The Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers battle on Monday Night Football for the division lead, and here are some surprises.
Coming into Monday Night’s game the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers were pretty evenly matched teams. This game was very important with the Denver Broncos losing on Sunday, leaving the Las Vegas Raiders as the lone undefeated team in the AFC.
That all changed when the Chargers beat the Raiders 28-14 to claim sole possession of first place in the division. The story of the game was the Raiders’ struggles along the offensive line, allowing four sacks on quarterback Derek Carr and all sorts of other pressure. The Raiders defense played admirably as well,l but the injuries to the cornerback group were too much to overcome.
The Raiders have been used to being down in games, falling behind 14-0 to both the Baltimore Ravens and the Miami Dolphins before eventually being able to come back and win, but the Raiders did not fall down 14-0 they fell down 21-0. This proved too much to come back from.
Las Vegas came out in the second half firing, battling back to be down 21-14 before a missed kick by Daniel Carlson and a fourth-down catch by Jared Cook essentially sealed the game for the Chargers. Austin Ekeler dominated the Raiders in the game, finishing with 117 yards rushing yards, 28 yards through the air, and two touchdowns, one rushing and one receiving.
The quarterback battle between Carr and Herbert was a really good one with Herbert coming out victorious finishing with 222 yards three touchdowns and no turnovers. Carr finished the game with 196 yards two touchdowns and an interception at the end of the game by Derwin James trying to get the ball to Darren Waller.
Let’s take a look at some surprises that came out of this AFC West Monday night battle.