Chargers Escape Black Hole with a Win

The Chargers fell behind early, struggled throughout the game, and rallied late for a winning drive in the closing seconds. Sound familiar? Yep, sounds just like last season to Charger fans, but nevertheless San Diego was able to pull out the victory and narrowly escape Oakland Coliseum with a 24-20 score over the Raiders.

It was Oakland who struck first in this final game of the NFL’s opening weekend. After throwing an interception deep into San Diego territory on his team’s first drive, Jamarcus Russell helped lead the Raiders downfield on their second series. Running back Darren McFadden gained much of the yardage with 5 rushes for 32 yards, but Russell’s 30 yard bomb was a key play, moving the Raiders from their own 36 to the San Diego 34. Russell would connect on another 13 yard completion before Michael. Bush took over with three straight rushes capped off by a four yard touchdown run to give Oakland the lead.

Meanwhile, the Chargers continued to stumble and fumble away opportunities in the early going. On the ensuing possession, after Darren Sproles set them up with a 66 yard kick return to the Raider 33, LaDainian Tomlinson lost the ball coming off a shovel pass from Phillip Rivers. Fortunately, for the Chargers it wouldn’t take long before McFadden returned the favor and fumbled one of his own, giving the Bolts excellent field position inside Raider territory. And this time the Chargers made them pay. Phillip Rivers got hot at the right time like he did all last season, completing four straight passes for 33 yards. LT finished things off with a one yard plunge to finally get his team in the end zone with just under five minutes to go in the second quarter. Kaeding’s extra point tied the game at 7-7.

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At the start of the second half with the game knotted up at 10-10, San Diego had yet to own the lead. Their best chance up to point came on the opening drive of the third quarter, but once again penalties and another turnover, this time an interception by Rivers, ruined their efforts. Needless to say the game was not going according to the Chargers plans. Were the Raiders actually this good or was it just sloppy play by the Chargers? Most likely the results were due to the latter, but one thing for sure was that the Raiders were playing hard. Oakland did a great job, especially on defense, sacking Rivers three times and holding Tomlinson to just 55 yards rushing on the night.

After the Rivers interception the game got caught in a stalemate as both teams defenses battled to keep the other’s offense from scoring throughout the third period. Early in the fourth quarter Oakland moved ahead 13-10 on a Janikowski field goal, but with 7:29 remaining the Chargers finally broke out on top when Rivers hit Vincent Jackson for 15 yards and his first touchdown pass of the season. Oakland continued to be a thorn in the Chargers side, however. They showed their resiliency in coming back again and their toughness was further symbolized by Jamarcus Russell who had to come off the field with an injury for a few play, but returned to throw a 57 yard touchdown pass on a 4 th and 14.

Once again the Chargers found themselves in a predicament, trailing 20-17 with the ball on their own 11 and only 2:30 remaining. Rivers was going to have to lead them down the field again if they were going to win this game, and once more Rivers did not disappoint. He completed six of seven passes for 79 yards, setting up Sproles for a five yard touchdown run with just 18 seconds left on the clock. The score put the Chargers up 24-20 and was the final dagger to the Raiders heart as well as an incredible sigh of relief for San Diego in their season opener. It wasn’t pretty, but as they say, a win is a win, and the Chargers will gladly take it as they now can look ahead to their home opener against what should be a much greater challenge in the Baltimore Ravens.

By Steven Mondelli
ProFootball-fans.com San Diego Chargers Correspondent