Week 4 Raiders @ Chargers Game Day Thread / Post Game Discussion

[blueman]

Those two guys were nasty last night. It was amazing to see them making the right reads and flying around. White has looked better this year than any other, has really found his groove so to speak. Same with Drew. It is no coincidence that our run D improved last night with the way these two played.

Its only going to get better as the season goes on.

Funny, what Staley has been saying about Murray, how he’ll start playing better in this new D, seems to more suited to White and Tranquil.

[Boltjolt]

I am surprised by Rountree's grade. I thought he played a decent game. The OL made a bunch of mistakes. I am curious about how they score the plays on which there was confusion between the OG and OT that left an unblocked pass rusher. How do they know which player was at fault?

Its PFF......who the hec knows and it really it dont mean much.

[cmplxgal]

[like54ninjas]

Except me! I was excited about him. Loved his work ethic and smarts.

Had Drue as about 75ish on my board. He was a great value in R4.

[like54ninjas]

He’ll turtle up again.

[powderblueboy]

Carr is probably the only one on the Raiders 'pissed off' about it.
Bosa voiced what many in the Raider's organization were thinking:
he gave an explicit example.

Everyone in the league already knows that if you rattle Carr, he comes unglued.

[Xenos]

Popper’s final 19 thoughts on the game.

https://theathletic.com/2870627/2021/10/05/chargers-final-thoughts-19-notes-stats-and-quotes-from-win-over-raiders/

The Chargers earned a 28-14 divisional victory over the Raiders on Monday night at SoFi Stadium.

They are in first place in AFC West at 3-1 and face the 3-1 Browns on Sunday at home.

Here are some final thoughts, stats and quotes from the prime-time win.

1. Justin Herbert threw for only 222 yards on 38 attempts. It was the third-lowest passing output of his career and tied for the third-lowest yards per attempt of his career. But I thought he played a sensational game. He executed in the red zone with three touchdown passes inside the 20. And more importantly, he avoided turnovers despite being under a significant amount of pressure from an effective and talented Raiders pass rush, featuring defensive ends Maxx Crosby and Yannick Ngakoue.

2. The Chargers allowed pressure on 29.3 percent of Herbert’s dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. And yet he was sacked only twice. Herbert did not commit the disastrous mistake. That was absolutely crucial in this game, especially as the Raiders made their second-half surge with 14 unanswered points.

3. “Just one (turnover) from your quarterback completely flips the type of game that it became in the second half,” head coach Brandon Staley said Monday. “So you can’t minimize the importance of him taking care of the football.”

4. When Herbert was overwhelmed in the backfield, he protected the ball. Most of the time, though, Herbert was able to mitigate the pressure by being decisive and getting the ball out quickly. Herbert averaged 2.32 seconds from snap to throw on his 41 dropbacks, according to TruMedia. Only four quarterbacks got rid of the ball more quickly in Week 4.

5. “It was a really big part of the plan,” Staley said. “Justin was able to get the ball out quickly, and then when there was chaos in the pocket, he was either able to step up and create a lane to throw, or he was able to get rid of it and avoid danger.”

6. One great example of this came on a second down late in the first half. Rashawn Slatermissed an assignment on the left edge, and Ngakoue came free. Herbert sensed the pressure on his blind side and managed to hit Jared Cook in the flat for a positive gain, just before taking a massive hit. The Chargers ended up scoring later on this drive to extend their lead to 21-0.

7. This was one of two missed assignments for the Chargers’ offensive line in the game. Left guard Matt Feiler allowed defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins to surge into the backfield unimpeded in the first quarter from his three-technique alignment. Herbert was sacked but avoided a fumble. Feiler also got beat for a sack by Darius Philon in the third quarter.

8. “That’s the beauty of Justin, is when you’re in those circumstances, you got to be strong with the ball and decisive with the ball,” Staley said. “Sometimes, when you have a free rusher, you can get the ball out somewhere, and you got to be decisive. And then there’s other times where you can’t, and now we got to have two hands on the ball, strong with the ball and you got to take a sack. So I felt like in both of those circumstances, Justin was strong with the ball.”

9. The pass protection had some slip-ups. The run blocking, meanwhile, was outstanding. The Chargers rushed for a season-high 168 yards. Slater, Feiler and center Corey Linsley were dominant on the left side. Linsley, in particular, played one of the best games of his young Chargers career.

10. Defensively, the Chargers stopped the run and limited explosive plays in the passing game. The Raiders entered this game with 30 explosive passes — completions of 16 yards or more — in their first three games. They had only three against the Chargers. One of those was a 51-yard completion to Henry Ruggs, who used his top-end speed to race past Derwin James on the back end early in the fourth quarter.

