The Raiders haven’t won a divisional road game since 2012, and they narrowly escaped with a victory on Sunday after lighting up the Chargers in the first half.
Oakland’s offense looked cerebral and traveled up and down the field like a car on the open freeway. Quarterback Derek Carr threw the ball with pinpoint accuracy. He also found plenty of weapons to stretch the field.
Tight end Clive Walford became Carr’s third weapon in the passing attack. Running back Taiwan Jones added a much-needed boost to the rushing attack to push the Raiders over 100 total rushing yards.
On defense, the Raiders didn’t ground Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers as much as expected, but the coverage tightened considerably. Cornerback D.J. Hayden caught an early interception to feed the offense an extra possession.
There’s one caveat to the defense's solid play. Oakland allowed three unanswered touchdowns in the fourth quarter, which shows difficulty in closing out a game without turbulence.
Fortunately, the dominance in the first half helped the Raiders maintain a victory, despite a late Chargers surge.
What happened in the second half? How should we grade the Raiders on this dominant, but narrow victory? How does the head coach feel about this win?
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Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
