Raiders at Chargers 2nd half thread

Oakland got the ball first but couldn't get a drive going. The Chargers on the other hand had no problem driving the ball on their first drive, they put together a 16 play, 82 yard drive that took up 9:16 of the clock on their first time on offense. However the Raiders defense came up big at the end of it and San Diego only got a field goal for their efforts to make the score 3-0.

Considering the length of the drive for the Chargers that was a big win to just hold them to a field goal. After that it was up to the offense to respond, which they did with a 3 and out. Just like that the Raiders defense was back out on the field less than 2 minutes after the long drive by San Diego.

It didn't matter though, the Chargers fumbled the snap early in their next drive and Miles Burris recovered it. Then Oakland drove right down and got a touchdown making the score 7-3 Raiders. The drive featured a nice play to Andre Holmes for a first down and a leaping catch by Mychal Rivera to get the Raiders down inside the Chargers 5 yard line, then Darren McFadden capped it off with a nice run up the gut for the touchdown.

It looked like San Diego was going to be able to respond pretty easily when they got the ball back. That was until Philip Rivers tried to force a ball to a perfectly covered receiver and it was intercepted. It may have been the best coverage seen this season from Michael Jenkins, he couldn't have had better positioned himself for the interception and it came inside the Raiders 10 yard line.

Unfortunately the Chargers Safety Eric Weddle made a circus play to get the ball right back. The interception was reviewed after Weddle managed to tap the ball twice in the air and then catch it while on the ground. It looked like one heck of a play by Eric but it was really close to touching the ground, but since it was called an interception on the field the play stood as called. Just 2 plays later Ryan Matthews bounce off a pile of should be tacklers and into the endzone making it 10-7 Chargers.

The Raiders next drive had some moments where it looked like something special might happen with Matt McGloin escaping pressure but nothing came of it. They had to punt it back to the Chargers with less than 2 minutes remaining but rookie of the year candidate Keenan Allen muffed the punt and the Raiders recovered. It was their 3rd turnover of the first half.

Oakland started at the Chargers 16 and right away completed a 14 yard pass to Marcel Reece down to the Chargers 2 yard line. They could not finish off the drive though and settled for a field goal, though Matt McGloin did a good job not forcing anything on the 3rd down and taking the field goal instead. The field goal tied the score at 10 and the Chargers just ran out the final seconds when they got the ball back.