Oakland Raiders at Los Angeles Chargers: 5 takeaways from Week 5
By Brad Weiss
Turnovers are killing the team
In the NFL, or any level of football, you cannot afford to turnover the football, especially deep in your opponent’s territory. Unfortunately for the Raiders, the team did just that on Sunday, as they were picked off in the end zone for what feels like the 400th time this season, killing one of their only solid drives of the afternoon.
The turnovers have been an issue all season long, as all of a sudden, Derek Carr seems to be throwing the ball to the opposition at a much higher clip than Raiders fans are used to. In fact, he came into the season with only 44 for his career over the first four seasons in the NFL, but already has eight this season, which is the highest among quarterbacks in 2018.
In addition to Carr’s pick, wide receiver Martavis Bryant had a monster fumble in this one, as he apparently forgot he was holding onto the football after making a big catch down the middle. Those two turnovers killed very important drives, and played a huge role in the Chargers keeping the Raiders offense at bay for the entire game.