WHAT’S WORKING

After their fourth straight nail-biting win was put in the books, the Las Vegas Raiders let out a season’s worth of emotion out with a boisterous locker room celebration.

Players sang and danced as the Raiders clinched a playoff berth for the second time in the past 19 seasons and first time since 2016 with a 35-32 overtime victory Sunday night night against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Now, they’re on to Cincinnati to face the Bengals.

“Job is not done,” quarterback Derek Carr said, quoting his sports idol Kobe Bryant. “It does feel good. It’s exciting, but I don’t set out to just make the playoffs, although it’s been since 2016 and I didn’t even get to play. It feels cool. It’s awesome, but you know our goals. This is one of them, but there is more after that, too.”

Few thought the Raiders (10-7) could reach those goals this season after coach Jon Gruden resigned over the publication of his offensive emails in October, receiver Henry Ruggs III was cut after being charged in a fatal DUI that killed a 23-year-old woman, and Las Vegas lost five of six games.

But the Raiders responded with four straight wins to end the season, becoming the first team in NFL history to win the final four games by four points or fewer.

“If you said you thought we were going to do this, I’m going to kick you,” Carr said. “No one thought that, but the people in the building did and we acted like it, and the fact that we did it, the emotions, the feeling.”

The formula for success the past month has been consistent. The defense has stepped up its play and delivered key stops, Carr has led clutch drives and Daniel Carlson has finished it off with game-winning field goals on the final play in three of the past four weeks.

Now the Raiders need to put that sense of accomplishment in the past and prepare for a rematch with the Bengals, who won the first meeting 32-13 in Week 11.

“We’ve had a one-game, one-practice, one-play, one-day mentality here for a long time now,” interim coach and New Fairfield graduate Rich Bisaccia said. “I think they went through yesterday’s victory and they took care of it last night in the locker room. … We’re onto to what’s next.”

Pass rush. Maxx Crosby and company harassed Justin Herbert all game with three sacks and pressured him on 18 dropbacks. Crosby had 11 of the pressures and two sacks himself, giving him 101 pressures for the season, thirdmost ever tracked by Pro Football Focus. Quinton Jefferson added eight pressures from the interior.

WHAT NEEDS HELP

Fourth-down defense.

Almost all the good the Raiders did defensively was wiped out by the failures on fourth down. The Chargers converted a fourthand-2 on a TD drive in the second quarter and were stopped on a fourth-and-1 run in the third. But in the fourth quarter and overtime, Herbert converted fourth downs of 6, 21, 10, 10 and 9 yards to go with completions and another on a penalty.

The six conversions were the most in a game since at least 1991 and Herbert was 6 for 6 for 106 yards on fourth down for the most yards thrown on fourth down in a game since at least 1991. The Raiders have allowed 17 of 23 fourth downs to be converted on the season for a leagueworst 72.4%.

STOCK UP

RB Josh Jacobs ended a mostly disappointing third season in the NFL with the most productive game of his career. He had 26 carries for a career-best 132 yards, including seven carries for 69 yards in overtime to help set up the win. Jacobs gained a career-high 130 of his yards rushing after contact, according to NFL NextGen stats.