By Kyle Wadford
The San Diego Chargers, with the number 1 offense in the NFL, came into Oakland looking to keep the unheard of streak of 13 straight victories (7 years) over the Raiders alive. Very early in the game the Raiders showed no signs of allowing the arch nemesis take them out in front of their home crowd. The Raiders jumped on the board early in the game with the help of there special teams, 2 blocked punts gave the Raiders 9 points. The Raiders also forced 3 fumbles, one on the 1 yard line, the other on the 19 yard line, and the last with 1 minute to go in the game, was knocked out of Rivers hand and returned for a back-breaking touchdown. which would prove to be the “nail in the coffin” putting the raiders up 27-35.
The San Diego Chargers looking to take the continued dominance over the Raiders to 14 straight games could only sit back and shake there heads and they, yet again, shoot themselves in the foot away from San Diego, now 0-3 on the road, 2-0 at home. Philip Rivers seemed to have been on a different level than the other Chargers as he tried to will the Bolts to a comeback victory. A faltering offensive line, failing special teams and costly turnovers helped the Chargers trip over there own feet.
Philip Rivers (21/42-431 yrds-2 tds- 2fumbles) had a heck of a day throwing for well over 400 yrds for the 3rd time this year. Rivers did what he does on a consistante basis in keeping the Chargers in the game late.
Running Backs- Ryan Mathews (9/59) had a long of 17 yards and an average of 6.6 ypc with no fumbles and no td’s. Mike Tolbert (12/11) had a lost fumble on the 1 yard line, and a touchdown.
Wide Receivers – Malcom Floyd (8/231) had a huge coming out party for the Chargers today with an average of 26.6 ypc, a touchdown and a long of 55 yards. Antonio Gates (5/92) had his typical day with 18.4 ypc, a long of 22 yards and Gates also scored a touchdown.
Offensive line – The offensive line had a hard days work with the Raiders on the other side of the ball, allowing 3 sacks, 4 tackles for loss, and 2 QB hits. The line couldn’t open any running holes for our running backs. Even allowing a defender to get enough pressure on Rivers to get the ball knocked out of his hand and returned for a TD late in the game.
Defense
Defensive line – As a collective unit, our guys got beat up. Allowing 111 yards on 30 carries. The Raiders rb had 104 yards on 26 carries. No sacks to speak of on behalf of the d-line.
Linebackers – Burrnett had 5 tackles and 2 sacks on the day. Copper was the only other backer to register a sack, he had 1 sack and 3 tackles. Wilson registered 4 tackles. Phillips (3) and Merriman (2) had a quiet day, year even.
Secondary – The Chargers secondary did a great job the first half of the game shutting down the Raiders Gradkowski, but seemed to have an even harder time keeping the arm of Campell under wraps. The Chargers secondary allowed only 14 completions all day 168 yards and 1 td. Oliver had a solid day with 8 tackles. Weddle had 4. Jammer and Cason had 2 tackles each. No Raiders receiver had more than 62 yards receiving.
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