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Week 14 Game Recap: Oakland Raiders 7, San Diego Chargers 34
What you need to know
| Oakland Raiders |
QB JaMarcus Russell was having a very poor game when things got even worse. He had his right ankle rolled up onto late in the first half, and he did not return to the game. There was no immediate update on his condition.
TE Zach Miller was the only reliable target for the Raiders, once again leading the team in receptions and yardage.
RB Darren McFadden had just three offensive touches in the entire game, as Oakland rarely had the ball long enough to sustain any drives to get him involved.
| San Diego Chargers |
QB Philip Rivers tied a career high with three touchdown passes despite throwing the ball only 22 times. The primary reason was that he twice found WR Vincent Jackson for deep balls downfield that really boosted his passing numbers.
RB LaDainian Tomlinson looked as good as he has in quite some time, nearly reaching the 100 yard mark and finding the end zone.
WR Vincent Jackson did what few players have been able to do this season -- he beat Nnamdi Asomugha on a deep ball, and then added another on CB Chris Johnson to finish with a career day.
What you ought to know
| QB Andrew Walter, Pass: 8 - 17 - 61 - 0 TD / 1 INT, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0 |
Walter filled in to start the second half in place of the injured JaMarcus Russell. Russell had turned the ball over three times prior to halftime and had failed to deliver any points. Walter didn't fare much better, though he only turned it over once (a terrible pass with three Chargers in the immediate area of the football) while failing to deliver any points. It took him 17 pass attempts just to get 61 yards, and the Raiders weren't able to get anything going downfield. He missed a wide open Ronald Curry for what could have gone for a nice gain, but other than that there just wasn't much there to be had. He was visibly frustrated by a lack of effort on the part of RB Darren McFadden on a fourth down pass attempt that could have kept a drive going, though he didn't follow it up by discussing it with him on the sideline. Walter himself was guilty of failing to keep a drive going when he was stuffed on a third and one run midway through the third quarter.
| QB JaMarcus Russell, Pass: 9 - 13 - 68 - 0 TD / 2 INT |
Russell's evening was doomed right from the outset. On Oakland's very first possession, he dropped back to pass from his own 12 yard line. LB Shaun Phillips got to him for the sack, and in the process jarred the ball loose. San Diego recovered, and scored a touchdown three plays later to open a 10-0 lead. Following a punt and another San Diego touchdown, Russell took three pass attempts to register another turnover -- this time an interception. After another punt on the next possession, they eventually got the ball back with just under three minutes remaining in the half. Russell's third pass of the drive was also picked off. He was hit as he threw, sending a wobbly pass into the air that was easily snagged by LB Stephen Cooper.
Following that pass attempt, Russell was checked out on the sideline for a possible injury. He was soon carted off to the locker room, and as the second half began it was reported that he was officially, mercifully, out for the game. The diagnosis was a right ankle injury, and he'll be re-evaluated later this week.
Before leaving, Russell did have a nice rapport with TE Zach Miller, who had four first half receptions. On one particular pass, Russell showed terrific arm strength by making a perfect pass across his body to the right side of the field to find Miller on the run for a 21 yard pickup. Unfortunately for Russell, tosses like that were very few and far between.
| RB Justin Fargas, Rush: 12 - 50 - 0, Rec: 2 - 9 - 0 (3 targets) |
Fargas ran hard and every yard he got he fought for, but there just wasn't enough room for him to do much damage. The Raiders rarely had the ball enough for him to get into a rhythm, and they failed to score a single offensive point in the game. The one time they came close to scoring, they to the San Diego 18 yard line. Four plays later, they had lost 26 yards and were punting from the 44. That's the kind of day it was for the Raiders. Fargas didn't help the cause much by playing very poorly in pass protection. He whiffed entirely on several blocks, one of which turned into a fumble by QB JaMarcus Russell deep in their own territory.
| RB Darren McFadden, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0, Rec: 2 - 8 - 0 (5 targets) |
McFadden has been campaigning for more involvement in the offense. While he didn't get his wish in the form of touches in this game, he has no one to blame but himself if he doesn't see an increase next week. His statistics aside, he showed very little desire on a peculiar play in the fourth quarter. Facing a fourth down, Andrew Walter floated a ball to McFadden out in the flat. Had McFadden reached up and made the play, he'd have gotten the first down with ease. But McFadden, sensing that a defender was close to him and about to lay him out, pulled his hands down at the last moment to protect himself. As it turned out, there were no defenders all that close to him and he would have made the catch with room to spare. Instead, the ball sailed over his head for an incompletion and a turnover on downs.
