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Post-Game Recap: Oakland Raiders at San Diego Chargers

By Nick Hjeltness

Oct 2, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; Oakland Raiders wide receiver Michael Crabtree (15) celebrates his game winning touchdown catch against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium with quarterback Derek Carr (4) and running back Jalen Richard (30). Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 2, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; Oakland Raiders wide receiver Michael Crabtree (15) celebrates his game winning touchdown catch against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium with quarterback Derek Carr (4) and running back Jalen Richard (30). Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports /
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Post-Game recap of the Week 15 matchup between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers.

The message going into the game was as simple as it could possibly be — win and you’re in. That’s all the Oakland Raiders had to do in order to clinch their first playoff berth in 2002. And minutes before kickoff, the Chiefs suffered a loss at the hands of the Titans, putting the Raiders back in control of the AFC West.

It wasn’t pretty (has it ever been?), but the Silver and Black are officially back. A 19-16 victory booked a ticket for football after the regular season is over. A concept that has escaped this team for the last 13 years, but not a year longer.

With everything at stake, the hope was amongst Raider Nation was that the team would start fast for a change, but it was the Chargers who came out firing. San Diego moved the ball to midfield with ease before Philip Rivers hit Travis Benjamin for a 47-yard touchdown. Sean Smith was beat badly in coverage.

Oakland’s offense looked better on the first drive of this game then they did the entire game against Kansas City. Which isn’t saying much, because the drive was 11 plays for 44 yards, and ended in a 45-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski. Michael Crabtree suffered a critical drop on 3rd down, which led to the field goal attempt.

Bruce Irvin logged his fourth sack in five games on San Diego’s next drive, forcing the Chargers to punt. The Raiders offense seemed primed to capitalized on the stop, marching down to San Diego’s 11-yard line in just three plays. But Latavius Murray’s first lost fumble of the season came at the most inopportune time, and San Diego recovered.

After another defensive stop, the Raiders offense again went marching inside of San Diego’s 20-yard line. But an underthrown Carr pass intended for Seth Roberts was intercepted. After an NFL long streak of 62 consecutive red zone trips with no turnovers, the Raiders had just turned the ball over in the red zone twice in two tries.

On Oakland’s next drive on offense, Carr made a Brett Favre like play, improvising and scrambling around, finding Murray for a 15-yard gain on 3rd & 16. It would have been 4th & 1 with another Janikowski field goal being likely. But a Seth Roberts block in the back penalty pushed them out of field goal range.

So on three straight drives, the offense left anywhere between 9 to 17 points off the board. Trailing 7-3, those missed points were obviously crucial.

San Diego would tack on a field goal with1:29 to go until halftime. With all three timeouts remaining, Oakland had a chance to tie the game up before the break. And they did just that.

Carr led the offense on a 75-yard drive that lasted only 6 plays, with a 33-yard gain by Latavius and a 12-yard gain by DeAndre Washington doing most of the damage. From San Diego’s 13-yard line, Carr lofted a fade-route to Michael Crabtree, who somehow managed to get both feet inbounds for the score.

The play was automatically reviewed, where the official determined that there was a “slice of blue” between Crabtree’s heal and the out of bounds line. Touchdown, Raiders.

On the opening drive of the 2nd half, Oakland took their first lead of the game. A 45-yard drive was capped by Janikowski’s second field goal of the day, this time from 33 yards out.

The lead didn’t last long, though. Rivers drove his offense 77 yards in 7 plays, finding Hunter Henry in the end zone to put San Diego back in the lead. A missed extra point attempt made it 16-13, Chargers.

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The rest of the 3rd quarter was uneventful, and so was much of the 4th quarter.

But that changed when Perry Riley ripped away the ball from Kenneth Farrow, and it was recovered by Malcolm Smith. The Raiders couldn’t turn the turnover into a touchdown, but they did tie the game at 16.

The next drive, Oakland’s defense forced a three and out, giving the offense a chance to take the lead. Derek Carr orchestrated a 54-yard drive on 9 plays, which culminated in another Janikowski field goal, this time from 44 yards out.

The Raiders had a 19-16 lead with 2:42 to go. That’s all that stood between them and their first playoff berth since 2002.

Bruce Irvin picked up his second sack of the game on San Diego’s final drive, and two plays later, Irvin laid a hit on Rivers as the ball was being thrown, and it was picked off by Reggie Nelson.

Victory formation. Playoffs.

The Raiders moved to 11-3, clinched a playoff berth, and took back control of the AFC West with the win.

Derek Carr was 19 of 30 for 213 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. He was sacked twice.

The run game totaled 149 yards on 29 carries, good for an average of 5.1 YPC. Latavius led the way with 81 yards and a 6.2 YPC.

Crabtree had 60 yards on 6 catches, including that ridiculous touchdown grab.

Irvin had two sacks and two tackles for a loss, and was the best player on defense. Khalil Mack’s sack streak came to an end.

Raider Nation showed up in a big way in San Diego, and it looked like a full-fledged home game.

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