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Week 17 Game Recap: San Diego Chargers 30, Oakland Raiders 17
What you need to know
| San Diego Chargers |
The Chargers were the only NFL team that already had a playoff spot locked up who played as if they had something to play for. That is, unlike the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Chargers desperately wanted to secure the third seed in the playoffs and made it known that they wanted it. QB Philip Rivers played into the fourth quarter and RB LaDainian Tomlinson was still in midway through the third, while TE Antonio Gates remained on the field until the final whistle.
QB Philip Rivers continued his improvement over the season's second half, throwing two more touchdown passes and showing a bit more control to his game (though he once again decided to incite the other team; this time by screaming at 60,000 angry Raider fans.
RB LaDainian Tomlinson found the running lanes a lot tougher to find than the first time these teams played. Still, he picked up enough yardage to secure his second consecutive rushing title and also became the 21st player in league history to go over 14,000 yards from scrimmage. For good measure, he added his third touchdown reception of the season early in the first quarter.
The Chargers defense forced three more turnovers, one of which led directly to a score after a JaMarcus Russell fumble.
| Oakland Raiders |
RB Dominic Rhodes got all 29 rushes for the Raiders and really made a strong impression on the coaching staff in Oakland's 2007 finale. It remains to be seen how the Raiders plan to employ their backs in 2008, but Rhodes at least has thrown his hat back into the proverbial ring.
QB JaMarcus Russell survived a disastrous beginning (his first pass of the game was intercepted) to turn in a respectable performance in his first career NFL start. He's obviously got some work to do in the off-season, but perhaps more importantly than anything is the fact that he didn't look lost out there. He's definitely got the tools, and he flashed them on occasion in this game.
TE Zach Miller had his best game of the season in setting career highs in both receptions and yards. As with many young tight ends, Miller has finished the season on a positive note and should be someone fantasy owners look to as a sleeper for 2008.
What you ought to know
| QB Philip Rivers, Pass: 13 - 23 - 135 - 2 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 3 - 2 - 0 |
Once again, Rivers turned in a solid, efficient performance and avoided the repeated turnovers that plagued him earlier this season. While Rivers did fumble the ball once, in truth it was more of a great play by DT Warren Sapp for bursting through the line and disrupting the timing on the handoff exchange between Rivers and LaDainian Tomlinson. Rivers was also nearly intercepted by Robert Thomas off of a deflection early in the third quarter, but the ball was just out of reach. For the most part, the offensive line afforded Rivers plenty of time early on, though he still had a bit of a tendency to hop just as he released the football. This could be a result of his left knee injury suffered several weeks ago (an injury that clearly still bothers Rivers, especially when he is rolling out to his left). He is obviously not 100% and it's unlikely that he will be 100% at any point this season. But he continues to gut it out and play with a very bulky brace that has severely affected his mobility (which wasn't the best to begin with). One pass he looked fine on was a bomb to WR Chris Chambers that should have been caught for a 61 yard touchdown, but the receiver allowed it to slip through his hands for an incompletion. The two players later connected from 19 yards out.
It wasn't until late in the second quarter that Rivers really began stepping into his throws and firing the ball downfield. One area of concern is that just about every throw he made to a receiver required the receiver to jump and fully extend himself to come down with the pass. It's possible that this was done by design to take advantage of the receivers' leaping ability. Or it's possible that Rivers was simply 'off' with his passes, and he's putting all of his receivers at risk for serious injury by not hitting them in stride. In any case, it came in handy on the Chambers touchdown pass, because Chambers barely out-jumped DB Fabian Washington in the back corner of the end zone for the score that put the Chargers up for good.
Another area of concern (or excitement, depending on how one looks at it) is Rivers' insistence on mixing it up with the other team and the opposition's fans. It's one thing to get loud and yell at the other team at your own field, as Rivers did a week ago; in this game, he was riling up the crowd and calling them out after they cheered when he was slow to get up following a big hit. Inciting Jay Cutler in Week 16 was bad enough; angering the entire Black Hole may not be the smartest thing a quarterback can do. Rivers was out of the game by the early part of the fourth quarter with San Diego having established a solid lead.
| QB Billy Volek, Pass: 2 - 4 - 5 - 0 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0 |
Volek relieved Philip Rivers early in the fourth quarter and wasn't asked to do much more than turn and hand the ball off to RB Michael Turner. He nearly threw a touchdown pass on a jump ball to TE Antonio Gates on San Diego's final drive, but the big tight end was unable to establish positioning in the end zone and the pass fell incomplete.
