NFL 2020 Week 15 Thursday Night Football Review

             

  

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LA Chargers 30, Las Vegas 27 (OT)  

Well, the Raiders season is pretty much done now. It might not yet be official, but last night’s home loss to the Chargers will surely do the trick. Look for the Raiders to officially be eliminated from playoff contention at some point in the final two weeks, regardless of how they fare in their final two games.  

The Chargers seemed to be up for this game from early on, leading for much of it, and playing much better than their record of 4-9 entering this contest would suggested. The Chargers had not won a division game since the 2018 season, and so it seemed that there were a lot of factors going against a Chargers win.  

Young Justin Herbert was impressive for the Chargers, completing 22 of 32 passes for 314 yards and two touchdowns. His favorite target on this night was Jalen Guyton, who pulled in four receptions for 91 yards. On the ground, Austin Ekeler earned 60 yards on 13 carries. The Chargers produced 402 yards of total offense, as well as 27 first downs.  

In a losing cause for Las Vegas, Marcus Mariota completed 17 of 28 passes for 226 yards, with one touchdown, as well as one INT very late in the fourth quarter that gave the Chargers a chance to win it with a field goal. But it was no good. Mariota’s favorite go-to guy was Darren Waller, who pulled in nine receptions for 150 yards and one touchdown. Mariota also led the Raiders with 88 rushing yards on nine carries, with one touchdown.  

The game went into overtime after that missed field goal attempt by Los Angeles late in the fourth quarter. The Raiders had their own field goal attempt to try and win it, but it was from what would have been an NFL record 65 yards out. But the snap was screwed up, and the attempt never even got off the ground.  

In overtime, the Raiders managed an impressive 14 play, 70 yard drive that ended with a field goal. Las Vegas was knocking on the door of a possible winning touchdown, but just were not able to punch it through.  

And the Chargers made them pay for that. On the next drive for Los Angeles, Herbert went deep down the middle to Guyton for a 53 yard completion that put the Chargers just two yards short of a winning touchdown. A few plays later, Herbert dove in and broke the plane of the end zone for the winning touchdown that knocked the Raiders out of the playoff race.  Los Angeles improved to 5-9 on the season with their second straight win. The Raiders, meanwhile, fell to 7-7 on the year.

My pick: Inaccurate