Coming into this game there were only six teams in the AFC over .500, so this was an important battle for 2nd in the West division between the 4-4 Las Vegas Raiders and the 4-5 London Chargers. We got a close game, but not necessarily a good one.
There were a lot of flags in this game, either a mark of two undisciplined teams or officials calling things extra tight near the line of scrimmage. Remarkably, the officials didn't decide the game, though they did add a level of excruciating pain to the fan-watching experience.
POSITION BY POSITION:
Philip Rivers:
If Rivers were intentionally trying to lose, would it have looked much different than what we saw last night? I'm a longtime Rivers fan/apologist, and certainly over the years he's been let down plenty by his kicker, or defense, or coaching staff. And there was some of that going on last night, too, plus he lost left tackle Russell Okung early on and was under heavy pressure. But Rivers himself played a godawful game from start to finish. No exaggeration to say he could have thrown 6-7 interceptions, and that's just counting actual picks erased by penalties. On each of them it was not hard to see open receivers that he missed.
What was surprising (to me and the Chargers) was the Raiders pass rush. It's basically been awful for two years, since the team traded away Khalil Mack (no coincidence). In fairness it was awful with Mack, but whatever. But Oakland was in Rivers' face all night long, not just off Okung's side but up the middle (where Mike Pouncey is really missed), and it obviously unsettled the veteran quarterback. Among other things, the Chargers seemed to have a lot of trouble getting snaps off in time. Their field goal was preceded by a costly red-zone delay of game; that can't happen. And they were running these weird plays with receivers running crossing routes in the backfield in tandem with the snaps, which seemed as confusing to the offense as the defense.
For all of that, the Chargers got the ball back with a minute left and 3 timeouts, in perfect shape for Rivers to patiently work the offense down the field with short passes so his kicker could shank a game-winning field goal. Instead they dialed up a bunch of deep throws that fell incomplete until Rivers was naturally intercepted to end the game. The Chargers' season is essentially over, and Rivers can look in the mirror for this one.
Derek Carr:
Carr made a couple of nice throws to open receivers on the game-winning drive, but by and large, handed an early 10-0 lead and watching Rivers throw up air balls, he was tasked with simply not losing this game. The team isn't blessed with great receiving talent and not much was happening downfield, so he completed a lot of short throws to running backs and wide receivers near the line of scrimmage, and finished with modest numbers. Oakland's pass defense is weak and if Rivers had been sharper this could have been a nice high-scoring shootout, like Lions-Raiders last week. But there's a reason why Carr is sitting out there in virtually all my leagues. He's not going to put up big numbers in most games. Oakland's next three games look favorable (Bengals, Jets, Kansas City), but hard to have confidence in Carr. Bengals and Jets, certainly, might not do enough on offense to get Carr out of his shell.
Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler:
Bad as Gordon looked his first few games back, he's now looked great two games in a row. Oakland has been a lot better against the run than the pass, but Gordon was running with power and decisiveness and some great cutbacks. He'd probably have scored a second touchdown but for a helmet-to-helmet shot right before Ekeler caught the team's go-ahead touchdown. The remaining schedule is iffy for running, plus there's that annoying Week 12 bye. But Gordon looks like he'll make himself some money the rest of the way, maybe from the Chargers.
Ekeler isn't as good conventionally running it, and his role has declined of late. But for that late touchdown catch, a couple of plays after Gordon got shaken up (both backs were on the field, but there was no doubt Gordon wasn't going to be involved in the play), he'd have been a fantasy dud last night. Ekeler should be busy in the Kansas City game upcoming, but it looks like the offense is going to use Gordon a lot more the rest of the way. And the way Gordon looks (and the way Rivers was struggling last night), it should.
Josh Jacobs:
Jacobs looks great. He's a patient runner who seems to have really good vision. He's getting great blocking, but he's also playing really well. Imagine if the team didn't feel compelled to use Jalen Richard for a third of the snaps and DeAndre Washington for god only knows what reason for another 10-15 percent of the time. I guess Richard is better in pass protection. Jacobs is having a very good season even with those snaps spent on the sidelines. Maybe Gruden wants to keep him fresher because that always worked out in Alabama. But it seems like he should play a little more. Richard has caught 7 passes for 99 yards the last two weeks so I guess there's some low-level fantasy value, but that production seems too unpredictable for him to be a regular option.
Chargers wide receivers:
Keenan Allen rejoined the offense after a few down weeks, catching 8 passes and having another 30-yard play wiped out by penalty. Assuming the Chargers continue to involve him, he should be just fine the second half of the season. Mike Williams disappointed with only 3 targets, but I'm going to blame Rivers and his sailing wild throws all over the place. A disappointing game but I think he'll be a legit No. 2. The Chargers are definitely hurting (literally) at No. 3. They lost Inman and Benjamin even Geremy Davis and are using Andre Patton. On his behalf, Patton was open downfield a couple of times when Rivers instead was busy throwing interceptions. But he also seemed to run a couple of poor routes against a defense that wasn't really paying him a lot of attention. None of the 4 passes thrown his way were completed.
Raiders wide receivers:
Tyrell Williams saw 3 targets early on, looking like it was going to be a nice payback storyline. But he saw only 2 targets after the second series, with Carr completing mostly short passes to running backs and Hunter Renfrow. Not to great effect: no Raider reached 45 receiving yards. Zay Jones is the other wide receiver involved, and Oakland threw a couple of deeper balls his way, including an end-zone throw. But they weren't close to being completed. There's some PPR value in Renfrow, but it doesn't look like any of these wideouts is going to help fantasy teams. Renfrow was the closest wideout to scoring, with a ball broken up in the end zone on a nice defensive play. I think Ian called it right when he was cool on Williams in a recent ReDrafter.
Hunter Henry:
Henry caught just 4 passes for 30 yards, but his 7 targets was 2nd only to Allen, and he got wide open for a touchdown. Had Rivers been sharper he'd probably have caught a few more balls. Henry looks like a top 5 tight end the rest of the way, no question. On the other hand...
Darren Waller:
Waller was carrying one of my fantasy teams early on, but he looks benchable right now. Since going 7-126-2 in a blowout loss at Green Bay, Waller has now caught 7 passes for an average of 34 yards the last three weeks, with 1 TD. They tried a little screen to him last night which he seemed to be surprised by and dropped. Favorable matchups the next three games, but I'm not sure he's going to deliver; defenses are more aware of him now, and it doesn't look like he or the Raiders have adjusted.
Kickers:
Nothing on Badgley, who was fine on his one field goal and three extra points. The Raiders will probably need to replace Dan Carlson when they're thinking about winning playoff games and such. He missed badly from 53 yards and blew an extra point that would have cost Oakland the win had the Chargers exhibited more sense in the final minute of action.