On the bright side, he made several nice tackles during the San Diego interception returns and also made a reception as he was being undercut from behind by one of his offensive line teammates.
| WR Ronald Curry, Rec: 2 - 15 - 0 (8 targets) |
For all those targets, Curry's lack of productivity is startling. His longest catch of the game went for just nine yards. He could have had a big gain late in the game as he broke free across the field towards the sideline on a deep out cut. QB Andrew Walter, however, showed very little accuracy in sailing the ball well beyond him and out of bounds for the incompletion.
| WR Johnnie Lee Higgins, Rec: 2 - 22 - 0 (3 targets) |
Higgins was thrown to just three times, all in the first half, and was a very small part of the offense. His long reception was just 12 yards, and he failed to make any big plays despite Oakland throwing almost non-stop in the second half.
| TE Zach Miller, Rec: 8 - 64 - 0 (9 targets) |
The lone offensive bright spot, Miller once again led the team in catches and yardage. Many tight ends have had big games against San Diego this year, and while his final stat line may not look like much, it is huge relative to his teammates. He also had to deal with a halftime quarterback change due to injury, yet maintained his production in the second half when Andrew Walter came in. Miller was involved in a scary moment late in the first half when he was seemingly hit in the head or chest during an interception. He remained on the ground for some time, eventually made his way to the sidelines, and in the second half he made his way back into the game.
| PK Sebastian Janikowski 0 - 0 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 1 points |
Janikowski's only kick attempt of the game was an extra point following a kick return touchdown. The Raider offense couldn't take advantage of a porous San Diego defense and came up with zero offensive points.
| OAK Rush Defense |
The Raiders were unable to stifle LaDainian Tomlinson early on, as he was dragging would be tacklers for extra yardage on just about every play. On his touchdown run, the linemen and fullback opened up a truck-sized hole for Tomlinson and he marched right through for the score completely untouched. The Raiders had even more trouble with backup Darren Sproles. Sproles was far too quick and elusive for Oakland defenders, and more often than not he left them grasping at air. He took two short screen passes for touchdowns and added another thirty yards on the ground. Even QB Philip Rivers got in on the action, with a career long eleven yard scramble and another key third down run to keep the chains moving. In total, San Diego ran for 158 yards on the ground to Oakland's 54. That figure and the turnover differential account for the lopsided final score in this one.
| OAK Pass Defense |
From the opening drive, things went poorly for the Raiders. All-Pro CB Nnamdi Asomugha let WR Vincent Jackson beat him downfield for a deep ball. Asomugha attempted to interfere with Jackson repeatedly, but he was so far out of position that he had no idea where the ball actually was. By the time he was done mugging Jackson, the ball still hadn't come down yet. When it finally did, Jackson cradled it in for a 46 yard gain. That wasn't the only time Jackson got behind an Oakland defender on the day. Later, he beat CB Chris Johnson for a 59 yard touchdown reception, one of the easiest scores of the year for the Chargers. On the play, Jackson ran a simple fly pattern down the sideline. Johnson misread the route, and by the time he realized Jackson was still running, it was far too late. Jackson caught the ball about five yards beyond where Johnson was, and from there it was off to the races.
Up front, the Raiders got absolutely no pressure on Philip Rivers whatsoever. With all day to read the field, he didn't come close to turning the ball over either.
