Oakland rushes for just 41 yards, falls apart against Chargers in sloppy loss.
This type of loss is surely Davis’ worst nightmare
The Los Angeles Chargers didn’t even need to make a final statement Sunday, running out the clock near the goal line rather than ramming in one final indignity against a Raiders team that was beaten in every way possible.
The final score was 26-10 in Carson, and it wasn’t that close. It was the worst nightmare for owner Mark Davis, who brought back Jon Gruden specifically to avoid these types of non-competitive games.
Davis wants to win, but what he absolutely loathes is the embarrassing loss. A noshow in London against Miami sealed Dennis Allen’s doom in 2014. A 52-0 loss in St. Louis against the Rams meant Tony Sparano, a coach and a person Davis sincerely liked, wouldn’t advance beyond interim head coach.
Jack Del Rio made the team more competitive for two seasons, but when the Raiders collapsed last year — a Week 3 drubbing in Washington started the avalanche — Davis brought back the man he had
long coveted to fix things for good.
Together, Gruden and franchise quarterback Derek Carr would set things right as the Raiders ended their second era in Oakland before leaving for Las Vegas.
But things weren’t anywhere close to fixed before a crowd that may have been three-quarters Raiders fans.
During a 1-3 start, the Raiders nevertheless had some glimmers of progress. Then, a week after their first win, pretty much everything that’s been bad about Raiders football for 14 of the last 15 years was back on center stage.
It starts with Gruden and quarterback Derek Carr, the two key pieces in the organization as head coach and CEO quarterback. The duo had their worst game together against the Chargers, with the lowlight a first-and-goal interception by Carr while trailing 20-3 with the Raiders at the 1-yard line and 1:13 left in the third quarter.
It’s the play everyone will zero in on, and it deserves all the criticism it gets. Yet even if Lynch had been given the ball and scored, there would have been a 10-point deficit and little indication the Raiders were up to a comeback.
Carr’s numbers (24 of 33 for 268 yards, a touchdown and an interception) were deceiving, and the red-zone turnovers are costing his team games.
The Raiders didn’t score a touchdown until their ninth and final possession when the game was already out of reach, and they had the ball only three times in the second half. When the Raiders did have the ball, there appeared to be little sense of urgency to get to the line of scrimmage, kick the tempo up a notch and make a go of it.
In the first half, the Raiders defense had three very good series that were immediately followed by the offense doing next to nothing. Momentum was waiting to be seized and Carr and Co. were not up to the challenge.
Some of it had to do with having a pair of rookie tackles in Kolton Miller and Brandon Parker, the latter making his first start, and making sure protections were called correctly. Both struggled.
Yet the Chargers were without both of their starting tackles (Russell Okung and Joe Barksdale) and that didn’t prevent Philip Rivers (22 of 27 for 339 yards, 2 TDs, no interceptions) from carving up the Raiders defense.
There were two plays in the game that had no bearing on the outcome but were symbolic when it comes to the Raiders over the last 15-plus years.
The first was a nodoubt-about-it roughing the passer penalty on Bruce Irvin as time expired that gave Caleb Sturgis a 48-year-old field goal attempt on an untimed down. Strugis missed it.
The second came after 38-year-old tight end tight end Antonio Gates successfully blocked linebacker Marquel Lee. Lee took exception and pushed Gates, drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty to give the Chargers a first down with 3:25 left.
In both instances, it was a loss of poise and discipline, one by a veteran and one by a second-year player.
Losing is one thing, but losing the way the Raiders lost to the Chargers is something more. A little more than a year ago, a 27-10 road drubbing against Washington was a game that served notice that something was wrong within their DNA, and ultimately it culminated in the 11th season of double-digit losses in 15 years.
At 1-4, it appears making it 12 of 16 is possible if not probable. At no point did the Raiders look like a team that could win six of their last 10 games and get to 7-9.
A road trip to London to “host” the Seattle Seahawks is next, and we’ll soon know whether the Raiders are capable of fixing a flat tire or two or if the wheels have come off entirely.