Raiders Round-Up Week 15: 
Christmas Came Early 

To paraphrase the great “Ravishing” Rick Rude: Oh, what a difference a week makes. 

 

In week 14, the Las Vegas Raiders put up 0 points, (obviously) tying their all time franchise low for points scored. A mere 4 days later, they put up 63 points, setting the franchise record. Personally, I would like to take 7 of those points and retroactively put them on the Minnesota game so we could get the win, but my many calls and e-mails to league officials have gone unreturned, so we must move on.

 

Still, it’s pretty cool for a franchise as old as the Raiders (est. 1960) to be setting positive records, fittingly 63 years later. 

 

So what changed in those four days? Well, unless Antonio Pierce asked Santa for an offense this Christmas, the short answer is: nothing. No major players returned from injury (in fact, star RB Josh Jacobs didn’t even suit up). No fundamental changes to the offensive or defensive schemes were made. There were rumors of Antonio Pierce going back to Jimmy G as the quarterback, but those rumors turned out to be as credible as a wrestling dirt sheet.

 

Simply put: The Raiders just balled out. Aiden O’Connell suited up on gameday and had the best performance of his young career. O’Connell went 20/34 for 248 yards and FOUR touchdowns. Adding insult to injury, Jakobi Meyers went 2/2 with a passing touchdown as well. Three different running backs for the Raiders averaged at least 4 yards per carry, and the Chargers got only one sack in the entire game, compared to seven sacks the last time they played Las Vegas. Los Angeles’s defense had been suspect all season long, but this was something else. 

 

From opening kickoff to the final play, just about everything went right for the Raiders. They led 42-0 at the half, and as impressive as the first half was, the second half provided the most exciting plays of the game. Leading 49-7, LB Malcolm Koonce found himself on the Nice list, and was rewarded with a strip-sack fumble recovery that he took to the house. Then, two plays later, CB Jack Jones found a pick-six sitting under his tree, scoring on the most well-timed route jump I’ve ever seen. It was the perfect exclamation point at the end of a nearly perfect game. 

 

Of course, no game is truly perfect, and there are a few things that could be improved upon. The Chargers did manage to put up 21 points in the second half, which would be more concerning if the whole team wasn’t on cruise control. Maxx Crosby was held without a sack, which doesn’t really matter considering the Raiders defense still ended up with four fumble recoveries, three sacks, two defensive touchdowns, and a partridge in a pear tree. 

 

This was unlike anything we’ve seen from the Raiders in literal decades. It harkened back to the early 2000’s teams, when Rich Gannon would be slinging to Jerry Rice and Tim Brown, and Bill Romanowski would be spear-tackling running backs and quarterbacks into early retirement. It is likely not something that we are going to see repeated, but it was damning enough to get Chargers head coach Brandon Staley fired (a feeling Raiders fans are intimately familiar with).

 

On Christmas day, the Raiders will play the Kansas City Chiefs, a team who has been struggling as of late. While they are still deservedly heavy favorites, if ever there was time for a Christmas miracle, this just might be that time.