| RB LaDainian Tomlinson, Rush: 16 - 56 - 0, Rec: 1 - 7 - 1 (1 targets) |
Tomlinson didn't come close to the 198 yards and four touchdowns he had the first time these teams played earlier this season, but he did manage to find the end zone on a reception and he also managed to reach a few milestones along the way. He beat out Minnesota's Adrian Peterson to win his second consecutive rushing title, the first player since Edgerrin James to accomplish the feat. And in so doing, he also became the 21st player in league history to go over 14,000 yards from scrimmage in his career. The Raiders swarmed to the ball at every opportunity, and bottled him up for most of the afternoon. Still, considering he had 63 combined yards and a touchdown in roughly two and a half quarters of action, it wasn't an entirely awful performance. Yes, the running lanes were scarce. And he had a very frustrating afternoon on a personal level. But as usual, Tomlinson managed to produce something worthwhile for fantasy owners and it's that consistency from week to week that most players crave from their top picks.
| RB Michael Turner, Rush: 11 - 42 - 0 (1 targets) |
Turner didn't get his first carry of the game until the third quarter, but he quickly made up for lost time by rushing for 42 bruising yards on eleven carries. He ran hard and looked a lot like the Turner of last year; the guy who consistently needed five defenders to be hanging all over him before he would even consider allowing himself to be tackled. Turner was very determined to pick up every single last possible yard, and the effort was reflected in the stat line.
| RB Darren Sproles, Rush: 2 - 20 - 0, Rec: 2 - -3 - 0 (2 targets) |
Sproles has seen an increase in workload over the past couple of weeks, but Michael Turner looked extremely effective running the football in this game and has likely fully reclaimed his role as the top backup to LaDainian Tomlinson. On the plus side, Sproles did once again demonstrate his big-play capabilities by returning the opening kickoff to start the second half 61 yards before being forced out of bounds by PK Sebastian Janikowski.
| WR Chris Chambers, Rec: 3 - 49 - 1 (6 targets) |
It took awhile, but Chambers finally dropped a long pass that nearly proved costly. Late in the first quarter, he allowed what would have been an easy 61 yard touchdown pass to go right through his hands for an incomplete pass. Philip Rivers fumbled on the very next play, which eventually led to a Raiders touchdown. Rather than allowing that play to be the statement on his afternoon, however, Chambers instead more than made up for the drop by out-jumping S Fabian Washington in the back corner of the end zone for a terrific leaping 18 yard touchdown from Rivers just before halftime (a score that would put the Chargers up for good).
| WR Vincent Jackson, Rec: 2 - 13 - 0 (4 targets) |
Jackson caught just two short passes and was not a very active participant in the offensive gameplan of the Chargers.
| TE Antonio Gates, Rec: 6 - 62 - 0 (11 targets) |
Gates turned in a solid performance on a day when it almost seemed as if the Chargers were forcing him the football to get him going a little bit. Gates hasn't had a big game since injuring his back several weeks ago, and it was important that the Chargers got him going a little bit before the playoffs began. The end result was a decent five catch performance, but it could have been so much more. Gates caught a 24 yard pass down the sideline on a play that was initially ruled a reception and a push out by the defender. However, the Raiders challenged whether Gates had maintained possession all the way to the ground, and replays confirmed that the ball came loose. The play was overturned, costing Gates a big gain. Late in the contest, QB Billy Volek sent a floater to Gates in the corner of the end zone for a jump ball. It was a play that a healthy Gates typically makes, but he couldn't establish good enough positioning to come down with the pass, and it fell harmlessly incomplete. He did show tremendous athleticism on a one-handed snag over the middle early in the third quarter, which showed that he isn't entirely void of the occasional highlight these days. But the Chargers are going to need much bigger performances from him in the coming weeks if they hope to make it through the gauntlet that is the AFC playoffs.
| PK Nate Kaeding 3 - 3 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 12 points |
Kaeding easily connected on all three of his short field goal attempts, with the longest coming from 36 yards out. Kaeding has now missed just one of his last 19 attempts, a fact that could help his confidence heading into the playoffs (where he has missed long attempts that would have extended his team's season in two of the last three years).
