Busters
Reggie Nelson
Outside of being in the right position to recover Perry Riley’s forced fumble, Nelson had a brutal game. He had already given up an 8-yard catch on the play just before that which set the Chargers up at the Oakland 22-yard-line. The next opportunity he had to make a play, he was out of position. Tyrell Williams got a step on David Amerson and Nelson was not there to help out to give up a 29-yard touchdown catch.
That was the first touchdown of the game for either team. The next one came to begin the third quarter. It was set up when Nelson gave up a catch to tight end Hunter Henry and then took a terrible angle to allow Henry to rumble for 59 yards. Two plays later, Nelson was blocked to give up an easy 17-yard screen for the score. It put the Raiders down 17-9.
The Raiders got in the end zone to pull back to within one on the following drive. But it wouldn’t last long. On the very first play of the next series, Tyrell Williams again went deep and again Nelson was not there to help out; giving up a 50-yard catch. The next play Nelson was blocked to give up a 24-yard run to the one-yard line. Then he was caught up in a pick play to allow Hunter Henry to once again break wide open for the 1-yard touchdown. The lead was once again extended to 24-16.
The offense had to rally to put up another 18 points in order to make up for the big plays Nelson and other gave up.
David Amerson
When I say Nelson and "others", mostly I mean Amerson. He came into the game as the highest graded cornerback in the league by PFF. Highly unlikely that continues after this week. He was torched like Sean Smith circa season opener in New Orleans. I lay some blame for not helping out as the single high safety to Nelson. But no way should these receivers be getting open behind Amerson the way they did. And when they did, Philip Rivers made the Raiders pay dearly for it.
That 29-yard touchdown to Tyrell Williams was one such instance. Williams’ 50-yard catch may have been another such instance. Then there was the 54-yard catch and run Amerson gave up to Travis Benjamin late in the first half. It could have been a short catch, but Amerson took a terrible angle and the speedy Benjamin ran right around him and up the sideline to put the Chargers immediately in scoring position at the 26-yard-line. To Amerson’s credit, he helped to make the tackle that would eventually stop the drive short and limit the damage to a field goal.
The same couldn’t be said for the other two big catches he surrendered which both resulted in touchdowns. His final act was giving up a catch and missing the tackle for a 15-yard gain on the Chargers last drive to help them move into field goal range at the end of the game. We already know how that ended.
Kelechi Osemele
First he missed his assignment to give up a backside tackle for a four-yard loss. The Raiders had a short field after the Sean Smith interception, and that stop helped ensure they would get no closer, and Janikowski missed the 50-yard field goal attempt.
Late in the second quarter, with the Raiders still without a touchdown and down 10-6, he would give up yet another tackle for loss which helped lead to a three-and-out.
Early in the third quarter, the Raiders would finally get in the end zone. Carr connected with Amari Cooper for a the 64-yard score, but Carr paid for it because Osemele’s man got by him and nailed Carr as he released the ball.
The run stuffs and QB hits are one thing (well, two things actually), but on the next drive, the pre-snap penalties began. With no crowd noise to use as an excuse, Osemele had not one but TWO false starts in that same drive. The second one came on third and 3 and stalled the drive, forcing the Raiders to settle for a field goal after the Chargers had opened the quarter with consecutive touchdown drives.
He cleaned things up after that, which was a major reason the offense was able to sustain drives and put up touchdowns to close out the game.
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