yard line late in the fourth quarter, Carr extended the play by escaping the pocket and eventually rolling out to his right. He then found Witten just inside the end zone and connected with the veteran for the score.

Although Witten is no longer in his prime, he can still contribute at times, as evidenced by this big play. It could have been the game-winning score had Las Vegas' defense been able to hold off Kansas City and get a stop on its eventual winning drive.

The Raiders may not have pulled out the win, but Witten remains optimistic about the team moving forward.

"We’ve got a lot of football ahead of us," Witten said, per Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Disappointing loss. We got to watch that tape with a critical eye and get better."

Last year, the Raiders got off to a 6-4 start, then they lost five of their last six games and missed the playoffs. This year, they'll look for a different end result after again opening the year 6-4.

And Las Vegas is in a much better position to make that happen. Four of its last six regular-season games are against teams with losing records. The next two weeks, it goes on the road to face the Atlanta Falcons (3-7) and New York Jets (0-10), so it should have the opportunity to reestablish its momentum after Sunday's loss.

Seven teams from each conference will make the playoffs this year, so if the season ended today, the Raiders would currently be in as the No. 7 seed. But the AFC wild-card race is tight, and Las Vegas would be in via tiebreaker over the Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins, who are both also 6-4. So, every game is going to be crucial for these teams down the stretch.

But even in defeat, the Raiders have played well against strong competition. And they're still the only team that owns a win over the Chiefs in 2020. So they're proving they're worthy of making the playoffs, they just need to win enough games the rest of the way to make it there.

The Raiders have only made the playoffs once in the past 17 seasons. That was in 2016, and they lost their first game of the postseason that year.