San Diego, CA - If the Oakland Raiders were looking to finally exercise the demons of losing to San Diego for the last 10 meetings, then the Silver & Black will need to do a few things:
- Run the ball successfully
- Stop the Chargers from running
- Put an end to stupid penalties
- Open up the offensive playbook
- Attack on defense
Predictably, Oakland would manage to not check off a single point of emphasis in the first quarter. San Diego ran and passed all over the Raiders. Then, the times the Raiders did manage to put an end to a Charger drive, Oakland would either commit a pass interference penalty or a personal foul on 3rd and long.
To compound the team’s woes defensively, Raider Defensive Coordinator was seemingly unwilling to attack on defense and as a result, the defense was reacting and began to be a step behind San Diego’s offense. One Charger drive would accumulate 94-yards and culminated in a Charger touchdown that made the game 17-0 just after the start of the 2nd quarter.
Another Achilles Heel would be Oakland’s propensity to change its defensive coverage. It’s as if Ryan is programmed to almost only play man coverage. Its secondary would pay the price for that philosophy the entire 1st half. One of those defensive blunders would count for 57-yards and another Charger touchdown (in man-coverage).
Offensively, the first quarter was equally a nightmare for Oakland. A mixture of conservative play calling and a willingness to be predictable running with the ball of tackle with RB Justin Fargas has handcuffed any chance to run effectively. Frankly, I’ surprised Fargas still has legs left seeing how much he’s being given the ball with little or no relief from the bench with either Darren McFadden or Michael Bush.
It wouldn’t be until mid-way into the second quarter did the Raiders manage a long and efficient drive. Oakland would get all the way to San Diego’s 29-yard line, but as one would guess, Oakland started moving backwards because of a spat of personal foul and facemask penalties. Once in scoring position, the Raiders would be regulated to having to punt after yet another fruitless venture.
With 4:20 to go in the 2nd quarter, the Oakland offense managed to have handed the ball off tackle to Fargas 8 times, only allowed draft sensation Darren McFadden to carry the ball once for no yards, and Michael Bush has yet to sniff a carry. The only play he was involved in was a poorly under thrown pass by JaMarcus Russell that resulted in an interception. Before you knew it, he Raiders found themselves down 24-0 before the beerman could make his way to the storeroom to reload.
To make maters even worse, before the beerman even completed his bathroom break, Raiders right tackle Cornell Green got beaten so badly, (the San Diego defender shoved Green out of the way with one hand and hit Russell on the throw), Russell’s pass found it’s way into the waiting arms of San Diego’s Shaun Phillips and lateraled to his teammate. After the play, Raider tightend Zach Miller got hurt on the play, but walked off on his own power eventually. But the big worry was seeing starting quarterback JaMarcus Russell being carted off to the locker room with what is being reported as a right ankle injury who’s return is questionable. San Diego would find a way to put another three points on the board off the leg of its kicker Nate Kaeding to make the score 27-0.
The one ray of hope and (perhaps) futility came on the subsequent kickoff return by CB Justin Miller who put on a hesitation move and a cloud of dust later, ran the ball back 92-yards for the Raiders only score of the first half. Halftime would see the Chargers up 27-7.
Oakland got the chance to get the ball first in the second half, but did little with the opportunity with QB Andrew Walter under center and was forced to punt. The Raider defense however started out on “the good foot” on the Chargers’ first drive of the half by getting pressure on Charger quarterback Phillip Rivers, forcing him to throw errant passes. During a time out on one of the Chargers’ drives, former Oakland Raider Warren Sapp could be seen dancing on the sidelines to the stadium music. Who was joining him en Concerto? It was LB Kirk Morrison sparing off with his dance moves while in the defensive huddle. It must have worked, because a play later, Morrison ran up on the line of scrimmage and cracked Charger runningback LaDainian Tomlinson square in the chest and dropped him to the ground for no gain.
Also, something else lent to defensive effectiveness…Oakland sent in safety Gibril Wilson in on a blitz package that ushered San Diego to punt the ball away.
Despite having Walter in at quarterback and Darren McFadden getting a carry in the third quarter, the Raiders still remained unimaginative offensively and couldn’t string together enough plays together the entire 3rd quarter to sniff even field goal range and thus the score remained 27-7 to start the 4th quarter.
In the early portion of he 4th quarter, the Raiders found themselves finally into Charger territory on 4th and 2. Walter drops back to pass and misses Darren McFadden open in the flats. Its unclear if McFadden ran the wrong route or Walter just threw a bad pass. What was clear on that play was Walter immediately walking off the field, throwing his hand in disgust in the direction of McFadden out in the flats and was walking away to the sidelines in a direct that made it look as if Walter was walking away from the team bench and more towards an area between the endzone and the very end of the Raider bench before he then meandered his was back to the team on the bench.
On the press room television monitors, a visibly disappointed Al Davis could be seen sitting behind former Raider Jim Otto. Even now, Davis MUST realize that his way of running things has gotten as bad as it can get (minus going undefeated the entire season). Davis would sink further into his luxury box seat as he watches San Diego’s Darren Sproles waltz into the endzone to help put the Chargers further out of reach with a score of 34-7 with 7:19 left on the game clock.
The Raiders would dodge a potentially embarrassing bullet when a Chargers punt return for a touchdown was called back on a illegal block in the back penalty to the chagrin of the throngs of Charger fans.
The Raiders would eventually get the ball back after a meaningless stalled Charger drive, but would do as much as it has one all game…nothing. On the ensuing punt, the call on the field was that the San Diego returner fumbled the ball with Oakland recovering. On replay, it looked as if the runner’s knee was down before the ball came loose. However, the call would stand after Charger head coach Norv Turner challenged and lost. Ironically, the Raiders’ quarterback Andrew Walter immediately threw an interception on their first play after the San Diego lost challenge.
The Oakland Raiders would go on to lose horribly on another nationally televised game. This time by a score of 34-7.