Both of the other two touchdown passes were screens to Darren Sproles. On the first one, he made one quick cut to the inside and took off for the end zone as if shot from a cannon. On the second one, Oakland was in an all-out blitz. The Chargers picked it up, and Sproles had nothing was given an escort to the end zone courtesy of Mike Goff for the easy score.
| QB Philip Rivers, Pass: 10 - 22 - 214 - 3 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 5 - 19 - 0 |
Rivers had a very unique stat line, completing under 50% of his passes but still managing to throw three touchdowns and go over 200 yards through the air. All on just 22 pass attempts. The primary reason for this is because he hooked up on two bombs with WR Vincent Jackson, one for 46 yards and one for 59. The first pass represented the first time in seven games that Rivers has completed a pass for more than forty yards. The connection came on a third and two pass, and was targeted right at Oakland's (and arguably the league's) top corner man, Nnamdi Asomugha. Later, Rivers found Jackson perfectly in stride for the long touchdown as well. Along the way, he mixed in a couple of shorter touchdowns to undersized RB Darren Sproles. Each of those touchdowns was simply a terrific individual effort by Sproles, who took off like a bullet as soon as he had his hands on the ball. On the second score, Rivers did a nice job of floating the ball to him just over the oncoming pass rush, and there was mostly daylight in front of Sproles for the easy score.
Rivers nearly added another touchdown late in the first half when he tried to find Malcolm Floyd with a pass along the end zone sideline. The ball sailed just a bit, however, and Floyd was unable to remain inbounds and control the pass.
| RB LaDainian Tomlinson, Rush: 25 - 91 - 1 |
Tomlinson began the evening looking like he was well on his way to a huge game and a likely 100 yard performance. He consistently moved the pile, and the Chargers opened up a huge early lead. Included in that early lead was a touchdown run on which Tomlinson waltzed into the end zone completely untouched. His blocking up front looked great, and he finished the first quarter with 49 yards on 12 carries. He did briefly leave the game after a huge hit by S Hiram Eugene, but didn't look fazed by it on the sideline. When the second quarter opened, Darren Sproles was in the game and was the beneficiary of the next four touches, including a touchdown off a screen pass. Tomlinson returned shortly thereafter. But for the remainder of the game, he was in and out of the lineup a lot. It was unclear whether it was a coaching decision or if Tomlinson was simply taking himself out, but he rarely remained in the game after a rushing attempt, instead jogging towards the sideline on just about every one. He didn't appear to be injured in any way.
Late in the game, announcer Cris Collinsworth showed video analysis of Tomlinson's go to jump cut move. In past seasons, Tomlinson has been able to make that cut and explode out of it. But now, he seems to make the cut and that's it. If there is a tackler waiting for him, he is unable to muster up the burst to accelerate by him, as he did in the past. Whether that is something that can be corrected going forward or next season is unclear.
Finally, Tomlinson lost a 25 yard rush in the fourth quarter when TE Antonio Gates was whistled for a holding penalty. It should be noted, however, that without the holding penalty there is no way Tomlinson would have turned the corner and gotten 25 yards in the first place.
| RB Darren Sproles, Rush: 9 - 30 - 0, Rec: 3 - 34 - 2 (4 targets) |
Sproles had a huge game, and had it not been for an overzealous official it could have been even bigger. For starters, he caught two touchdown passes, both of them coming on screens and both of them featuring Sproles appearing to be shot out of a cannon immediately after making the catch. The Raiders had all kinds of trouble even getting a hand on Sproles, let alone actually tackling him. He made a hard cut back early in the game that announcer Cris Collinsworth said looked like, "The LT of old" (a reference to LaDainian Tomlinson in his younger years). The one that got away for Sproles was a punt return touchdown late in the fourth quarter. He burst up the left sideline for what appeared to be an 86 yard punt return touchdown. The play was called back due to an illegal block in the back penalty, though Antoine Cason (the offending party) made very little contact with the would be tackler and didn't appear to disrupt his route any.
| RB Jacob Hester, Rush: 7 - 18 - 0, Rec: 1 - 13 - 0 (1 targets) |
Hester ran hard and moved the pile more often than not, but the holes weren't there for him to break any big runs. After last week's increased involvement in the offense, he once again took a back seat to Darren Sproles as the primary backup to LaDainian Tomlinson.
