Josh McDaniels' playcalling dooms Raiders in Aidan O'Connell's Week 4 debut

How Aidan O'Connell and the Raider offense was set up for failure.

During the game, the Charger defense had clear intentions. First, they would not let running back Josh Jacobs take over as they consistently flooded the line of scrimmage with defenders. Secondly, they were hell-bent on not letting the deep ball beat them.

When a team plays like this defensively, you must take what the defense gives you for the most part in the passing game. For example, look at this play below:

As you can see, it is third down, and the Chargers are bringing pressure. The receivers' routes are all intermediate to deep options with no middle-of-the-field, short option, or option to the curl, flat, or hook areas.

In the first half, the Silver and Black refused to do that. Which continuously led to O'Connell being under relentless pressure by Khalil Mack. A 24-7 deficit at halftime with a wounded Davante Adams made it seem like the game was out of reach; however, an unlikely but welcome ally showed up.