Two of the top three teams in the AFC were to meet up on Monday night to help clear the smoke a bit for the playoff seeding. By now everybody is fully aware that the Bills at Bengals game was cancelled after the cardiac arrest of Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin (who is progressing nicely) but that still leaves some things up in the air for the Chiefs at Raiders betting matchup.
Kansas City’s best approach on Saturday afternoon is to get the win over the Raiders to get to 14-3 to stay right in line with the Bills, who would be 13-3 if they beat the Patriots on Sunday. The Chiefs are expected to get the W as they are -9.5 road favorites but 63% of the betting public like the Raiders to cover the number.
Chiefs Have Had Some Close Calls
Kansas City giving 9.5 points in the Chiefs at Raiders betting matchup seems like a steep number considering K.C. hasn’t really ran away from teams lately. They squeaked by the lowly Broncos 27-24 at home last week as -13.5 favorites and a couple games prior needed OT to pick up a 30-24 OT win over the 2-win Texans.
K.C. not blowing away teams recently isn’t necessarily on Patrick Mahomes’ shoulders as he has multiple TDs in four straight games and was even sharp vs. the Texans going 36/41 for 336 yards and 2 TDs.
One thing to note for the Chiefs is that Travis Kelce is on a 5-game scoreless streak, but Kansas City has also won four of those games – last falling to the Bengals 27-24 in week 13. K.C. also barely edged out Las Vegas in week 5, winning 30-29 as -7.5 favorites but Kelce caught 4 TDs in that contest.
Raiders Looking Towards the Future
Things didn’t go as planned for Las Vegas this season after acquiring All-Pro WR Davante Adams from Green Bay and bringing in supposed offensive mastermind Josh McDaniels as their new coach. The Raiders have posted decent defensive numbers (11th in total yards, 11th in passing, 12th in scoring) and Adams had 1,443 yards but Las Vegas couldn’t just win the close one this year.
They don’t hand out trophies for this, but Las Vegas is probably the best 6-10 team in the NFL heading into the final week of the regular season. Of those 10 losses, 9 of them have come by one score. Close games don’t count though and the defeats still cost QB Derek Carr his job for the remainder of the year.
Jarrett Stidham stepped in at QB for Carr last week and played well, going 23/34 for 365 yards with 3 TDs, but also threw 2 INTs in a hard fought 37-34 OT loss to the 49ers as +10 point underdogs. Adams caught 7 balls for 153 yards and 2 TDs against a good SF defense so the QB change didn’t affect him.
Free Chiefs at Raiders Betting Pick
A few of the names have changed ahead of the final 2022/23 meeting between the Chiefs and Raiders, but this matchup has still been relatively tight with three of the last five decided by one score. K.C. is going to get caught looking ahead a bit to the postseason, allowing Las Vegas to cover but not necessarily win outright.
Free Pick: Las Vegas Raiders +9.5
