Alright welcome in to the full recap of the Raiders' divisional game vs. the Chargers where the Raiders remained competitive against a Chargers team that is just fresh off the bye week, but the Chargers managed to squeak out a win against the Raiders 6-16.
Well, we're the first team to go double digits this season...in losses. 0-10, water is wet. It's frustrating, but obviously we are just playing to secure the #1 overall pick. We played against a Chargers team that has loss 3 straight and straight off a bye, no surprise they were going to come out sluggish, but as usual, good teams find ways to win, even if it's ugly and bad teams find ways to lose and that was the tone that was set dating back to the Raiders' first possession this game during that pre-snap fumble.
The Positives
Defense. The defense gassed out last week against the Broncos, but what do you expect going up against a Peyton Manning-lead offense? In this game however, they kept the Raiders chances of potentially winning this game alive. The Raiders were putting Philip Rivers in a world of hurt this game. They were constantly pressuring, Antonio Smith managed to get him and do his patented Ninja Assassin sack celebration and Khalil Mack got to him. Without question, the highlight of the game for this defense was Mack's sack. He finally got that elusive first sack in his rookie year. You don't know how much we wanted him to get his first sack. Mack has been a disruptive force all season for us in both the run and the pass defense and for him to get that sack, his stock of winning Defensive Rookie of The Year just went sky high after this game.
Latavius Murray, 4 carries, 43 yards, 3 receptions 16 yards. Darren McFadden may have finished with double figure rushing yards, but he was a non-factor all game and so was Maurice Jones-Drew. Latavius Murray, though, gave this running game some hope for the future. Like I said in the 3rd quarter Q-by-Q reaction, we've raved about him as a potential late round steal, just unfortunate that he got hurt his rookie year and didn't see much playing time this year, but what do we have to lose with MJD and DMC being inefficient? Murray cashed in on his opportunity and showed some potential because it's just one game where he saw some extended playing time.
The Negatives
O-line. You wanna know why Derek Carr hasn't been sacked a lot of times with this O-line? It's because he has a quick release of the ball. This is definitely the first game where I was absolutely livid. Carr is having constant pressure in his face all game long and being pressured too much lead to two sacks from the Chargers defense. Every time, especially on 3rd down, it seems that the O-line just parted like the Red Sea and two or three defensive linemen would come chasing down Carr and to make matters worse, the receivers are not open.
Greg Olson's playcalling. Need I say more? Run up the gut, short pass, screen pass, PUNT. Conservative, vanilla, predictable, yeah I think that's enough to describe Olson's tenure as the Raiders' offensive coordinator.
Conclusion
At this point, I would sit Carr. I think we've got a good glimpse of him as the future franchise QB. If you look at the schedule down the stretch, the Raiders have the Chiefs on Thursday Night, the Rams, the Niners, Chiefs again in KC, the Bills, and the Broncos in Denver. What do all these teams have in common? They have bulwark defensive lines and they can get after the quarterback. Looking at that and the way the O-line played today, I would pull the plug on Carr. He's too valuable and he's taken enough punishment in his rookie year already. To make matters worse, the Raiders are on short rest as they play the Chiefs on Thursday. Just start Schaub or McGloin for that game, we've got nothing to lose. I'll see you guys for that game.
*On a side note, if you're also a Laker fan, I will be shortly posting up the Q-by-Q, halftime, and full recap posts for tonight's game against the Warriors. So just grab a quick bite or hang around because I'll be back in about two hours.*
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