KANSAS CITY, Mo. — No defense in the NFL has dominated running backs more than the Kansas City Chiefs, and it’s certainly not by accident.
“Being able to stop the run is the primary goal every single week as a front seven, as a defense,” defensive end George Karlaftis said. “When we make them one dimensional, that’s what we want them to be.”
Karlaftis had two tickles and a quarterback pressure on a game-defining, third-quarter goal-line stand Sunday as the Chiefs stayed perfect in Las Vegas with a 27-20 win against the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.
After a Patrick Mahomes interception gave the Raiders possession at the Chiefs’ 3-yard line in a 17-13 game, Karlaftis combined with linebacker Drue Tranquill to drag Alexander Mattison down a 2-yard gain on first down.
He and defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi corralled Mattison once more on second down before Nnadi helped force Mattison wide — and into the waiting arms of Tranquill and fellow linebacker Nick Bolton — for a 2-yard loss on third down.
When Gardner Minshew tried to escape a collapsing pocket, hoping to scramble up the middle for a touchdown, Karlaftis grabbed a fistful of jersey to hold him up before defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton finished him off for a signature goal-line stand by Kansas City’s defense.
“For them to not let up, it's easy in that situation to just let them kind of get in the end zone,” Mahomes said. “It’s not really on them; it’s on the offense. But they stood their ground. They went out there and said they were going to make them earn it.”
It’s a point of pride for the Chiefs’ defense, which has become the team’s backbone in recent seasons.
“We work that all week and we work that all season,” Karlaftis said. “We’ve come up short a couple times, if you go back to Cincinnati and stuff like that, so putting it all together is great. ... We take pride in working as a group, front and back end. For our morale, for our defense — it was huge.”
Wharton’s sack was one of a season-high five for Kansas City, which boasts one of the NFL’s top rushing and scoring defenses this season.
“Those guys stepped up to the challenge,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, I put them in a terrible position off the tip pick. Them (the defense) getting that stop, I think it just flipped the momentum of the entire game.”
Las Vegas finished with 21 carries for 33 yards and no runs longer than seven yards. Mattison finished with 14 carries for 15 yards.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs’ offense did its part after the goal-line stand, mounting a 19-play drive that consumed nearly 10 minutes before padding the lead with a field goal.
“For them to get that stop and then for us to have that long drive — I think it ended in a field goal, but it just switched the momentum and then we were able to kind of get the win from there,” Mahomes said.
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