| SD Rush Defense |
Put simply, Dominic Rhodes pretty much dominated the San Diego defense. It won't show up in the stat line just how much he dominated, because his per carry average will only register as 4.2 But it certainly seemed as if every Rhodes rush went for eight yards. He picked up chunks of yardage all game long and the Chargers at times seemed powerless to stop or even slow him. It almost was as if Rhodes was the only player on the field who had anything to play for, and San Diego had no answers for how to keep him in check. Even the play where Stephen Cooper forced a fumble on Rhodes, it came after another couple of strong runs by him midway through the third quarter. Finally, the Chargers came up with a key stop late in the fourth quarter when Rhodes was stoned on a fourth and two carry from the San Diego 22 yard line.
| SD Pass Defense |
San Diego opened about as well as a team can hope for when Igor Olshansky intercepted JaMarcus Russell's first pass of the game. Olshansky showed surprisingly good athleticism on the play, cradling the ball against him and showing very soft hands. CB Antonio Cromartie nearly added a second interception later in the first quarter when he jumped the route and nearly intercepted a weak floating pass from Russell, but he was unable to come up with the ball and it fell incomplete. Had he caught it, it likely would have gone the other way for a touchdown. Cromartie again came close to scoring late in the game on a muffed punt return by Johnnie Lee Higgins. The ball bounced around Cromartie's feet and he kicked it a good ten yards before it was finally recovered by teammate Kassim Osgood at the Oakland four yard line, but more often than not Cromartie will come up with that ball and score easily. Those were the near misses. But the Chargers did in fact manage yet another defensive turnover/touchdown when unheralded Jyles Tucker came off the edge to force a Russell fumble midway through the third quarter. Tucker not only forced the fumble, but he also pounced on the football in the end zone for the touchdown. That play, which came when San Diego was up only seven, really served as a momentum swing in the Chargers favor and put the game out of reach.
Late in the game, LB Shaun Phillips was seen having his hand checked out by trainers on the sideline, but it didn't look to be anything overly serious.
| QB JaMarcus Russell, Pass: 23 - 31 - 224 - 1 TD / 1 INT |
Russell's first NFL start couldn't have started off worse, as his first pass of the game was intercepted by DE Igor Olshansky. It didn't get much better during the first quarter when he nearly threw another interception to CB Antonio Cromartie, but he couldn't hang onto the ball. As the game went on, Russell grew more and more comfortable. Perhaps he got a bit too comfortable, because he coughed up the football in the shadow of his own end zone after being hit by Jyles Tucker. Tucker then pounced on the football for the touchdown, a play that completely changed the momentum in the game. Once the Chargers started pulling their starters, Russell was afforded a lot more time and space with which to work, and to his credit he knew what to do with it. He sat back and took what the defense was giving to him. He looked a lot more calm and collected, and eventually finished with very respectable passing numbers especially considering it was his first career start. He made a fantastic read on the touchdown pass to WR Jerry Porter, a 32 yard strike that was an absolute bullet over the middle, which was of course Russell's best highlight. At times, he seemed a little bit too willing to settle for the short underneath stuff, but it's tough to blame him because that's really all the Chargers were giving him.
| RB Dominic Rhodes, Rush: 29 - 122 - 1, Rec: 6 - 42 - 0 (8 targets) |
Rhodes was the main bright spot on an otherwise dreary day for Raiders fans. He was sharp right from the outset, rumbling over San Diego defenders for 26 yards on five carries on Oakland's second drive (the first drive resulted in a turnover after the first play, so the first opportunity Rhodes really had was during the second drive). He didn't stop there, and didn't stop bowling over defenders until he had picked up 122 hard fought yards. This wasn't a case of one long run and a bunch of garbage, either. His long gain on the afternoon was just eleven yards, which goes to show how consistent he was with each carry. He ran hard, ran with authority, picked up chunks of yardage at a time, and continuously moved the pile backwards. Once he got past the first wave of defenders, it was a series of spins and broken tackles that resulted in big gain after big gain. He got a great push from the offensive line on his touchdown run, but he also supplied a good amount of power out of the backfield and simply wasn't going to be denied. Essentially, Rhodes just looked stronger than everyone else on the field, which may very well be the case since he's mostly fresh after carrying the ball just 46 times coming into the game. Another positive aspect to Rhodes' performance was that his role didn't diminish once the team fell behind. They simply increased his involvement in the passing game, and he continued to put up big yardage.
