Chargers prevail in slugfest against Raiders  

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (News4usonline) – The first four weeks of the NFL season have been an up-and-down journey for the Los Angeles Chargers. After losing their first two games, the Chargers have bounced back to win two in a row. The Chargers are now 2-2 on the season after outlasting the Las Vegas Raiders with a 24-17 win. 

“We could be 4-0,” Chargers head coach Brandon Staley said during his postgame press conference. “I would definitely err on the other way. We lost the first one in a thriller to a really good team, and then we lost, in overtime, to another good team — you guys saw today what they did. We could easily be 4-0. Some people could say that we could be 1-3. Right now, we’re 2-2. That’s what we are, we are a 2-2 football team and we’re a team that is improving. We’ve improved in every game this season, from game one to game two, from game two to game three, from game three to game four. We’ve gotten better. That’s where my focus is, as the head coach.”

The Chargers are fortunate to be 2-2 considering late-game developments in a Week 3 win against the Minnesota Vikings, and having survived some self-inflicted wounds in their Week 4 contest against the Raiders, an old AFC West rival.

The Chargers managed to pick up their second win of the season, despite quarterback Justin Herbert throwing for just 167 yards for the game and being battered and bruised all day by the Raiders’ defense. 

Herbert completed just 13 of 24 passes and got hammered on a couple of plays, including being bashed with an illegal hit by former Chargers defensive stalwart Jerry Tillery. Tillery clocked Herbert with a wicked hit out of bounds as the Chargers quarterback scrambled to get to the sidelines after a run. Tillery was subsequently ejected for the dirty play. 

He also drew the wrath of the Chargers’ bench with his unsportsmanlike hit on Herbert. A mob of Chargers immediately went after Tillery.  

“I love all that,” said Staley. “I’m here for all of that. I love when my team looks like that. That’s their quarterback. That’s a sign of a good team. That was an igniter for us. Justin [Herbert] looks at you know us and just gives us a wink because that hit doesn’t hurt Justin Herbert. It helped fuel our guys. Our guys were up for the challenge. They were going to go defend their guy. That’s what competition is about, competition is about that. You have to make sure that cooler heads prevail, but in a moment like that, yeah, you want it turned up.”

Herbert, who rushed for two touchdowns in the game, chucked up Tillery’s late as just a football play. 

“Football is an emotional game,” Herbert said after the game. “Whether it was late or whether it was before the play, we have a lot of respect for that team. I have a lot of respect for Jerry [Tillery] as a former teammate. It was an unfortunate hit, but I thought it was cool the way our team reacted. It is what it is. It’s football, so it’s no hard feelings.” 

Tillery’s hit wasn’t the only time Herbert was knocked on his backside by the Raiders. He also got laid flat by a couple of Las Vegas defenders after throwing an interception late in the game. The end result was that Herbert came back into the game with a large splint on his non-throwing hand. 

For the Chargers’ sake, that’s a good thing. With time winding down in the fourth quarter and staring at a third-and-long, Herbert connected with wide receiver Joshua Palmer for a huge conversion to help the team run out the clock. 

“I thought it was a great play by Josh [Palmer]. We trust him in those situations,” Herbert said. “It was third-and-long, felt like we were protected up and wanted to take a shot. I put the ball down and he did a great job coming up with it. I thought that was huge for us to be able to convert and put away the game.” 

There is so much to unpack from this game for the Chargers. The first would be that the Chargers led 24-7 at the half and watched the Raiders nearly rally all the way back to be in position to tie the game in the fourth quarter. On top of that, Herbert and Los Angeles got stuffed in their own territory late in the fourth quarter which could have proved costly.  

Like last week, the exceptional play of the Chargers’ defense was a bail-out for Staley’s team. Outside of edge rusher Khalil Mack’s six sacks during the game, cornerback Asante Samuel came through with the play of the game when he intercepted Las Vegas quarterback Aidan O’Connell near the goal line.     

“Obviously, they made a couple more plays than we did,” Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels. “We did a lot of things that we would like to clean up, we put ourselves in a hole here. I thought our team fought hard and fought back and all the rest of it, but we’re going to have to clean up some of the things that we’re doing to put us in those situations so that we don’t have to feverishly scramble back at the end and try to win at the very last second. I thought the defense really hung in there. I think we ate some things up early in the game, but I thought they really fought and held him in check in the second half to give ourselves an opportunity.”