Oakland makes K.C. pay for 4 turnovers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Raiders let the Kansas City Chiefs do what they do best – commit turnovers – and moved back into the AFC West race.

The Chiefs added to their league-leading turnover total with two fumbles and two interceptions, and the Raiders took full advantage to win 26-16 Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Raiders (3-4) are tied with San Diego, one game behind Denver (4-3), which beat New Orleans on Sunday.

Oakland lost the ball only once, on an interception by ex-Raider Stanford Routt against Carson Palmer on the first snap of the game.

While the Raiders were spotty in terms of execution, they took care of the ball and exerted their superiority on both sides of the line of scrimmage to win in Kansas City for the sixth consecutive time.

"We left some plays out there on the field," Raiders coach Dennis Allen said. "We still have a lot of things we've got to get cleaned up, a lot of things we've got to get better at doing. But the good thing is we get to make those corrections after a win."

Palmer threw touchdown passes of nine yards to Denarius Moore and 32 yards to Darrius Heyward-Bey, and Sebastian Janikowski continued to make Arrowhead his personal playground, making all four of his field-goal attempts.

The field goals were consolation prizes. Oakland had three first-and-10 chances from the Chiefs' 24 or closer that resulted in field goals.

"We had opportunities to score and didn't capitalize, so we're going to go back and continue to work and find ways to get better in the red zone," Palmer said after completing 14 of 28 passes for 209 yards.

Kansas City (1-6) had three field goals from Ryan Succup and didn't score a touchdown until Matt Cassel hit Dexter McCluster for a 10-yard score with 2:27 to play. Cassel took over in the second quarter for Brady Quinn, who left because of a possible concussion.

The Raiders caught a huge break late in the first half with the score 6-6. Chiefs return specialist Javier Arenas mishandled a punt, and long snapper Jon Condo recovered at the Kansas City 11 with 1:39 left.

"Shane (Lechler) put that ball up there high, and it was floating," Condo said. "It was going back and forth. You could see him (wavering), and you just never know. I was taught at a young age that good things happen when you get around the ball."

The Raiders found themselves with a third and eight, but instead of a field goal, Palmer found Moore in the back of the end zone with Routt trailing the play for a 13-6 lead. It was one of two third-down conversions by the Raiders.

"It was huge, huge to get seven points at that point in the game, and it was a big break and a big momentum builder for us," Allen said.

The Raiders seized control with 5:40 left in the third quarter with their only sustained drive that resulted in a touchdown. Heyward-Bey shook loose from Routt on a short pass and raced for the score.

That touchdown came after a 52-yard Succup field goal that made it 16-9.

Palmer said the plan was to go at Routt from the outset.

"Obviously, they were trying me," Routt said. "You think about that with every team and every quarterback you go against as a corner. It wasn't anything deeper than what you guys are trying to make it out to be."

• Read more articles by Jerry McDonald

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