If the weirdness of the Oakland Raiders’ season could be summed up as succinctly as possible, it might be the eight-day stretch that was capped with a win on Sunday over the Chargers in Los Angeles. After being booed out of their own stadium one week, the Raiders went “on the road” to play the Chargers on Sunday — to a place that featured a far warmer welcome than even the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum could. And, with the crowd’s support, the Raiders even survived a late Charger comeback to escape with a 24-17 win.
But wait — there’s more!
Somehow, someway, the Raiders are actually still alive for the final wild card spot in the AFC — needing a few more things to go their way in Week 17. BUT, before we get there, let’s rewind the tape to see how the Raiders earned their seventh win of the season…
Defense Dominates (for most of the game at least)
Tell me if you’ve heard this story before: the Raider defense plays great for three-and-a-half quarters before letting the other team inch back into the game as the clock winds down. Sound familiar?
The Chargers finished the game with 284 yards of total offense, but 81 of those yards came on their final drive of the game — a 10-play affair that sputtered at the Oakland 9-yard line and resulted in a field goal.
Prior to that? The Raider defense was on point. On the day, the Chargers were held to just 19 yards rushing on 16 carries — thanks in part to a great performance from the often maligned (deservedly so) Raider linebacking corps.
Milk. That. Clock.
Between their last drive of the first half and their first two drives of the second half, the Raiders ran 36 plays. The last two drives consumed 16:25 of game clock (more than half the second half) and resulted in 10 points. On the whole, it was a masterful job of running the offense by Derek Carr and Jon Gruden — and one that allowed the Raider defense to be rested and stay off the field as much as possible.
First-Down-Renfrow
When the Raiders drafted Hunter Renfrow in the fifth round of the draft, everyone assumed his ceiling was fairly limited. He wasn’t the most athletic, the biggest or the most impressive — and yet, all the guy does is get open. Sunday featured the first 100-yard game of his career — professional or college (how is that possible?) — as he finished with seven catches for 107 yards.
But even the numbers don’t tell the whole story — of his seven catches, five were on third down (including a sixth target on third down that he dropped. Of the five, one went for a touchdown and two went for first downs.
On a team desperate for playmakers, it’s nice to know you can pencil Renfrow in as a starter on this team for the foreseeable future.
Bounce-back for Carr
He heard the boos. He felt the boos. And then all he did was come out and perform. On a day in which Oakland was missing their best offensive player, two of their best linemen and still desperately needed a win, Carr did everything his team needed on Sunday.
His final line was 26-of-30 for 291 and two touchdowns (one passing, one rushing) — and of the four incompletions, at least one was a drop and one was a throw-away. All this despite getting sacked three times (and being under pressure consistently).
The question now is….can he do it again?
