Las Vegas Raiders vs Kansas City Chiefs Match Player Stats: Two Very Different Games, One Wild Season

If you follow the AFC West at all, you know that Raiders vs. Chiefs is never just a football game. There’s history. There’s bad blood. There’s the feeling that something strange is always about to happen.

The 2025 NFL season gave us two meetings between these teams — and honestly, they couldn’t have been more different from each other. One was a flat-out embarrassment. The other was one of the weirdest, most entertaining ugly games you’ll see all year. Let’s talk through both, what the player stats actually told us, and what it all means for two franchises heading in very different directions.

Key Facts

Detail	Game 1 (Oct 19, 2025)	Game 2 (Jan 4, 2026)
Location	Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City	Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas
Final Score	Chiefs 31, Raiders 0	Raiders 14, Chiefs 12
Total Plays (KC)	77	62
Total Plays (LV)	30	61
KC Total Yards	434	168
LV Total Yards	95	204
Possession Time (KC)	42:08	29:16
Possession Time (LV)	17:52	30:44
KC Turnovers	0	2
LV Turnovers	1	2
KC Sacks Given Up	1	8
LV Penalties	8 for 58 yards	2 for 10 yards
LV Field Goals Made	0 (0 attempts)	4-for-4
KC Passer Rating	126.6	70.1
LV Passer Rating	75.0	38.1

Game 1 — October 19, 2025: Kansas City 31, Las Vegas 0

Let me be honest with you. This one wasn’t a game. It was a demolition.

The Chiefs ran 77 plays. The Raiders ran 30. Think about that for a second. Kansas City had the ball for 42 minutes out of 60. Las Vegas barely got on the field. When your opponent controls the ball for that long, you’re not really playing football — you’re just standing there watching them score.

What Patrick Mahomes Did That Day

Mahomes was clinical. He completed 26 of 35 passes for 286 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions. His passer rating was 126.6 — which is excellent by any measure.

He averaged 7.8 yards per attempt. That’s the kind of number that tells you a quarterback isn’t just throwing dump-offs to kill clock. He was moving the ball efficiently in chunks.

He hit Rashee Rice twice for touchdowns — a short two-yarder in the first quarter and a three-yarder just before halftime to make it 21-0. Marquise Brown caught the other TD, an eight-yarder in the second quarter.

Rice ended up as the top target, and Mahomes spread the ball to 26 different catches across his receiving corps. His air yards on the day were 132 — meaning he was pushing the ball down the field, not just checking down constantly.

Mahomes was only sacked once, and the Chiefs had the ball so long that the Raiders’ pass rush barely had a chance to get going.

Isiah Pacheco Added the Ground Game

Kansas City ran the ball 41 times for 152 yards. That’s a 3.7 average — solid, not spectacular — but when you run it that many times, it doesn’t need to be explosive. It just needs to wear the defense down.

Pacheco punched in a rushing touchdown from seven yards out in the third quarter. By that point, the game was already over emotionally. The Chiefs were just putting finishing touches on it.

The Raiders Offense Was Barely There

Las Vegas managed 95 total yards. Ninety-five. That’s a number you’d expect from a bad high school team, not an NFL franchise.

Their quarterback — working against a confident Chiefs defense — completed 12 of 18 passes for just 75 yards. No touchdowns. No interceptions. A passer rating of 75.0, which sounds okay until you realize they averaged just 3.7 yards per attempt. Almost everything was a short throw underneath, and even those weren’t moving the chains.

The Raiders ran the ball 11 times for 25 yards. Their longest run of the day was eight yards.

They punted six times, got eight penalties for 58 yards, and never once threatened the end zone. Zero red zone appearances on offense. The Chiefs’ defense allowed zero points, zero touchdowns, and generated a fumble recovery while giving up just 3 first downs to the Raiders all game long.

Three first downs. In a 60-minute professional football game.

By the fourth quarter, both teams were effectively just running out the clock. The Chiefs didn’t score in the final quarter. There was nothing left to prove.

Game 2 — January 4, 2026: Las Vegas 14, Kansas City 12

Now this is where it gets interesting.

This was the final week of the regular season. The Chiefs had already clinched their division. They were resting starters, managing bodies, looking ahead to the playoffs. The Raiders were fighting for nothing except pride — and possibly trying to prove something to a fanbase that had watched a brutal year unfold.

And somehow, this ugly, grinding, deeply weird game turned out to be one of the more entertaining matchups of the weekend.

