Welcome in to the full recap of the Raiders' Week 6 matchup vs. the LA Chargers where this loss is going to hurt. The Raiders had a 7-10 lead at the half, but they let the Chargers hang around as Los Angeles cashes in on a missed Tavecchio PAT to beat the Raiders 17-16.
Raiders lose again. The Chiefs just lost to the Steelers. Raider Nation, we are approaching a very wary Thursday Night matchup next week. I'm sitting here on my laptop typing this post and I'm still stunned. I said in the first half post that the Raiders are approaching dangerous waters if they let the Chargers hang around for too long. Well, that statement rang true by the end of this game. There's no excuses to lose like that. You can't completely fault the missed PAT by Tavecchio or the bad snap by Jon Condo. When this team had too many opportunities to put the Chargers away and didn't capitalize on none of them, I'm sorry they deserved to lose this game.
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Marquette King, 4 punts, 59 yards. Well, the Raiders can always rely on Marquette King to be consistent night in and night out. Every time Oakland's offense stalled after 3rd down, King was able to come through with a booming punt and pin the LA Chargers inside their own end zone.
TJ Carrie, 8 tackles. There's not a lot of positives to take out on the secondary, but Carrie had a solid game today. Carrie made a couple of nice open field tackles and he made a big pass defense early on when the Chargers went for it on 4th down.
Nicholas Morrow and Xavier Woodson-Luster. Five tackles from Morrow and six tackles by Woodson-Luster. Like the secondary, the linebacker corps has a lot of uncertainty. Morrow and Woodson-Luster capitalized on their opportunities behind a very short handed linebacker unit. They held their ground matching up against a good running back like Melvin Gordon.
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Stalled drives. It didn't have to come down to the final seconds if the Raiders put together a string of good scoring drives. The only positive from the offense is that they gave Marshawn Lynch more touches. But one too many stalled drives and it didn't help with a pair of turnovers from Carr. I don't know how or why Todd Downing is holding this offense back with conservative and simplistic playcalling. I made a bold prediction Downing is a better OC than Musgrave. But I gotta take the blinders off after this 4-game skid. He has no idea how to maximize the talent on the offense and this is taking us back to the days when Greg Knapp or Greg Olson were calling plays. Soft and predictable.
David Amerson. How many times did David Amerson elect to go for the big hit rather than making a tackle today? A couple of times today. Granted, he's not a good tackler, but at least slow the receiver down to draw help from your teammates. Amerson gave up so many big gain catch and run plays that could've been short gainers. Wrap up or draw him out of bounds!
Karl Joseph. No question that Karl Joseph is the only good player on the Raiders secondary. But, he's gonna have some bad games. This was one of them. He got beat by Antonio Gates. He got beat even worse by Hunter Henry, especially on one specific pass play. King pinned the Chargers deep into their own territory. Then on the first play, Rivers passes to Henry. Joseph stops covering and Henry made the catch over his head. That was one of the many catalysts that lead to the Chargers game-winning field goal.
Penalties. There's not much of a difference as the Raiders committed 5 penalties compared to Chargers committing 4 penalties. But how many of those penalties were momentum killers? How many of those penalties were questionable? Exhibit A: Carr lofts a pass to Amari Cooper for a big gain, but a phantom holding penalty on Gabe Jackson wiped it out. Exhibit B: Two Chargers defenders jumped into the neutral zone, false start called on Donald Penn when he didn't even flinch.
MVP
King did his thing today. Whenever the offense stalled, M.K. boomed it deep into the Chargers own territory. Too bad those efforts were for naught because the defense gave up big yardage.
Conclusion
There is no jinx here in this now 4-game skid. There are internal problems on this Raiders team. From the players, to the coaching staff, to Jack Del Rio, everybody's held accountable at this mess! There's no way around it. Was going 12-4 last year a real sham? Because more and more it looks like it. It's like this team just doesn't have it yet to be one of the elites, let alone, a Super Bowl contender. The whole offense is not being the well-oiled machine like we imagined it to be. Secondary is an issue. Linebackers are the equivalent of Russian Roulette, you never know who's starting. But hey, we might finally have the answer at Linebacker because rumor has it, the Raiders are interested in NaVorro Bowman. I'd take him than what the Raiders have now at Linebacker. Next game against Kansas City on Thursday Night is not looking good. And you can bet, the Chiefs will be amped up on Thursday for losing against the Steelers today. Do the Raiders want to be great? They have to earn it against the Chiefs on the Thursday. I'll see you guys for a potential double-header on Thursday. Because Lakers basketball is coming back and I will have a Regular Season preview up in about a couple of hours. I'll see you guys later.
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