The Oakland Raiders have lost the last 13 matchups against its divisional rivals the San Diego Chargers and looked to break that infamous streak and gain ground on the rest of the division with both Denver and Kansas City losing today.
The Raiders’ defense looked up to the challenge early into the 1st quarter when Oakland shut down the Chargers and kept them from getting past their own 20-yard line and forced them to punt following the 3-and-out. Then the Raiders’ special teams exploited San Diego’s most glaring weakness; their own special teams. Oakland’s RB Rock Cartwright blocked San Diego’s Mike Scifres punt into the endzone for a safety as the Raiders got the early lead of 2-0.
The Raiders would get the ball on the 50-yard line when San Diego’s kick off bounced out of bounds (penalty). The Raiders would then advance the ball close enough to get Kicker Sebastian Janikowski in range for a 50-yard field goal. The successful try extended Oakland’s lead to 5-0.
The Chargers on their next offensive drive, the Raiders again kept San Diego from advancing beyond their own 20-yard line thanks to robust run defending and forced them to punt following yet another 3-and-out. This time, Oakland’s TE Brandon Meyers blocked the punt attempt and this time (Hiram Eugene) recovered the ball for a touchdown to extend their lead to 12-0. That second block marked a milestone. It was the first time the Raiders blocked two punts in a game since November 21st, 1976.
Then Raider defense began breaking down; allowing San Diego to march down field seemingly at will, all the way down to the Raider 1-yard line. Oakland’s defense answered the challenge by forcing a fumble and recovering to their own 14-yard line.
Oakland’s offense’s propensity to look stagnant reared its ugly head by going 3-and-out and was forced to punt. Thankfully, San Diego would get backed up due to a 63-yard Shane Lechler punt.
The Chargers, now back on offense, once again marched down field. One big play came against Raider CB Stanford Routt deep. The Chargers targeting Routt would be the recurring theme of the day. The Raiders once again employed the ‘bend but don’t break’ philosophy when Oakland’s DE Matt Shaughnessy sacked and stripped QB Phillip Rivers and recovered the fumble; again negating a big Charger drive.
With the Raiders trying to get something going offensively, QB Bruce Gradkowski got hit as he threw the ball away to avoid a sack. In doing so, the Charger defender landed on him awkwardly and Gradkowski came up lame. He would come out of the game just before the end of the first quarter and would not return until the start of the 3rd quarter. Meanwhile, now backup QB Jason Campbell came in for relief. The Raiders would be forced to punt after not moving the ball.
This time, the Chargers offense would not self destruct as Philip Rivers found his target for a touchdown to get San Diego back to within 5-points with the score now 12-7. The Raiders would not answer he Chargers’ score and punted away yet again.
The Raiders’ defense did a good job in keeping the Chargers from finding their groove again and forced them to punt, but thanks to a roughing the kicker penalty against Raider LB Sam Williams (who was blocked into the backside of the punter) and the punter put on an acting job worthy of the European Soccer League “dive” masters. San Diego would make the Raiders pay for the penalty by throwing again to Routt’s side of the field or a touchdown which put the Chargers on top 14-12.
On one of the funnier plays of the week, Raider offensive lineman Daniel Loper recovered a Jason Campbell fumble and instead of picking up the ball and running with it, he stayed on the ground and literally rolled sideways about 6-yards downfield before he was touched. He came less than a yard short of getting the first down too. The Raiders got the ball down to the Chargers’ 19-yard line, but settled for a field goal to go ahead 15-14 just after the 2-minute warning.
Phillip Rivers, and the blind eye of the referees, moved the Chargers down field to get into field goal range. The blind eye reference refers to the officials not calling flags on San Diego for illegal chop blocks. An extremely irate Richard Seymour angrily argued to the officials to no avail. The successful Charger field goal would give them the lead before the end of the first half (17-15).
Bruce Gradkowski would start the 3rd quarter but was wildly inaccurate with his passes and all he could muster was a 3-and-out as the Raiders punted away. The Raiders defense showed it had some bite left as they sacked Rivers for an 8-yard loss and forced San Diego to punt. On the ensuing punt, Raider WR Nick Miller created a buzz by returning the punt 42 yards, but with a lack-luster offense (minus solid running by Michael Bush) turned the ball over on downs.
The Raiders found themselves in a now familiar theme of Routt in deep coverage and San Diego saw it too as Rivers threw another touchdown to Routt’s side to put them up 24-15.
On Oakland’s next drive, the wide receivers, mostly overlooked today, made their presence felt as WR Louis Murphy hauled in a 48-yard run after catch. Then, with 1:12 left in the 3rd quarter, Jason Campbell scrambled and found an open Zach Miller in the endzone to close the gap to 2-points (24-22).
I the 4th quarter, the Chargers would tack on another field goal to extend their lead to 27-22, but Oakland had a nasty treat in store for their 13-game, 7-year tormentors. Oakland’s once stagnant offense would somehow find a way to rally back and march down the field; not to settle for a field goal, but to put an exclamation point on their throat shoving drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to put Oakland back on top 28-27 and nearly brought the house down.
The game was hardly in the bag. So, the Raider defense decided to do something about that. On a safety blitz, S Michael Huff came in and hit Rivers’ arm as he was winding up to throw the ball. The ball bounced on the ground and was live (since the officials never blew their whistles to end the play). Then willed via channeled prayers and hopes by the throngs of Raider fans in attendance, S Tyvone Branch scooped up the ball and ran it back for a back breaking touchdown to now put Oakland ahead 35-27.
There was only one problem though; Phillip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers had 3:39 minutes left on the game clock. Suddenly, Raiders fans were slapped with the awful image of last year’s season opener against the same Chargers team when the Raiders left too much time on the clock when they got the got ahead score late in the 4th quarter. San Diego launched a miracle drive and scored the final touchdown in front of a shocked and saddened Raider home crowd.
Now fast forward a season and a few weeks. The Chargers have the ball and Rivers is moving his team seemingly at will. Then something happened, the Raiders remembered what snake bit them last year; the prevent defense. This time, Oakland would blitz heavily and not give Rivers time to wind up and carve up the defense. Then, something happened…the Raider defense FINISHED the game (contrary to the recent comments by former Charger coach Marty Schottenheimer) and the Raiders would win the game following a Phillip Rivers incomplete pass.
Raiders silenced their demons by beating the San Diego Chargers 35-27 and thus ends the streak of torment.