| WR Vincent Jackson, Rec: 5 - 148 - 1 (9 targets) |
Jackson turned three short receptions and two incredibly long receptions into a career day against Oakland. On San Diego's opening drive, he beat All-Pro cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha down the right sideline for a gain of 46 yards. He also drew a pass interference flag on the play, but it wasn't needed because Jackson managed to make a tough catch and hang onto the football as he was essentially being tackled. Three possessions later, Jackson again tried that side of the field -- this time against CB Chris Johnson. Again, Jackson beat his man deep down the field, this time for a 59 yard touchdown. That score put the Chargers up 24-0 and effectively put the game out of reach. The 148 receiving yards represented a career high for Jackson.
| WR Malcom Floyd, Rec: 1 - 19 - 0 (2 targets) |
Floyd, who has seen his role in the offense drastically increased in recent weeks, was thrown to just twice. One of them, however, came in the end zone and he very nearly came down with the score. He was wide open near the left sideline and Philip Rivers fired a pass in his direction. Had the ball gotten there a little sooner or a bit closer to the field, Floyd may have had a shot at it. As it was, it was a bit too close to the sideline and Floyd was unable to keep his feet inbounds or his hands on the ball.
| WR Chris Chambers (1 targets) |
Chambers was mostly covered by Nnamdi Asomugha, who effectively removed him from making any meaningful impact. The only pass thrown Chambers' way was a deep ball down the sideline that had very little chance of being completed.
| TE Antonio Gates (3 targets) |
For the first time in 80 games, Gates failed to register a single reception. It couldn't have come at a much worse time for Gates owners, being the first week of the fantasy playoffs in most leagues. It wasn't entirely Gates' fault, however, as the Chargers simply didn't need him much. They were up 10-0 by the end of the first quarter and 27-7 by halftime thanks to two long catches by Vincent Jackson and two short screen passes to Darren Sproles. Gates was thrown to once in the end zone, but it was sort of a desperation pass by Philip Rivers on third down very early on.
Last week, commentators discussed Gates as possibly having injured himself late in the game. He didn't look to be visibly hobbled any in this game; it seemed to be more a case of San Diego taking the air out of the ball very early on.
| PK Nate Kaeding 2 - 2 FG, 4 - 4 XP, 10 points |
Kaeding booted two fairly easy field goals, one from 20 yards out and another from 39.
| SD Rush Defense |
After jumping out to a 10-0 first quarter lead that eventually ballooned to 27-7 by halftime, the Chargers pretty much knew the only way for Oakland to get back into the game was through the air. So that certainly helped with the rushing numbers. That's not to say the Raiders would have been successful had the game remained close. After all, they did run it 16 times and accumulated just 54 yards. Justin Fargas was the primary runner, handling the ball 12 of those 16 times for 50 of the 54 yards. But his long gain went for just eight yards and he was never in danger of establishing a rhythm or taking over the game. The San Diego defense did a great job of not allowing the Oakland offensive line to create many holes, and it showed in the stats.
The only semi-big play the Raiders had in the second half was a third and one QB sneak attempt by Andrew Walter in the third quarter. He was stuffed, and the Raiders punted.
| SD Pass Defense |
For the first time really all season, the Chargers got a lot of pressure on the opposing quarterback. They swarmed both JaMarcus Russell and Andrew Walter, which led to three sacks, three interceptions, and a forced fumble. LB Shaun Phillips, in particular, was very active (2.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble).
As has usually been the case this season, the player that did the most damage against them was the opposition's tight end, this time Zach Miller. But the difference in this game is that none of the other skill position players turned up their game whatsoever. The Chargers were constantly harassing the quarterback, which in turn meant the defensive backs and linebackers could play tighter coverage without fear of being beaten deep. It was clear that the defensive pressure up front was directly responsible for the turnovers in the defensive backfield.
On one of the interceptions, LB Stephen Cooper made a lateral to CB Antonio Cromartie to try and get a bigger return. Cromartie, who has been slowed by injury for much of this season, dropped back about fifteen yards before turning the corner and getting back upfield. He looked pretty good, displaying some nice moves in the process, but couldn't quite elude the barrage of tacklers to really break free towards the end zone.
San Diego nearly added a fourth interception late in the fourth quarter when CB Quentin Jammer jumped a route. He made a diving play on the ball, but dropped it for an incomplete pass.