About the only blemishes on his day were a late fourth down stop and a fumble that he lost during a carry late in the third quarter. But his positives far outweighed the negatives, especially when the rest of his teammates looked so poor by comparison.
With question marks surrounding just about every running back on Oakland's roster, it'll take a lot more than one game to sort it all out. But Rhodes needed a strong finish to his season to make a good impression on the staff for 2008, and it appears that that's exactly what he did in these last couple of games.
| WR Jerry Porter, Rec: 2 - 36 - 1 (7 targets) |
Porter didn't see very much action due to the fact that he was being blanketed by Pro Bowl CB Antonio Cromartie for much of the afternoon. He did, however, break free over the middle for a nice sliding grab of a bullet pass for a 32 yard touchdown strike from JaMarcus Russell late in the third quarter.
| WR Ronald Curry, Rec: 1 - 16 - 0 (3 targets) |
Curry saw few passes head his way, and didn't even record his first catch until there were six minutes remaining in the entire game. He did draw a long pass interference penalty on CB Drayton Florence to help set up the Dominic Rhodes touchdown.
| TE Zach Miller, Rec: 8 - 84 - 0 (10 targets) |
Miller gave Raiders fans and fantasy owners a glimpse of what could be in store for next season. Over the second half of this year, Miller caught 27 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns, capping his rookie campaign with a career high eight receptions for 84 yards in this game. QB JaMarcus Russell really trusted Miller in just about every conceivable situation, and (along with RB Dominic Rhodes) was Russell's' outlet each time the young quarterback got into trouble.
| PK Sebastian Janikowski 1 - 2 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 5 points |
Janikowski easily blasted a 53 yard field goal through the uprights just before halftime that cut the deficit to seven points. Of course, he had earlier hooked a 49 yard attempt way to the right, which illustrates how maddening it can be to own Janikowski. He's got the leg to make every kick, but for whatever reason he tends to be very inconsistent from one play to another. Oddly, with Oakland trailing by ten points late in the game (meaning they needed a field goal and a touchdown), they opted to go for it on fourth and two from the San Diego 22 yard line. Had Oakland kicked the field goal there, they would have trailed by just one score, which would have meant that the ensuing defensive stop could have set up a potential game-tying drive. Instead, they ran for it on fourth and two, were stopped, and essentially ended the game. Any Sebastian Janikowski owners out there who lost by four points or less have Lane Kiffin to thank for it.
| OAK Rush Defense |
It's rare that a team will give up 120 yards on the ground but still be able to say they did a phenomenal job, but that's just what the Raiders did in this game. While Michael Turner was able to pick up chunks of yardage late in the game, the Raiders almost completely bottled up star RB LaDainian Tomlinson for just about the whole first half. He did pick up 56 yards, but none of his rushes did a ton of damage. His big gain went for just 12 yards, and he really had a lot of trouble getting past Oakland's defensive line. They got a great push up front and really swarmed to the football every time Tomlinson got near it. At one point, DT Warren Sapp (who said after the game that he is contemplating retirement) got into the backfield so quickly that he actually tripped up Philip Rivers during the handoff exchange, causing the ball to be fumbled and recovered by the Raiders. As the game wore on, Oakland's defense appeared to get worn down and Michael Turner caused them a lot of problems, but until that point they really did a great job of controlling the line of scrimmage.
| OAK Pass Defense |
While Oakland's run defense was fantastic, the pass defense was very suspect. They were bailed out by a couple of San Diego blunders, or else this result could have easily been a lot worse. WR Chris Chambers allowed what would have been a 61 yard touchdown reception to go right through his hands for an incompletion, and Antonio Gates was unable to come down with a pass he'll catch nine times out of ten in the end zone late in the contest on a jump ball. Gates also had an earlier 24 yard reception reversed after Oakland challenged the call. San Diego QB Philip Rivers also had far too much time to work with, and the Raiders didn't really try to get much pressure on him. The decision to not blitz repeatedly was a curious one, if for no other reason than the fact that Rivers has been slowed by a left knee injury and he demonstrated on several occasions during the game that he is nowhere near fully recovered from it. If the Raiders just would have forced Rivers to shuffle his feet a bit and move to his left, he had almost no ability to get the ball downfield. After successfully doing that twice early in the game, the Raiders basically gave up on that very effective strategy. From that point forward, Rivers had plenty of time to set his feet, step into his throws, and move the Chargers downfield with far greater ease.