A Game Decided Almost Entirely by Kickers

Here’s the thing: neither team scored a single offensive touchdown. Not one.

The Raiders won on four Daniel Carlson field goals — from 32, 23, 55, and a stunning 60-yard bomb with 13 seconds left in the game. That 60-yarder was the walk-off winner. Carlson was 4-for-4 on the day and clearly the best offensive player in the building.

Kansas City’s Harrison Butker answered with four field goals of his own — 36, 40, 47, and 41 yards. Butker was also perfect on the day. The difference was timing, not accuracy.

The Raiders also got a safety in the fourth quarter when T. Wilson dropped the Chiefs’ backup quarterback, Spencer Buechele, in the end zone for a loss of 10 yards. That safety pushed the Raiders to 11-6 at the time and shifted the late-game math.

So the final scoring summary reads: four field goals, four field goals, one safety. No offensive touchdowns anywhere. In an NFL regular season finale. It sounds like a made-up scenario, but it happened.

What the Raiders Defense Accomplished

The real story of Game 2 was the Raiders’ pass rush. Las Vegas sacked Kansas City’s quarterbacks eight times for 62 yards of losses. Eight sacks. The Chiefs’ offensive line — which had been protecting Mahomes for years like it was their personal mission in life — completely fell apart.

The Raiders generated 14 quarterback hits, forced three fumbles (recovering two), and batted four passes at the line of scrimmage.

Kansas City’s backup quarterback, Buechele, completed 18 of 30 passes for just 146 yards and a passer rating of 70.1. With eight sacks behind him and a defense that simply had nothing to lose, the Chiefs’ offense had no answers.

Kansas City managed just 168 total yards. In the first game, they had 434.

The Las Vegas Passing Offense Was Still Struggling

Let’s not pretend the Raiders were suddenly playing great football. They weren’t.

Their passing stats were rough. 11 completions on 26 attempts. A passer rating of 38.1. Eight poor throws. Three sacks given up. One interception.

But here’s the thing — they didn’t need the passing game. The defense kept Kansas City’s offense almost completely suppressed. Carlson kept putting points on the board with his leg. And when the moment came, with 13 seconds left and the ball on around the KC 43-yard line, Carlson stepped up and sent a 60-yard kick through the uprights.

That’s how you win a game when your quarterback is struggling.

The Raiders Running Game Was Their Foundation

Las Vegas ran 32 times for 118 yards in Game 2. That’s a 3.7 average — same as Kansas City ran the ball in Game 1, funnily enough. It won’t excite anyone, but grinding out runs and controlling the clock mattered.

Their possession time was almost exactly split — 30:44 for the Raiders, 29:16 for the Chiefs. Completely different from Game 1, where it was 42:08 vs. 17:52.

When a team controls the clock evenly and its defense is playing out of its mind, that’s a recipe for a grinding upset — which is exactly what happened.

The Rivalry in Context

The Raiders and Chiefs have been AFC West rivals for over six decades. Back when the teams were in the AFL, before the NFL merger in 1970, these franchises were already going at it. The Chiefs dominated many eras of this matchup. The Raiders had their glory years — Super Bowl wins, Hall of Fame players, a reputation for toughness and rebellion that became part of American sports culture.

Then came the Patrick Mahomes era. From 2018 onward, Kansas City became the class of the AFC. Multiple Super Bowl appearances, multiple championships, a quarterback who seems capable of doing impossible things with a football.

The Raiders, in honest terms, have spent most of this period being rebuilt, relocated (from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020), and looking for their own identity. The 2025 season was particularly rough — a 4-13 record heading into that final week against the Chiefs, one of the worst seasons in recent franchise memory.

But that final-week win? Even in a resting-starters scenario for Kansas City, it mattered to the Raiders. It always does.

What the Stats Tell Us About Each Team

Looking across both games together, some clear patterns show up.

Kansas City’s strengths are well-documented. When Mahomes is healthy and the offense is clicking, they generate yards in huge quantities, control possession, and score through the air with efficiency. The Game 1 numbers — 434 yards, 126.6 passer rating, 42 minutes of possession — represent what a functioning Chiefs offense looks like.

Las Vegas’s biggest problem in 2025 was consistency. In Game 1 they had 95 yards. In Game 2 they had 204. The passing game was unreliable in both. But when the defense played well and the run game provided a foundation, the Raiders were capable of hanging around.

The Raiders’ defensive performance in Game 2 was genuinely impressive. Eight sacks, 14 QB hits, two fumble recoveries, four passes batted at the line. That’s not a bad defense getting lucky — that’s a front that played with real aggression and got results.

