5 reasons Oakland Raiders will beat Los Angeles Chargers in Week 6
By John Buhler
It’s a little understated, but maybe the Raiders have a better understanding of how to attack this Chargers defense than last year. There are two reasons for this. The first is that new Chargers defensive coordinator Gus Bradley runs the same scheme that Ken Norton Jr. does in Oakland.
The other is that the Raiders employ last year’s defensive coordinator for the Chargers in John Pagano. Pagano is the brother of Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano and specializes in coaching up secondaries. He did a fine job in San Diego, but a regime change saw him leave the Chargers organization after last season.
Pagano is an assistant head coach on Jack Del Rio‘s staff, in charge of helping bring discipline and accountability to a lackluster Raiders secondary. We have seen some players get better under Pagano this season, most notably Karl Joseph and to some degree T.J. Carrie.
However, he will know where the Chargers are weakest on the defensive side of the ball. Los Angeles has three great players on defense in this game: edge players Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram, as well as cornerback Casey Hayward. Attacking the other eight defensive starters could be in line for Oakland offense coordinator Todd Downing.