Rookie Darren McFadden rushed for 164 yards in 21 attempts, including a 19 yard touchdown run, to lead the Oakland Raiders to a 23-8 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Raiders led by a narrow 6-0 score at the half, thanks to a pair of 1st quarter Sebastian Janikowski field goals, one of them from 56 yards out. McFadden rushed for his TD in the 3rd quarter and Janikowski connected on another three-pointer in the 4th to give the Raiders a 16-0 lead before the Chiefs managed to put points on the board.
Those points came on KC’s only scoring drive of the day. Tony Gonzalez grabbed a 2 yard touchdown pass from Tyler Thigpen to cap a 9 play, 80 yard drive. The Chiefs successfully went for the 2 point conversion with Thigpen passing to Mike Cox.
But it was too little, too late, as Michael Bush hit paydirt on a 32 yard TD run to give the Raiders the 23-8 win.
The Chiefs used three quarterbacks in the game: Thigpen completed 14 of 33 pass attempts for 151 yards and a touchdown. He also had one of his passes picked off. Damon Huard was 2 for 4 for 17 yards. Marques Hagans was 1 for 1 in the passing department for 5 yards.
The Chiefs were held to 55 net yards rushing, with Larry Johnson leading the way with 22 yards in 12 rushes.
Kansas City (0-2) heads south for a match-up, next week, with the Falcons in Atlanta.