Both teams struggled with turnovers in Game 2. Kansas City lost two fumbles. Las Vegas had two turnovers of their own. When two teams are both turning the ball over and struggling to move it consistently, whoever makes fewer critical mistakes in the fourth quarter usually wins. That was Las Vegas, barely.

What Happened to Mahomes in Game 2?

Worth addressing directly: the Chiefs were clearly not playing Mahomes for a full game in a meaningless final regular-season contest. The backup started. The offensive line wasn’t at full intensity. The game plan was conservative.

Some Raiders fans might say a win is a win regardless of circumstances. And they’re right in the sense that the scoreboard says 14-12. But it would also be a little unfair to compare the Chiefs’ Game 2 performance — with a backup, with nothing on the line — to their Game 1 effort when Mahomes was locked in and the team was fighting to maintain seeding.

That’s just honest context, not an excuse.

The Carlson Factor

Daniel Carlson deserves a separate paragraph just for what he did on January 4th. Four field goals. Perfect on all four. The final one from 60 yards with 13 seconds left to win the game.

Kickers are often the most underappreciated players on any NFL roster. They don’t get highlight reels. They don’t show up in fantasy sports discussions much. But in a game where neither offense scored a touchdown, the kicker was the difference between winning and losing.

Carlson’s 60-yarder tied or broke a franchise record depending on how you look at it. More importantly, it turned a season defined by losses into one that ended with a genuine dramatic moment. For whatever that’s worth to a 5-12 team, it was something real.

Final Thoughts

Two games. Two completely different stories.

One was a statement. The Chiefs walked into their own house, controlled every minute of the game, and shut out a divisional rival without breaking a sweat. Mahomes was precise. The defense was suffocating. Kansas City looked like exactly the kind of team that belongs in the playoffs.

The other was a chess match played with duct tape and field goals, decided by a 60-yard kick and a safety. Neither offense could do much. Both kickers were perfect. The Raiders’ defense played one of its best games of the year.

The Chiefs were focused on January. The Raiders were focused on that Sunday. And for one afternoon in Las Vegas, that made all the difference.

FAQs

1. What was the final score of the first Raiders-Chiefs game in 2025?

Las Vegas Raiders 0, Kansas City Chiefs 31. It was played October 19, 2025 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

2. What was the final score of the second meeting?

Las Vegas Raiders 14, Kansas City Chiefs 12. Played January 4, 2026 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

3. How did the Raiders win without scoring a touchdown?

They scored entirely on four Daniel Carlson field goals (32, 23, 55, and 60 yards) and a safety when T. Wilson sacked the Chiefs quarterback in the end zone.

4. What were Mahomes’s stats in Game 1?

26 completions on 35 attempts, 286 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and a passer rating of 126.6.

5. Did Mahomes play in Game 2?

The Chiefs were resting key starters for the playoffs in the season finale, so backup quarterback Spencer Buechele started Game 2.

6. How many sacks did the Raiders have in Game 2?

Eight sacks for 62 yards of losses — one of their best defensive performances of the season.

7. How many total yards did Las Vegas have in Game 1?

Just 95 total yards — an extremely low number for a professional NFL game.

8. Who scored all three Chiefs touchdowns in Game 1?

Rashee Rice caught two touchdown passes (2 yards and 3 yards), Marquise Brown caught one (8 yards), and Isiah Pacheco ran for one touchdown from seven yards out.

9. How long was Daniel Carlson’s game-winning field goal?

60 yards, made with 13 seconds left in the fourth quarter to give the Raiders a 14-12 victory.

10. How different was possession time between the two games?

In Game 1, Kansas City held the ball for 42:08 vs. Las Vegas’s 17:52. In Game 2, it was nearly even — 30:44 for the Raiders and 29:16 for the Chiefs.

11. What was the Raiders’ passer rating in both games?

75.0 in Game 1 and 38.1 in Game 2. The passing offense struggled in both matchups.

12. How many penalties did the Raiders have in Game 1 vs. Game 2?

8 penalties for 58 yards in Game 1. Just 2 penalties for 10 yards in Game 2 — a big improvement in discipline.

13. What does this series mean for the long-term rivalry?

The Chiefs still dominate this rivalry overall, especially during the Mahomes era. But the Game 2 win showed that when the Raiders play disciplined, aggressive defense and don’t beat themselves with penalties and turnovers, they can compete — even against a traditionally superior opponent.

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