Oakland Raiders: A Few Keys To Victory Over The San Diego Chargers
By Kevin Saito
Get To Rivers Early And Often
When things aren’t going Philip Rivers’ way, we’ve seen him scream, yell, and throw plenty of tantrums over the course of his remarkable career. He’s passionate. He’s fiery. But when he’s flustered, he can also make plenty of mistakes.
To capitalize on that, the Raiders are going to need to get to him early and they’re going to need to get to him often. We saw the pass rush come alive last week. They hit Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco time and time again.
They were able to just sack him twice, but they certainly rattled his cage plenty. We saw Flacco having to pick himself up off the ground many times last week.
It was a good sign for a pass rush that has been largely missing in action so far this season. An even better sign was Khalil Mack getting his first sack of the year. He’d still made his presence felt, played tough against the run, and had come very close to snagging the quarterback in his first three games, but he’d been shut out of the sack department.
In the wake of the Baltimore game, Bruce Irvin believes the pass rush is making “significant strides.”
"“The first three weeks, the pass rush wasn’t there much. Last week though, we made significant strides. That happened because we were all rushing together. It’s not just one person getting pressure. It was everyone doing his part. That’s the biggest difference.”"
The defense is going to need everybody doing their part again this week – and through the rest of the season, of course. But against the Chargers, they may get some opportunities. Through the first four weeks of the season, San Diego has allowed eight sacks, nine hits, and 55 total quarterback pressures – which according to Pro Football Focus, ranks them thirty-first in pass blocking efficiency.
San Diego’s offensive line is beat up. And just like with what they need to do to the secondary, the Raiders can give no quarter and show no mercy. They need to be relentless in their attack and make Rivers very, very uncomfortable all day long.