Raiders fumble away game early, often in Kansas City

The Raiders couldn’t have imagined a worse start than Josh Jacobs fumbling on the opening play and the Chiefs running it back for a touchdown.

But somehow, things got even worse from there on Sunday.

Disappointment and embarrassment were buzzwords being thrown around almost as loosely as the grip the Raiders seemed to have on the football during an inconceivably bad first half that led to a 48-9 loss in Kansas City, Missouri.

“They came out and attacked us,” receiver Hunter Renfrow said. “They just hit us in the mouth.”

The Chiefs played well, but many of the Raiders’ wounds were self-inflicted.

It started with Jacobs on the opening play. He took a handoff and tried to bounce a run outside toward the left boundary. Jacobs appeared to already start losing control of the ball when Jarran Reed knocked it loose. Mike Hughes scooped up the ball and raced down the sideline for a score.

Tyron Johnson then bobbled the kickoff to put the Raiders at their own 11, though it didn’t cost them any points.

Kansas City eventually went up 14-0, at which point the wheels came off.

The Raiders punted and the Chiefs scored again. Trailing 21-0, Carr’s pass to Foster Moreau over the middle was bobbled into the hands of Tyrann Mathieu for an interception.

Kansas City cashed in with another touchdown.

“When that happens, your expectations start turning to, ‘What’s going to happen next?’” interim coach Rich Bisaccia said. “I think you saw a little bit of a snowball effect throughout the whole game.”

That could help explain what happened next. It was the normally sure-handed Hunter Renfrow’s turn to cough up a turnover. At the end of a long completion that would have finally set the Raiders up in Chiefs’ territory, Hughes stripped the receiver and Mathieu came up with the ball.

“It’s just one of those days that make you look back and reflect on how you practice and if you’ve let things slide in practice as far as ball security,” Renfrow said. “As we move on and go from week-to-week, we have to do a better job. Obviously, that was the biggest issue of the day. We can’t let that happen, myself included. You just have to get better from it.”

Of course, the Chiefs turned that turnover into seven more points to go up 35-0.

The Raiders answered with a field goal just before halftime on a drive that included their first play in Kansas City territory, which came with just 28 seconds to go in the half.

That brought a merciful end to a historically inept opening 30 minutes for the Raiders that saw the Raiders turn the ball over three times after committing just two first-half turnovers this season entering Sunday.

They were the first team to fall behind by 35 or more points since the final week of the 2019 season. It was also the first time a Raiders team had done so since November of 2018.

Sunday marked the first time the Raiders had three punts and three turnovers on their first six drives since 2009.

“I’d like to think you can prepare your team for adversity when it shows up,” Bisaccia said. “You’d rather it not show up on the first drive, but if it does, how are we going to respond? I didn’t think we responded well the whole day.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.