Any goodwill the Las Vegas Raiders may have earned in their relatively uninspiring 20-10 Week 6 win over the Tennessee Titans quickly evaporated in their latest game. They went on the road to take on the Kansas City Chiefs, and it went about as poorly as anyone could have expected.
Understandably, Patrick Mahomes and co. absolutely eviscerated the Raiders' questionable defense, dropping 31 points with both Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy back in the lineup for the first time this season. KC has been explosive since getting Worthy back in Week 4 from his dislocated shoulder injury. There was no reason to expect that they wouldn't be able to cruise against Las Vegas with Rice coming back from suspension, too.
The only optimism for the Raiders keeping this game close was the hope that their offense could put up some points versus a solid, but pedestrian Chiefs defense. Instead, they were shut out, leading to a 31-0 blowout. Is there any hope left that Las Vegas' attack can turn things around this year and be a decent fantasy team?
Taking a glance at the Las Vegas Raiders' individual stats on the box score would lead one to believe that Geno Smith might have exited with an injury or something early in the game. He finished his afternoon with just 67 yards on 10-of-16 passing. He didn't even have any turnovers. He did fumble, but they didn't lose possession.
Instead, he just wasn't able to generate enough plays to keep the chains moving. Las Vegas continually moving backwards due to penalties didn't help either. Anyone who was banking on Smith to be a low-end starting QB in fantasy can give up on those hopes now, if they hadn't already.
Like Smith, Ashton Jeanty didn't have a bad statistical showing. However, with the Raiders falling down big early on, he hardly had any real opportunity to have an impact in this one. He had just six carries for 21 yards, adding a catch for a 13-yard gain, too.
That gave him 4.4 full-PPR points, his lowest of the season. Unfortunately, Jeanty's production as a running back is innately tied to the Raiders' ability to be competitive in their games. Anytime they go behind multiple scores, his impact will be mitigated, just like it was against the Chiefs. That makes him at least partially matchup dependent moving forward.
To get all of our fantasy takeaways after each Raiders game, find us on X (formerly Twitter) @HondoCarpenter and Instagram @HondoSr.
More must-reads:
Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!