KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes looked up at the scoreboard late in the third quarter and was stunned to see the Kansas City Chiefs had taken a 31-0 lead over the AFC West rival Oakland Raiders.

“I felt like we’d only scored a couple of times,” he said.

That’s because the Chiefs’ high-powered offense didn’t need to do a whole lot Sunday.

Their defense and the inept Raiders took care of the rest.

Mahomes did throw for a touchdown and run for a touchdown, but it was Juan Thornhill’s pick-6 and a long list of blunders by Derek Carr and Co. that really made the difference.

They allowed Kansas City to cruise to a 40-9 victory and into a two-game lead over the Raiders in the division race.

“That’s what we expected all season long, and you’ve seen it week by week the defense getting better,” Mahomes said, “and the offense just played in the flow of the game. We’ve been in every type of game so far and we’ve been finding ways to win them.”

LeSean McCoy and Darwin Thompson also had TD runs for the Chiefs (8-4), who can clinch a fourth straight division title with a win over New England and an Oakland loss to Tennessee next weekend.

Oakland (6-6) sure didn’t play like a team fighting for a piece of the division lead.

Carr dropped to 0-6 at Arrowhead Stadium with another miserable outing, throwing for 222 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. The Raiders failed to score twice in the red zone, were penalized 12 times for 99 yards, and watched Kansas City put together a 9½-minute drive almost entirely on the ground that soaked up most of the fourth quarter.

When the Raiders finally scored a touchdown in the last minute, the Chiefs blocked the extra point and returned it for two points — one more insult to Oakland in a game full of them.

It was the Raiders’ seventh straight loss in Kansas City, and the continuation of a major late-season spiral. The blowout came on the heels of a 34-3 loss to the Jets last weekend.

Josh Jacobs was Oakland’s lone bright spot, running for 104 yards on 17 carries.

UP NEXT

Oakland: begins a two-game home-stand against the Titans on Sunday.

Kansas City: visits the Patriots in an AFC title game rematch on Sunday.