Oakland Raiders: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly vs. Chargers

The Uglier: And Then The Wall Came Crumbling Down

Worse than the lack of room in the running game though, was the lack of time and protection Carr had enjoyed for the first month of the season. The Great Wall of Oakland just seemed to come crumbling down against the Chargers. San Diego got to Carr all day, hurrying and harassing him relentlessly.

San Diego managed to put three sacks on him when he’d only taken two through the first four games – and one of those was simply Carr running out of bounds at the line of scrimmage.

The line held together long enough for Carr to make some important plays down the field. They managed to keep the defense off him long enough for him to lead his team to a win with some very key throws. But it was a struggle.

And you can tell that by the number of pre-snap penalties the Raiders took on offense – four of Oakland’s six penalties on the day were of the pre-snap variety. Rodney Hudson, Gabe Jackson, and Kelechi Osemele all had false start penalties. And in Osemele’s case, he had two.

San Diego’s relentless pass rush – perhaps Bosa in particular – was making Oakland’s vaunted line twitchy and a tad too quick off the line. And they paid for it.

With so many linemen missing time due to injury, Oakland’s cohesiveness has been threatened from day one. But Tice and his men have held it together remarkably well. So well in fact, they’ve been one of the best lines in football.

They had a bad day against San Diego. It’s going to happen. They just need to refocus and get it right before the next game.