Herbert leads L.A. to victory
LAS VEGAS — Justin Herbert’s brilliant rookie season keeps rolling along.
Herbert scored on 1-yard plunge to give the Los Angeles Chargers a 30-27 overtime victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday night.
“It was pretty crazy,” said Herbert, who set an NFL rookie record with his seventh 300-yard game and has 27 passing scores on the year, tying Baker Mayfield (2018) for the most by a rookie in NFL history. “I kind of waited to see the replay and guys didn’t really know what had happened. So I got up and started shaking hands and kind of saw the game was over.
The Chargers (5-9) snapped a nine-game losing streak against their AFC West counterparts, and snapped a threegame skid against the Raiders. Las Vegas (7-7) lost quarterback Derek Carr to a left groin injury in the first quarter. It has lost four of five, all but killing its playoff chances.
Moments after Daniel Carlson’s 23-yard field goal on the Raiders’ first possession put Las Vegas ahead 27-24, Herbert found wideout Jalen Guyton streaking by cornerback Keisean Nixon for a 53-yard reception to set up the winning score.
Los Angeles improved to 1-2 in overtime games, while all four of its games against division foes have come down to the final play.
Herbert, who targeted nine receivers and completed at least one pass with seven, was 22 for 32 with 314 yards and two touchdowns.
Marcus Mariota, who took over for Carr, finished 17 of 28 for 226 yards with one TD and one interception.
Peters criticized over spitting
Cleveland wide receiver Jarvis Landry on Thursday called Baltimore cornerback Marcus Peters “a coward” for appearing to spit at him during Monday night’s game.
A video taken from the national TV broadcast shows Peters spitting in Landry’s direction at the end of the first quarter. Landry has his back turned and is walking in the opposite direction and toward Cleveland’s huddle when Peters spits.
Landry said the action was uncalled for.
“He’s a coward,” Landry said Thursday on a Zoom call after practice. “He knew that maybe behind my back he could do things like that, but to my face he wouldn’t. Take it for what it’s worth and now I know. Everybody knows what type of player he is and the type of person he is and just move on from there.”
In a statement issued by the Ravens, Peters said: “I didn’t spit at Jarvis. Where I come from, when you have an issue with someone, you deal with it face-to-face, manto-man. Anyone who believes that I intentionally spit at him does not know me — plain and simple.”