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Chiefs earn huge win over Raiders, despite Alex Smith's second-half meltdown

There’s been a saying making its way around Kansas City these days: “That’s my quarterback.”

That would be Alex Smith, and after the first half, the believers were out in full force. Smith had led — by his standards, even by Derek Carr standards — an aerial assault by throwing for 202 yards and dicing up the secondary of the first-place Oakland Raiders, with the Chiefs leading 21-10.

But this was the Smith many said didn’t exist, and the second half provided those folks all the evidence they’d gathered over the majority of his 12 NFL seasons. The Chiefs would hang on for a crucial victory, 21-13, that put them in the driver’s seat for the AFC West title and perhaps for a first-round bye in the playoffs.

We got the full Alex Smith Experience in this one. A very good first half followed by a bad second half. Can the Chiefs win a Super Bowl with him at quarterback? The question remains.

Alex Smith followed a very good first half with a terrible second half. Can he lead the Kansas City Chiefs to the promised land? (AP)
Alex Smith followed a very good first half with a terrible second half. Can he lead the Chiefs to the promised land? (AP)

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In the first half, Smith was precise, confident and even dangerous. And this was after the Chiefs got off to a disastrous start — a Tyreek Hill fumble four plays into the game, a failed Andy Reid challenge, a turnover on downs with some shaky play-calling.

Smith stepped up to deliver multiple deep strikes, including hitting Hill to the post for a touchdown and a 7-3 lead. Then Smith led a 78-yard drive to take a 14-3 lead, hitting on passes for 28 (Travis Kelce), 31 (Chris Conley) and 16 yards (Hill). When Hill took a punt back 78 yards for a score, it was all Chiefs — up 21-3 with six minutes left in the first half.

The Raiders drove 92 yards for a had-to-have-it touchdown right before halftime, and the double blow for the Chiefs was that during it they lost linebacker Derrick Johnson to an Achilles injury that appeared serious. The Chiefs appeared lost for a while after that point, having watched their emotional leader go down in a heap.

Perhaps that was Smith’s excuse. In his first four possessions of the second half, Smith:

  • Never saw Raiders corner T.J. Carrie, who jumped Jeremy Maclin’s in-cut for an unsightly interception on his second pass attempt of the half.

  • Held the ball low on his next dropback and had it strip-sacked by Khalil Mack, who almost had a scoop-and-score had he come up with it cleanly.

  • Took a ridiculous delay-of-game penalty on second-and-long and came up 2 yards short on third down before a punt.

  • Basically handed Raiders linebacker Malcolm Smith a gift interception on third down (which was dropped) and missed a wide-open Maclin, who would have had an easy first down. Andy Reid didn’t trust Smith on fourth-and-2 on the next play and took the delay of game after trying to draw the Raiders offsides.

Smith finished 17-of-26 passing for 264 yards with the two turnovers despite surpassing the 200-yard mark before halftime.

The Raiders ran off 10 straight points at the end of the second quarter and the start of the third, and it should have been more. Raiders holder Marquette King botched a high snap on Sebastian Janikowski’s field-goal attempt, and the Chiefs held them without points despite Oakland running five plays in the red zone.

Carr, who entered the game as an MVP candidate, had a terrible night. He completed 14 of his first 34 passes of the game for a mere 95 yards and was grimacing in the cold weather trying to throw with the pinkie injury he suffered 11 days ago against the Carolina Panthers. He finished 17-of-41 passing for 117 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.

The Raiders had their chances — dozens of them. But dropped passes (at least eight by our count), untimely penalties and shaky execution doomed them. They now temporarily drop from the No. 1 seed in the AFC to the fifth spot, with three games left.

With nine minutes left, Carr delivered his best pass of the game to a wide-open Amari Cooper down the field. It would have been a touchdown, but Cooper stumbled and couldn’t come down with it. On the Raiders’ next possession, they drove from their own 15-yard line to the Kansas City 14 but committed a false start on fourth-and-1 and then misfired on the next play for a turnover on downs.

Carr’s struggles was a big story. But Smith was lucky to come out with a win. His strong play in the first half was undercut so badly by that miserable third quarter that we’re left wondering whether the Chiefs must come up with massive plays each week on special teams and defense — likely without Johnson’s services going forward.

Is that the sound of a Super Bowl team? As big as Thursday’s victory was — and a reminder: Thursday football often brings out the worst in the best of players — it also was stained with the recurring belief that Smith might not be able to deliver on the biggest of stages.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!