Raiders demolish the Chargers on Thursday Night Football

The Raiders were on the right side of history on Thursday night  just four days after playing scoreless football. The Raiders came back  in an explosive manner  against their division rival Chargers. The Raiders scored a trio of first-quarter touchdowns to take a 21-0 lead over the Los Angeles Chargers. The Raiders had scored 21 points in a game this season only once before Thursday. Rookie Aiden O’Connell had his best game as a pro going 20/34 248 yards with 4 touchdowns.

The Raiders had gone 15 straight drives without a point, dating to the final three possessions against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 12. It was their longest such drought since 2019, when they had 18 straight scoreless drives. The Raiders defense has been dominant all year and tonight was no different. Raiders' defensive end Malcolm Koonce had 2 strip-sacks of Chargers quarterback Easton Stick which rookie defensive end Tyree Wilson recovered. The second Koonce forced fumble defensive tackle, John Jenkins recovered for a big man touchdown. Perhaps the play of the NFL year was a one handed interception by Raiders cornerback Jack Jones who read a screen pass and leaped in the air snagging it with one hand for the touchdown. 

The Raiders took home a dominant 63-21 victory. Raiders as far as the standings are concerned may not have much to play for going 6-8 but in the grand scheme of things have a ton on the line as the Raiders players want current interim coach Antonio Pierce to be named full time coach. Stacking up wins will do nothing but help that claim. As for the Chargers it seems like the sky is falling for head coach Brandon Staley. He hasn’t been a very good coach. This game told a unique story. It was a game of two teams in similar but different positions. Raiders were playing for their coach and Chargers were not playing for theirs. The effort seemed very minimal.

Both teams may be out of the AFC playoff race but there are still three more games on tap for both. The Raiders hope to win out to carry confidence over to next year. The Chargers are hoping to just keep it all together.