11. Not included in that three-play total was a 45-yard pass interference penalty on rookie Asante Samuel Jr. late in the third quarter. Samuel was in coverage on Ruggs. The ball was underthrown by Derek Carr, and as Ruggs slowed down, Samuel made contact with him while trying to recover. Staley said this was a “judgment call.” Samuel was in off coverage and got turned around because of Ruggs’ speed. He spun around to the inside — or “rolled over,” as Staley called it — and that created the separation. “I didn’t think it was egregious by any means,” Staley said of the pass interference. “The lesson is, if he starts the down more cleanly, then maybe he doesn’t have to roll over and kind of lose ground. Because when you roll over, you lose vision on the receiver.”

12. The run defense was spurred by a bounce-back performance from the defensive line. Christian Covington, Jerry Tillery and Linval Joseph all played great. They were supported by sound, physical play from linebackers Kyzir White and Drue Tranquill. The duo combined for nine tackles.

13. White had a really tremendous two-snap stretch early in the second quarter. On a third-and-2 with the Raiders in Chargers territory, White fired through a gap and dropped Josh Jacobs for a loss. The Raiders then went for it on fourth-and-3, and White was in coverage on Jacobs. Carr dumped it off, and White made a strong tackle to force a turnover on downs.

14. “I thought both of those guys were active,” Staley said of Tranquill and White. “I thought those guys really fed off one another. The communication was really good. As you guys know, it was loud last night. So I felt like those guys, just from a central command center, were operating at a high level, and then I thought they tackled well. I felt like they saw the game well in the run game. I felt like they fit well in the passing game.”

15. Tranquill also continues to give the Chargers juice as a blitzer and pass rusher. He was tied for second on the team with three pressures. The Chargers had 22 pressures overall, led by Joey Bosa’s seven. Tranquill blitzed on Bosa’s strip-sack in the first quarter. He also forced two Carr incompletions with perfectly timed blitzes on the interior later in the game.

16. “Drue had a couple nice rushes, which is something that is a big factor for him,” Staley said. “He can really rush and give us something that way.”

17. Tranquill, who played safety in college at Notre Dame, also had half a sack last week against the Chiefs on a blitz. “You’d be surprised, there’s a lot of really good behind-the-ball linebackers that aren’t good pass rushers,” Staley said. “And the great rushers that I’ve been around that are inside linebackers, a lot of it’s timing. They have outstanding timing. And then a lot of it is, (Tranquill) has movement. This guy was a DB, this guy has real movement. So he’s got that moving your target, which is hard to block. But then Drue’s also really strong. He’s got speed and power. So I think when you have those things — the timing, the speed and the power — (it helps). And then the other thing Drue has is his brain works. He knows how to time up the snap count. Hey, (play) clock, all these things that are telling me what’s going on, who’s blocking me based off the protection. Hey, is the center going away from me where I know I’m getting a (running) back (in protection). Or, hey, is the slide side coming to me and I’m getting a guard. He’s smart enough to know all that, and so he’s been really good for us in that way. I’m excited about the value that creates because that helps everybody else.”

18. The Chargers nearly executed a fake punt at the end of the first quarter facing a fourth-and-11 from the Raiders’ 41-yard line. Tevaughn Campbell was uncovered near the left sideline as a gunner. Punter Ty Long threw a solid ball to him. But Hunter Renfrow, who was back as the punt returner, made a stellar play to speed up from his position and knock the ball out of Campbell’s hands with a big hit.

19. Here is how Staley explained that play: “It was an advantage-look situation for us, and I think that the field zone sort of allowed Hunter to have a little bit more proximity to make a remarkable play because he’s such an instinctive player. I think that he had that sense on the field that something was happening. But that’s one of those advantage looks that we felt like was available, and I think they were a little bit fortunate about where the ball was. I think if we were maybe 15 to 20 yards farther, then you probably wouldn’t be in that proximity to make a play, but it was just one of those situations where Ty felt good about the look, and I felt like he threw a good pass. I felt like he got it up and down quick enough, and then he made a really big-time hit on the catch, and you got to tip your cap to him.”

[Boltjolt]

[ghost]

There is nothing scarier than a turtled-up, pissed off Derek Carr.

[AK47]

When Carr feels the pressure:

[ghost]

Barber: The day Raiders’ Derek Carr gave up November 11, 2018

When the going gets tough, Derek quits.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/sports/barber-the-day-raiders-derek-carr-gave-up/

[CivilBolt]

There is nothing scarier than a turtled-up, pissed off Derek Carr.

Carr looked like a teenager girl protecting her diary from others