“Raider Week” is what turned the tide of this rivalry, and its existence to this day has helped the Kansas City Chiefs dominate the Raiders since 1989. When Marty Schottenheimer joined the Chiefs in 1989, he implemented “Raider Week,” an entire week dedicated to the sole goal of absolutely destroying the Raiders. Schottenheimer’s “Raider Week” managed to shift the entire dynamic of the rivalry, with Marty going 18-3 as head coach of the Chiefs. Aside from 1999-2001, the rivalry has been almost exclusively in favor of Kansas City.
Raider Week: A Look Into The Raiders Struggles Versus KC
The wars between the Raiders and Chiefs have been going on since 1960, and certainly, things haven’t been any less frosty than they are now. The rivalry might’ve peaked in terms of hatred in the 1960s and 1990s, but the feelings have continued on strong to this very day. Take the recent comments from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes from the new Netflix documentary “Quarterback,” for instance. “Raider Week is the one rivalry in this league that I feel is like a college rivalry. You have that little bit of hatred toward that team and you can feel the energy. It’s just different.”
Raiders WR Devante Adams (17) -David Eulitt/Getty Images
The Raiders, of course, have plenty of rivals. That comes with the territory when you set yourself up as professional football’s number one villain. The Denver Broncos are a definite contender for the Raiders’ biggest rival. The battles with Denver are often intense battles filled with fights and trash talk all game long. The rivalry, however, has somewhat waned in recent years. The Broncos have been cellar dwellers largely since Peyton Manning retired. On top of that, they haven’t beaten the Raiders since they moved to Las Vegas. Still, the Broncos do not have a “Raider Week.”
The Los Angeles Chargers are another contender for the biggest rival moniker. They owned the Raiders from 2004-2009 behind the strength of Ladanian Tomlinson, and their fans tend never to let Raiders fans forget those days. Justin Herbert is an elite quarterback, and the 2021 week 18 game was one of the most memorable regular season games arguably of all time. However, the Chargers have always felt more like an annoying younger sibling compared to Kansas City or Denver. Lacking a “Raider Week” and championship hardware also might contribute to these feelings.
Out of all of the Raiders’ rivalries, one has stood out above all of the others both for the animosity between both teams and the history involved. It feels a bit extra personal when it comes to the Chiefs. When your rival invents a literal hate week just to stir up emotions and continuously pounds your team into the dirt, it absolutely feels personal.
Currently, the Raiders are 3-17 against the Chiefs from 2013-2023, with wins coming in Oakland in 2014 and 2017 and 2020 in Kansas City. Overall, they are 54-72-2. The Chiefs own the Raiders in a way that no other team ever has, and they’re the only team in the AFC West with a positive record over the Silver and Black. Since the start of “Raider Week,” the Chiefs have swept the Raiders a dominating 18 times. The Raiders, meanwhile, have only managed to sweep the Chiefs 4 times in 2000, 2001, 2010, and 2012.
For the Raiders, there seems to be some sort of a mental block against the Chiefs that doesn’t exist against any other teams. Even when the Raiders are bad, they’ve been able to find ways to beat both Denver and Los Angeles. Take, for example, when Jamarcus Russell rose up to shockingly beat the playoff-contending Broncos in 2008 and 2009 in Denver, and Terrelle Pryor managed to upset the playoff-bound Chargers in 2013 despite the struggles the Raiders were undergoing in those years.
Raiders LB Denzel Perryman (52) – Reed Hoffmann/AP Photo
How Can the Raiders Turn the Tide?
The Chiefs, to their credit, have won two Super Bowls in recent years under Andy Reid and have been able to dominate the entire AFC West as a whole, as Patrick Mahomes only lost to the Raiders once in 2020 and twice to the Chargers in 2018 and 2021. They’ve been to the AFC Championship every season with Mahomes as their quarterback, and they’ve been to three Super Bowls. They’ve been able to dominate the entire league as a whole, not just the Raiders.
If the Raiders are going to overcome this Goliath, it’s going to take a lot. They have to embrace the underdog mentality. The Raiders have shown in the past they can compete with the Chiefs and keep it close, only to find a way to lose it in the end. It seems as though the games, especially in recent years, have either ended in a miserable close defeat or with the Chiefs literally dancing on the Raiders’ proverbial graves.
Nobody is expecting the Raiders to flip the script, especially this season. They have to realize this is potentially the time for them to sneak up and upset some teams. The Chiefs are now the team the Raiders used to be in older times. They are consistently winning the division every year and playing in championship games. They are the benchmark that the Raiders need to use to measure themselves up against others. Perhaps it’s time for a “Chiefs Week” to try and reverse the mental block the team seems to have when they go up against Kansas City.
This is a team that has big-time players such as Maxx Crosby and Devante Adams. Head coach Josh McDaniels managed to almost lead the team to a win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium last season, a venue the Raiders have only won at a whopping one time since 2013. No team is completely unbeatable, and the Chiefs are no different. If the Raiders want to turn the tide of “Raider Week,” they have to keep away from beating themselves once again, something they seem to heavily struggle with whenever they see red.
