San Diego Chargers Continue To Lose on Road, This Time Against Oakland Raiders

Okay, let me step down off this ledge and vent my frustrations after yesterday's embarrassing loss to the Raiders.  Or was it a loss to the Chargers?  Let's face it, the Chargers were their worst enemy today.  They played like a bad Division III team that was lucky enough to have a quarterback and a receiver who were very talented but didn't have the grades to get a scholarship to a good school.

Now, I will give credit where credit is due.  The Raiders did do some good things today.  They were aggressive on special teams early, which earned them two blocked punts that resulted in a safety and a touchdown! 

The Raiders also took the ball away from the Chargers three times, including a sack that iced the game in the fourth quarter.  It seems that when on the road, the Bolts become the Dolts and develop allergies to leather.  Not only did the Chargers cough the ball up, but they did it at the most inopportune times.  They even went so far as to let the ball squirt out on a dive play inside the one-yard line.

What else did the Raiders do to win?  Well, they never gave up. Philip Rivers threw the ball down field at will all day long.  He had over 400 yards passing against what were supposed to be quality defensive backs and he made it look easy.  But when the Chargers really needed heroics, the line could not hold and Rivers could not hook up with any of his receiving corps.

I'll even go so far as to congratulate the Raiders for their drives in the third and fourth quarters that took a combined total of 14:47 off the clock and got the Raiders two touchdowns.  The Chargers still held the ball for over 32 minutes of game play, but that was not enough.

Finally, the Raiders also showed that Michael Bush is a quality back and that they do have the ability to run the ball.  Or they exposed a porous defense against the run, which up to this day had not been the case.  I guess time will tell.

Well, after looking at the evidence, I congratulate the Raiders, but I still blame this loss on the Chargers.  My belief is that talent is not the problem.  San Diego, at times, looked unstoppable.  Rivers and company marched up and down the field with ease while making Malcom Floyd look like the second coming of Charlie Joiner. 

Also, Antonio Gates continued to run free in the secondary as if he were contagious with some terrible disease. Yes, the Chargers showed signs of brilliance, but those signs were too often followed up with turnovers, or special teams brain cramps that led to points.

Another question that I had watching this game was why aren't the Chargers using Ryan Mathews more?  It seemed the Raiders had Tolbert's number all day.  Almost every time Mathews ran the ball, he made positive yardage.  All in total, Mathews gained 59 yards on just nine carries, with a long of 17 yards.  It seemed that Norv Turner was having so much fun burning defensive backs with passes that he forgot he had a very talented runner who was able to move the ball and take time off the clock.

On the bright side for the Chargers, the Chiefs and Broncos both lost today so the only damage done was that there is one less game to catch the division-leading Chiefs.  Sorry Raider fans, but this does not mean you're ready to make a run at the postseason again.  You had 12 penalties and gave up over 500 yards of total offense.  You have a quarterback controversy between two less than average quarterbacks.

Finally, you can't rely on most professional football teams to shoot themselves in the foot over and over and over.

Another bright side for the Chargers and the rest of the West is that this win most likely helps Raiders Head Coach Tom Cable keep his job.  There were many "experts" who believed that Cable may get his walking papers if the Raiders lost to the Chargers today.  Not even Al Davis could fire him after this win.  This was the first Raider victory in the last 14 meetings between these two bitter rivals.

Without doing the research, I would have to say that this may go down as one of the top five regular season losses in Chargers franchise history.  They normally save efforts like this for the first round of the playoffs.

Next week, the Chargers fly to St. Louis and face the Rams, who got their horns knocked off by the lowly Lions, 44-6 yesterday.  Thanks to this week, I will not go into this game overconfident.  If anything, I will go in expecting the worst and hoping for the best.  The road seems to be messing with the Chargers minds this year.  Last year, the Bolts were 7-1 on the road.  This year they start the season 0-3.