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Here's everything you need to know. Good news and bad news as the college football offseason kicks off. Read full article. Yahoo News is better in the app Stay in the know at a glance with the Top 10 daily stories. More content below. Both the Chargers and Raiders knew they would make it into the postseason with a win , but the third scenario made this endgame unique in recent NFL history: A tie would have pushed each into the postseason at the expense of the Steelers, who won earlier in the afternoon.
The chances of both teams taking a knee were always nil , but it was fair to wonder whether they would be upset about settling for a tie if they got into a sticky situation late in overtime. If you fell asleep late Sunday night, I'm here to tell you that you missed that very sticky situation. The Chargers and Raiders were clearly trying to win , but when we got to the two-minute warning and Las Vegas was at midfield, it felt like the competitiveness dam in the stadium burst. Everything was on the table, and after the game, I've seen conspiracy theories for what each team wanted to do on both sides.
After watching closely and listening to what was said after the game, it's pretty clear what happened and what each team wanted to happen. I'm not sure it's a conspiracy theory or some grand mistake by either side, but I do think it's worth breaking down.
Let's run through the last offensive series for the Raiders and see what happened with the game on the line:. Let's start by setting the scene. After Derek Carr hit Zay Jones on a third-and-8 pass to pick up a first down, the Raiders crossed over into Chargers territory.
At the two-minute warning , Vegas was facing a first-and from the Chargers' yard line. At this point, it was not in anything resembling comfortable field goal range, given that a kick from this distance would have been a yarder.
From the conspiracy perspective, if the Raiders really wanted to just end the game safely, this would have been the perfect time to give up. Inside two minutes, they could have kneeled three times and run out the clock. The Chargers had two timeouts and could have stopped the clock, but there would have been no reason for them to push the envelope, given that a tie would get them into the postseason.
Indeed, when the Raiders ran the ball twice in reality, the Chargers happily let the clock run afterward. They didn't care about getting the ball back. From Raiders coach Rich Bisaccia's perspective, his team did have a reason to try to win, though: playoff positioning.
If the Raiders tied the Chargers, they would be heading into the postseason as the No. Andy Reid's team beat the Raiders by a combined score of across their two matchups this season.
I don't think they wanted to play the Chiefs a third time. By winning, the Raiders would get to face the Bengals. Granted, their regular-season matchup against Cincinnati wasn't much better, as they lost when these two teams met in late November.
Going in as the 7-seed means a team has to beat the top two seeds in the conference in the first two playoff games. The Raiders didn't want to miss out altogether, but they had some meaningful motivation to try to win in overtime.
The Raiders didn't kneel. Instead, they ran the ball on first down. I have to admit that in real time it didn't feel like they were running at maximum intensity. Granted, there are a few factors that come into play. There's the confirmation bias in thinking about the "tie" scenario, given that it had been discussed ad nauseam all week and then throughout Sunday. This was after 68 minutes of football, when everybody on the field was probably exhausted and playing at less than full speed.
We also know that the Raiders' primary goal was to not lose, which might have meant safer run calls and a focus on protecting the football while still trying to advance the ball. Josh Jacobs lost 1 yard. The Chargers let the clock run after the play. So did the Raiders. This makes sense for both sides. The Raiders don't want to give the Chargers any chance at scoring, since running the clock down prevents the Chargers from getting back on offense and ensures that the Raiders can do no worse than a tie.
Chargers coach Brandon Staley doesn't want to push the Raiders to try to get into easier field goal range and score, either. On second down, Jacobs runs outside for 7 yards. I don't think that this looks like a play in which the Raiders were giving up.
Jacobs actually has a chance to hit the C-gap for a decent gain, one in which he could have gone down at the first sign of danger without having to worry about anybody accusing the Raiders of just trying to kneel without kneeling.
Instead, he cut outside and picked up a couple of extra yards in the process. If anything, the Chargers were the ones playing it relatively safe on defense, with nobody attempting to shoot a gap or get out of position and allow a big gain. Again, the clock ran immediately after the play. John Rudzinski, whose defense at Air Force ranked No. Skip to main content Skip to navigation.
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