Oakland Raiders: San Diego Chargers Fans Show They Just Don’t Get It

The Oakland Raiders take on a division foe for the second straight week when they take on the San Diego Chargers. Division games always seem to bring an almost fiercer intensity to the teams on the field – as well as some fiercer smack talk among fans of those teams. But the San Diego Chargers fans, by way of Bolts From The Blue over on SBNation show that smack talk aside, they just don’t really get it.

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In laying out his reasons for why the Chargers will beat the Raiders on Sunday, writer John Gennaro throws a few interesting tidbits out there. And by interesting, we mean morbidly amusing since said tidbits are either not very well thought out or are just a product of a rabid hatred of all things Raiders.

Among those “interesting” nuggets is the fact that perhaps accidentally, he at least acknowledges the possibility that perhaps the referees – by way of the league offices – have it out for the Raiders.

Wrote Gennaro :

"“Second, flags help to determine the outcome of a lot of NFL games.This is why the Raiders struggle to put up winning seasons!If this ends up being a close game, give the advantage to the Chargers (and the refs).”"

While that is an amusing anecdote – and possible admission – the real meat of Gennaro’s piece seems to be that he believes that this is a must win game for the Chargers – you can tell he believes this by the bolded words and extra punctuation marks style of his writing – and that the Raiders could really take a win or leave it.

Gennarro writes as if the Raiders don’t really care whether they win or lose, they’re just happy to be there.

Writes Gennarro:

"“This game means next to nothing for the Oakland Raiders. Sure, they want to win, and they want to beat a division rival, and winning in southern California would somehow impact their hope to retire and move to the sunny beaches down here in the next year or so, but they don’t need to win.”"

It’s not entirely clear what Gennarro meant or he was actually driving at with that rambling, non-sensical statement, but okay, we’ll just roll with it.

However, he finishes off his brilliantly illuminating article by saying:

"“This game can change the course of history for this franchise. Unlike the Raiders, who want the win, the Chargers need the win.That has to count for something, right?”"

This one game can change the course of history for this franchise? Nothing like a little panty-twisting hyperbole, right?

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The real idiocy in this article is that the game means “nothing” to the Raiders and that they “want” the win more than need it. Gennarro shows off his ignorance by believing the Chargers somehow have more on the line and more to play for than the Raiders do and that because of that, the game somehow means more to San Diego.

Perhaps Gennarro hasn’t looked at the standings – other than San Diego’s – yet this season. While it is true that because the Chargers currently sit at 2-4, that this game is pretty much a must win for San Diego. A loss drops the Bolts to 2-5, puts them a full four games behind the Denver Broncos, and put a real crimp in their hopes for a wild card slot. So yes, this is a big game for a desperate team.

But San Diego isn’t going to be the only desperate team on that field Sunday.

The Raiders currently sit at 2-3. A loss would put them in just about the exact same scenario as San Diego – namely, their chances at an AFC West title or a wild card slot would be bleak.

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However, a win over the Chargers would leave the Raiders three games behind Denver in the AFC West – a not insurmountable lead, especially given that Oakland still has one game against the Broncos left on the schedule.

But with a win, they would move to 3-3, and would keep pace with the Jets and the Steelers in the wild card race – both of whom have four wins, and both of whom, the Raiders have on the schedule in consecutive weeks after they square off with San Diego.

In case Gennarro forgot – or is frankly, too myopic to see that anything impacts anybody beyond his Chargers – wins in head to head matchups tend to count for a lot in the case of tiebreakers and playoff positioning.

Despite what Gennarro believes, this game is big for both teams, there is no question about it. Does he really believe that the Raiders are just rolling out every Sunday for a fun afternoon of throwing the ball around in the park and don’t really care about things like wins and losses? Judging by the tone and commentary in his article, he does seem to believe that. Which might make him one of the bigger fools on the internet.

Mark Davis, Reggie McKenzie, and Jack Del Rio are committed to turning this franchise around and building a winner. They are instilling a hunger and desire to win back into a Raiders franchise, that frankly, forgot what that felt like for a while.

Their stated goal is a division title this year. They want to turn this club around to make a push for the postseason. They want to get better each and every week – and in many ways, they are doing just that. Whether it’s enough to result in a postseason appearance for the first time in more than a decade remains to be seen. But it’s not for lack of want. Or desire.

So when folks like Gennarro spout off ridiculously absurd things like the Raiders “want to win” but are playing a game that “means nothing” to them, it just goes to show that some folks really just don’t get it. And might never get it, really.

They don’t seem to grasp that this is is a new era and Raiders football. This is a new team with a new philosophy and a new way of doing things. It might not always be pretty, it might not always work out they way fans and the organization want, but this coaching staff and these players are busting their tails to restore the meaning to Al Davis’ favorite catchphrase, “Commitment To Excellence.”

To suggest that the Chargers have more at stake than Oakland, or that the Raiders somehow don’t really care about wins and losses, is asinine beyond measure. But then, these are Chargers fans, so…

Next: Oakland Raiders: Keys To Victory Over Chargers

And since folks like Gennarro – or any generic Raider Hater actually – seem to have difficulty with things like logic, nuance, and comprehension, we should make this perfectly clear for them:

The Raiders have as much at stake as the Chargers do. They want this win. They need this win. And they are coming to San Diego to take it from you.