The Oakland Raiders victory over the Los Angeles Chargers was a defensive slug-fest from start to finish. While the Raiders offense struggled to find momentum, the defense more than picked up their slack and helped them earn the 26-24 victory to move to 5-4 on the season.
While many players had great games, rookie defensive tackles Maxx Crosby and Clelin Ferrell both had career nights for the Raiders.
Ferrell finished the game with five solo tackles and 2.5 sacks, career-highs in both categories. According to Myles Simmons of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Crosby believes this game was important for Ferrell:
Q to Maxx Crosby: How important was Ferrell’s strong game?
Crosby: “It was huge. Clelin needed that. A lot of people have been saying this or that, but it doens’t matter. Clelin came out, he balled out. Did what he’s supposed to do. It was huge for us.” #Raiders— Myles Simmons (@MylesASimmons) November 8, 2019
Crosby had a solid game himself as well. He finished with 0.5 sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss and one solo tackle. While that is not Crosby’s best statistical game of the season, he had 10 quarterback pressures, which is the most for the Raiders player since 2016 and was a big key in the team’s three interceptions.
Ferrell has had a slow start but the young defensive end seems to be finding his footing and he and Crosby are beginning to form a great young defensive duo.
According to Paul Gutierrez of ESPN, Ferrell knows that he and Crosby have something special and coined the perfect nickname for them:
On the field after the game I asked @Cle_Missile if he and @CrosbyMaxx had built a brotherhood, not only as #Raiders rookies, but as sack-happy defensive ends. His response? "Salt and pepper, baby. The game needs flavor so we had to bring it to them, baby. That’s it."
— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) November 8, 2019
It seems that Crosby is a fan of the nickname as well:
Salt & Peppa‼️ https://t.co/j8xwylPHsf
— MaddMaxx (@CrosbyMaxx) November 8, 2019
‘Salt and Peppa’ are putting their mark on the league, to say the least. The Raiders defense as a whole has excelled and really put the pressure Phillip Rivers throughout the game. He ended up being sacked five times on the night and turned the ball over three times, including on the last drive of the game to seal the victory.
