Raiders Hope to Avoid Another Loss to Chargers Sunday
Earlier this season, the Raiders seemed to be on their way to earning their first win on the season against San Diego in Week 6, only to lose the game late in the fourth quarter. Can they pull the upset this time on Sunday in San Diego?
The last time the Raiders took on the San Diego Chargers, Tony Sparano made his interim head coaching debut for the silver and black, rookie quarterback Derek Carr threw for a season-high four touchdowns and the Raiders looked competitive for the first time all season. The Raiders wound up losing 31-28 as Philip River led San Diego on a late fourth-quarter rally and Carr threw a deep interception in the final minute.
Since then, the Raiders have lost four in a row highlighted by last week’s 41-17 loss to Denver.
So at 0-9 and losers of their last 15 overall, can Oakland pull what would be the biggest upset of the season? (Trust me, whomever Oakland beats this year, whichever lone win they get will be the biggest upset of the season, bigger than the Jets beating Pittsburgh last Sunday.)
While the Raiders are winless since last year, the Chargers haven’t fared any better entering Sunday’s divisional matchup. San Diego has lost three in a row themselves and could be on the verge to be the first team to lose to Oakland this year.
“Normally, if it was a non-division game you might view it a little different,” said Chargers linebacker Jarret Johnson. “But this is the Raiders. We know how talented they are, we know how hard they play and if you take them for granted, if you look at them just for the record, you’re a fool.”
When these two played in Week 6, the Chargers were then 5-1 and Oakland was 0-4 entering the game and expected to roll over to the Chargers. Instead, Oakland stayed neck and neck with San Diego, taking the game tied 21-21 into the fourth with Oakland taking the lead in the fourth when Carr hit Andre Holmes for a six-yard touchdown to go up 28-21 with just over 10 minutes left.
The Raiders racked up 396 yards of offense with Carr going 18-for-34 for 282 yards with the aforementioned four touchdowns and one pick. Darren McFadden ran for 80 yards and Holmes caught four balls for 121 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
In short, for the first and only time all season, Oakland looked good. At least, for one week.
“They’re looking for the gold at the end of the rainbow and it hasn’t been there,” Sparano mentioned. “We have to stay the course and believe in the things that we’re doing and we’re getting better as a football team.”
While Oakland has focused on getting better, the Chargers, despite losing three straight, focused on getting healthier. Sunday’s matchup could feature the returns of running back Ryan Mathews, Melvin Ingram and linebacker Manti Te’o and the Chargers are entering Sunday’s game off of a bye week.
Although Oakland has struggled all season, the demeanor around the team has been fairly upbeat, led by the rookie Carr.
“He’s a mature guy, a mature player,” wideout James Jones said about his quarterback after Wednesday’s practice. “He understands at a young age that there are going to be times like this, in your career and in your life. You take it and run with it, you don’t put your head down. You look at it in the face and you fight it.”
While Carr has shown signs of regression the last two weeks (four interceptions and one pass over 25 yards), he continues to insist that he isn’t feeling the heat from his critics.
“To be honest, if you were to come and just hang out in our locker room or hang out in our meetings, guys are driven to get better,” he said. “When the effort goes down, that’s bad. The energy level is honestly like we’re 9-0. Guys are running around still striving to do what they can to make this thing right.”
Carr will look to match his Week 6 performance in hopes to lead Oakland to their first win of the season. It’ll be his first time he faces the same team twice in one season.
“One thing for me is you know their personnel. For me as a rookie that’s always something that’s unknown. You can see something on film, but until you’re really out there playing against somebody and you see him for the first time, you don’t really know. So that’s something that’s really helpful.”
The Raiders are 0-5 since Sparano took over and while they’ve looked a bit more competitive, they’re still winless.
Oakland is the underdog, fittingly, in Sunday’s game. The question is, can the underdog come out on top this time around?
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