The Raiders pulled off one of the most shocking wins of Week 16 on Monday when they beat the Chiefs 20-14. The victory by Las Vegas was one of the three biggest upsets of the NFL season with the Raiders coming out on top despite being a 10.5-point underdog.
As big as the upset was, the craziest thing about the game is how the Raiders won: They didn't complete a single pass after the first quarter, which made them the first team in 23 years to win a game while completing exactly ZERO passes over the final three quarters.
The fact that the Raiders didn't complete a single pass after the first quarter was somewhat surprising and that's mostly because Aidan O'Connell was on fire during the early portion of the game. The rookie QB completed 9 of 11 passes for 62 yards in the first quarter, which put him on pace to throw for 248 yards, but he didn't get anywhere near that number because he finished the game by going 0 of 10 on his final pass attempts.
If you're wondering how the Raiders were able to win despite completing zero passes over the final three quarters, it was thanks to their defense. The unit went wild in the second quarter, scoring two touchdowns in just seven seconds.
The first score came when Bilal Nichols returned a fumble for a touchdown. On the Chiefs' next play from scrimmage after the Nichols TD, Patrick Mahomes threw an interception and that pick was returned 33 yards for a touchdown by Jack Jones.
As for the Vegas offense, although the Raiders passing game fell apart after the first quarter, they did get a huge game from Zamir White, who rushed for 145 yards on just 22 carries. On O'Connell's end, he finished the day by completing just 9 of 21 passes for 62 yards.
So how rare is it to do what the Raiders did?
The last team to win a game without completing a pass after the first quarter came all the way back in 2000 when the Bengals beat the Broncos 31-21. In that game, Cincinnati quarterbacks Akili Smith and Scott Mitchell combined to go 2 of 14 for 34 yards. Despite those ugly numbers, the Bengals were able to come away with the win thanks to one of the most impressive rushing performances in NFL history. Corey Dillon rushed for 278 yards, which broke the single-game rushing record at the time.
278 yards.@Bengals RB Corey Dillon was a man amongst boys vs the Broncos in 2000.
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) May 1, 2020
via @nflthrowbackpic.twitter.com/AV5C6uPhtb
Dillon's total still stands as the fourth-highest for a single game.
There have been a total of two games this century where a team won without completing a single pass over the final three quarters and you now have the entire list.
