Oakland holds on to beat Los Angeles
OAKLAND, Calif. — Josh Jacobs scored on an 18-yard run with 1:02 remaining and the Oakland Raiders pulled out their second thriller in five days, beating the Los Angeles Chargers 26-24 on Thursday night.
“We just found a way to win. That says so much about our team,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said. “Some nights are just tougher than others. This was just one of those nights that was just tougher.”
The late-game heroics came after Philip Rivers threw a 6-yard pass to Austin Ekeler that gave the Chargers (4-6) a 24-20 lead with 4:02 remaining.
Carr completed three passes to Jalen Richard and two to Hunter Renfrow to start the game-winning 75yard drive before Jacobs finished it off with his seventh touchdown of his rookie season, running through a big hole created by center Rodney Hudson and guard Richie Incognito.
“As soon as I saw it, I was just thinking, ‘Go!’” he said. “I knew this would either be a big run or a first down and luckily it was a big run.”
Daniel Carlson missed the extra point, putting more pressure on the tired Raiders defense to stop Rivers. Trayvon Mullen was called for holding on a fourth-down pass to extend the drive, but Karl Joseph then intercepted a fourthdown pass from Rivers to seal it.
“That says a lot about our team,” coach Jon Gruden said. “We have a lot of resilient guys. We compete.”
Rivers threw interceptions on his first two drives, falling into a 10-0 hole when Erik Harris took the second back 56 yards for a TD . But Rivers responded by throwing two TD passes, including the go-ahead score to Ekeler in his final start at the Coliseum.