Raiders offense: Gardner Minshew, Brock Bowers face tough sledding against Chiefs

Kansas City’s creative and domineering defense big reason team is unbeaten

Antonio Pierce left no ambiguity on what he wants from his Las Vegas Raiders this Sunday in a division showdown with the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs.

“We’ve got to limit the turnovers, right? It has to be zero, just has to be,” the head coach said during his mid-week media availability Wednesday.

That isn’t coach speak — it’s the stone cold truth for the Silver & Black. After a horrid four-turnover performance from quarterback Gardner Minshew in the team’s Week 7 20-15 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, no more turnovers is an apt message in the Raiders locker room. Minshew threw three interceptions and a fumble and all 20 of the Rams’ points came off said gaffes. It’s no wonder Minshew topped our Matt Holder’s Week 7 winners and losers list.

Overall, Las Vegas has a whopping 16 giveaways compared to a very meager three takeaways on the season. And with a struggling offense — that results in a defense seeing the field a ton and dwindling the unit’s own effectiveness over a duration of a 60-minute football game — turnovers loom large on the team’s 2-5 record. Incoming Kansas City is 6-0 and while the team has 10 giveaways thus far, it also has seven takeaways — three of which came in the team’s 28-18 win over the San Francisco 49ers this past Sunday.

Being smart with the football and executing the offense is paramount for Minshew and the Raiders. As is keeping remarkable rookie tight end Brock Bowers productive and a focal point of the Silver & Black attack. But Minshew and Bowers face tough sledding against the Chiefs. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is a creative play caller that orchestrates a domineering defense ranked fifth in the league in terms of points allowed (103) and 10th in yards yielded (1,837). The duo of defensive tackle Chris Jones and defensive end George Karlaftis III give Spagnuolo an effective inside and out pass rush duo that can wreck any offense’s best laid plans. And that can spell doom for Minshew who makes some of his worst mistakes while under pressure (he has miscues even in a clean pocket).

Minshew being off schedule and scrambling to avoid the heat can play right into the hands of disciplined linebacker crew and secondary the Chiefs boast as 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy experienced this past weekend throwing three interceptions.

The Raiders have no choice but to meet that challenge head-on and be as creative and domineering in the trenches as the Chiefs intend to be. That means left tackle Kolton Miller and rookie right tackle DJ Glaze keeping the edge rushers at bay and rookie left guard Jackson Johnson-Powers, right guard Jordan Meredith, and center Andre James keeping the interior clean. The matchup of the powerful Johnson-Powers and Jones is intriguing though as it’s a battle of two brutes.

“We’re not going to leave him on an island, I’m going to tell you that. It’ll be Jackson and the group, Jackson and five other guys,” Pierce noted. “But no, we cannot leave a rookie offensive lineman on Chris Jones, that’s not going to happen. Didn’t do it last year, don’t plan on doing it this year, because he’s going against obviously a premier, probably future hall of famer at defensive tackle, and to do that to a rookie, we’re not in that business. But excited to see it though, because he’s going to battle. It’s going to be a slug fest in there.”

Giving Minshew ample time to operate helps the Raiders offense as a whole, but namely Bowers. The Chiefs defense suffocated the 49ers passing attack last week but tight end George Kittle came away with six catches for 92 yards (on seven targets) with a long of 41. Las Vegas has potential to have that kind of production (maybe even more) due to Bowers route running in combination with Getsy scheming him open. The Raiders rookie hauled in 10 passes for 93 yards (on 14 targets) with a long of 25 last week.

Spagnuolo is going to devise every which way he can to limit Bowers and that’ll start with disrupting or dropping Minshew. But if given time, Bowers has the ability to make any defender look foolish in coverage. Which, to no surprise, makes the Georgia product a weekly rookie watch sensation.

Getting other pass catchers involved will help the overall offense — as will a functioning ground game. In last week’s loss, no other option caught more than three passes (wide receiver Tre Tucker, three for 36 yards; running back Alexander Mattison, three for 31 yards).

“We’ve got to get off of DBs and find a way to get open. We’ve got to protect. Everything goes into it, it’s not only the quarterback, not only the OC and the head coach,” Pierce noted earlier this week. “All 11, everybody involved in the game plan has got to do their part throughout. And then you’ve got to execute. I mean, there were opportunities there to get Tre Tucker getting the ball down the field, it didn’t happen, right? So, just keep going back to it, man. Keep going, keep calling, drawing it up, and hopefully we can let that ball rip and get it down the field. I think what will really help with Brock and our offense is just getting the running game going and being consistent for four quarters.”

Coaching and execution working hand-in-hand — that hasn’t happened consistently for the two-win Raiders.

But any given Sunday. A dialed-in effort from Las Vegas isn’t a far-fetched notion against a division foe — one that’s dominated the AFC West. But it’s going to take a collective effort from coaching to player execution, especially for an offense facing a Kansas City defense that has talent and consistent coaching, to boot.

Yet, Pierce’s Raiders are the last team to hand Andy Reid’s Chiefs a defeat — all the way back to Christmas Day, 2023.

Pierce readily admits that team isn’t the one we’re seeing today. That Raiders squad pummeled the Chiefs with a rumbling rushing attack that overpowered Kansas City. It was the wake up call that Reid said his team needed en route to another Super Bowl title.

Perhaps Pierce and Co. can deliver another rude awakening?

“We’re tired of losing the last three weeks. We’ll start there, right? We need to get this taste out our mouth,” Pierce said. “We’ve had opportunities to win those games, and we let them slip away for one reason or another. And now we got a divisional foe that we know very well. That’s all we’ve done is study. Our teams has talked about it. We’re fired up. We’re excited.”