KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- From all those years of losing to the Denver Broncos, the Oakland Raiders know that facing a Greg Robinson defense is crazy. Robinson was let go by the Broncos and he's landed in Kansas City.

As always, the game was crazy, but the outcome was different. The Raiders beat Robinson's defense for 427 yards and 27 points in a 27-24 victory over the Chiefs.

	Rich Gannon completed 31 of 46 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns.

"It's very difficult to run the ball on that defense," Raiders coach Jon Gruden said of Robinson's aggressive schemes. "They have about eight-and-a-half guys there to stop the run. They do a lot of blitzing, so it's difficult to run the ball. I think in the first half, we might have had our first 11 carries for 12 or 13 yards."

Gruden let quarterback Rich Gannon work the short passes. Gannon had 27 attempts in the first half. He finished the game with an incredible 31-for-46 effort for 341 yards and two touchdowns. Even though the Raiders were the league's best run team last year, they passed first on Sunday.

"The Chiefs aren't going to let you run the football," Gannon said.

Robinson's schemes are mass chaos to block. He overloads sides of the field to get quick rushes on the quarterback. He stacks the middle of the field to disrupt running plays.

"The way they play defense is very unorthodox, but that's what he does," wide receiver Tim Brown said. "He's gotten away with it. You know you can put up yards against them, but you've got to protect against turnovers."

That's where the Raiders initially failed. Gannon tried to hit Jerry Rice with a pass in the flat, but cornerback Eric Warfield stepped in front of Rice and intercepted the pass for a 51-yard touchdown 87 seconds into the game. Twice, Gannon coughed up fumbles when blitzes caught him with quick hits.

"The best thing is to throw the ball a lot against a Greg Robinson defense," Brown said. "You can take a couple of shots and really try to move the ball."

That's where the Raiders have improved. They have better, more reliable receivers. Brown was his usual sensational self in catching eight passes for 133 yards and a touchdown. Rice and halfback Charlie Garner are upgrades over Andre Rison and retired halfback Napoleon Kaufman.

	“	Rich took some shots and was blind-sided a couple of times. The guy showed great resolve and great command in one difficult place to play, especially when you're behind and you got to move the football. ”
		— Jon Gruden on Rich Gannon

Rice caught eight passes for 87 yards. Garner added four receptions for 20 yards, but he had a 27-yarder taken away from him on a questionable call by replacement officials.

"Rich was unbelievable," Gruden said. "They applied as much pressure as we've seen in a long time. They had a lot of full blitzes, zone blitzes, corner blitzes -- we saw a lot of defense today. Rich took some shots and was blind-sided a couple of times. The guy showed great resolve and great command in one difficult place to play, especially when you're behind and you got to move the football."

Gannon brought the Raiders back from a 17-6 third-quarter deficit. His best pass was a 33-yard completion to Brown in perfect stride along the sidelines against press coverage by cornerback William Bartee.

"He's thrown some good ones," Gruden said with a sigh. "That was a big one. He knew where old No. 81 was."

The Raiders used virtually every cornerback and every safety to contain Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez, but he still led the Chiefs with five catches for 81 yards.

Here's a weird stat. Chiefs quarterback Trent Green completed as many passes to himself as he did any Chiefs wide receiver. He caught a pass that was deflected at the line of scrimmage. Marvin Minnis was the first wide receiver on the Chiefs to catch a pass when he made a 30-yard reception in the final two minutes of the game. Derrick Alexander was shut out.

"It wasn't a matter of us not being able to pass the ball," Minnis said. "I think you have to take what the defense gives you. They dictated that they were going to focus on shutting us down, so we took what they wanted to give us."

The Raiders didn't have defensive tackle Darrell Russell, who is suspended for four games, and defensive tackle Roderick Coleman, who was inactive because of a torn pectoral muscle. Though they started rookie Chris Coleman, veteran Josh Taves handled most of the defensive tackle work next to Grady Jackson.

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.