Getty Kansas City Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis.
Following the Kansas City Chiefs’ 31-17 win over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 12, Raiders rookie QB Aidan O’Connell and Chiefs second-year DE George Karlaftis performed a jersey exchange.
O’Connell and Karlaftis, who played football together at Purdue, wrote personalized messages on their jerseys, with O’Connell’s being rather humorous.
“Thanks for not hitting me too hard,” O’Connell wrote on his jersey.
“Thanks for not hitting me too hard.” 😂
During the victory for Kansas City, O’Connell was sacked just once, and it was Karlaftis who did the honors.
O’Connell completed 23-of-33 pass attempts for 248 yards and threw 1 touchdown versus the Chiefs. Karlaftis registered 3 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and the 1 sack versus the Raiders.
Chiefs Beat Raiders in 1st Matchup of Season
After sputtering out consistently on offense in the first quarter, the Chiefs’ offense found plenty of footing for the remainder of the game, which led to the unit scoring 31 points against the division-rival Raiders.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed 27-of-34 pass attempts for 298 yards and 2 touchdowns. The leading receiver for Kansas City was rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice, who caught 8-of-10 targets for 107 yards and 1 touchdown. The leading rusher was running back Isiah Pacheco, who ran the ball 15 times for 55 yards and scored twice on the ground.
The Chiefs’ defense seemed a bit off when compared to recent performances; the unit didn’t force any turnovers, gave up a 50% conversion percentage on third down, and allowed O’Connell to complete 69% of his pass attempts, per ESPN. But the defense only surrendered 17 total points, which is all that mattered in the end. The unit allowed just 3 points in the second half, meanwhile, Kansas City’s offense put an end to its recent second-half woes by scoring 17 points during the final 30 minutes of play.
Rashee Rice is a star in the making! 🔥
Andy Reid Reacts to Week 12 Victory
Following the win over the Raiders, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid reacted to the victory, which improved Kansas City’s record to 8-3 on the season.
“Appreciate our fans and the support that they gave us today. They were great, and we feel you. And then congratulations to the team. We went down 14 points, it’s a tough thing to come back on that, but our guys battled back and I’m proud of that,” Reid said during his postgame press conference.
“Defensively, we ended up shutting down for three points in the second half, and offensively we were able to get some points on the board, so those are all positives. Rashee Rice, nice day with the eight receptions for over 100 yards. [Isiah] Pacheco, those are the toughest 55 yards I’ve ever been around. He had 15 carries, and he ran really hard. [Travis] Kelce was just under 100 yards and just continues to be amazing at his age, and then Pat [Patrick Mahomes] had a beautiful day as it went on with 298 yards throwing, a couple of TDs, no turnovers. And then like I said, defensively, the guys just kind of put the hammer down when needed. Started off a little bit slow and the guys just started making plays and really worked through their fundamentals. Again, compliments to the coaches for the job that they did. It’s a tough thing to do, to win a game like this after a big Monday night game and then Thanksgiving, you get that tryptophan hangover, so you got to work through that.”