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

The Bad: More Holes Than Swiss Cheese

Just when we’d thought they were beginning to figure it out and right the ship…

In the past two games against Tennessee and Baltimore, we thought we were seeing Oakland’s secondary taking strides and improving. They were making plays and holding opposing receivers down. But perhaps what we were actually seeing were two teams that had subpar passing offenses not being able to actually make plays.

Perhaps the improvement we all thought we were seeing was all a mirage.

Against San Diego, Oakland’s secondary once again collapsed beneath the weight of one of the league’s better passing attacks. We saw it against New Orleans and we saw it again against the Falcons. And now, we’ve seen it happen against San Diego – who, despite more injuries than you can shake a stick at – still boast the league’s fourth best passing game.

Rivers went off on the Oakland defense for 351 yards and four touchdowns on 21 of 30 passing. He burned the Raiders deep often, throwing numerous long completions after his receivers had managed to get behind Oakland’s secondary.

Sean Smith continued a trend of getting abused by opposing receivers and even the usually reliable David Amerson was struggling in coverage. Reggie Nelson once again found himself taking too many bad angles to the balls, being out of position to help over the top, and simply watching as San Diego’s receivers went blowing by.

For the game, San Diego’s ever so imposing tandem of Kelvin Benjamin and Tyrell Williams had scorched Oakland’s secondary for 234 yards on twelve receptions between them.

It wasn’t the kind of day the secondary wanted to have and the sort of thing this team is going to have to figure out. Quickly.