Raiders Can Repeat Prestigious History Against Chargers
It seems like old times as the Los Vegas Raiders play the Los Angeles Chargers in a game that really means something on Sunday evening at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
The Kansas City Chiefs have dominated the AFC West in recent seasons and the last time the Raiders played the Chargers with a chance to make the NFL playoffs came in the final game of the 2011 season at the Oakland Coliseum.
Quarterback Philip Rivers completed 19-of-26 passes for 310 yards and three touchdowns in that game, and Richard Goodman returned a kickoff 105 yards for another score as the Chargers claimed a 38-16 victory.
Carson Palmer of the Raiders completed 28-of-43 passes for 417 yards and two touchdowns, but both teams missed the playoffs with 8-8 records.
The Raiders (9-7) hold a 66-56-2 lead in the series that began when both teams were charter members of the American Football League in 1960, but the Chargers (9-7) have won the last two games, including a 28-14 victory in the fourth week this season at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. after the Silver and Black had started with three straight victories.
Quarterback Justin Herbert completed 25-of-38 passes for 222 yards and three touchdowns, and Austin Ekeler rushed for 117 yards and a touchdown, and the Chargers built a 21-0 halftime lead before Derek Carr futilely tried to rally the Raiders with two scoring passes in the second half.
The Raiders lead the all-time series even though the Chargers have won six of the last nine meetings, including all four games in 2017 and 2018, and the Chargers also won the first six games against the Silver and Black from 1960 to 1962.
However, the Chargers are somewhat responsible for the turnaround by the Silver and Black because they let assistant coach Al Davis go to the Raiders in 1963 to become their head coach, and eventually owner, which happened after he became commissioner of the American Football League during the Pro Football War in 1966.
After the AFL-NFL merger was complete, Davis returned to Oakland as managing general partner.
The Chargers beat the Raiders the first six times the teams played by scores of 52-28, 41-17, 44-0, 41-10, 42-33, and 31-21, finally holding them to under 40 points. In those first three seasons, the Raiders were 6-8, 2-12, and 1-13.
When Davis came to Oakland in 1963, he led them to a 10-4 record, but the Chargers had what many people believed was the best team in pro football, even better than the NFL champion Chicago Bears, after they compiled an 11-3 record and demolished the Boston Patriots in the AFL Championship Game, 51-10.
However, the Raiders beat the Chargers for the first time with a 34-33 upset at Balboa Stadium in San Diego when Tom Flores threw two touchdown passes and George Blanda passed for three more, including a nine-yarder to fullback Glenn Shaw for the winning points late in the game.
Later in the season at Frank Youell Field in Oakland, the Chargers built a 27-10 lead after three quarters and many of the 20,000-plus fans in the stadium began to leave.
However, Davidson threw touchdown passes of 10 and 41 yards to Art Powell and ran nine yards for another score in a 31-point outburst in the fourth quarter to claim a 41-27 victory that ranks with the greatest in Raiders history.
The stadium was about half full at one point early in the fourth quarter, but fans listening to the game on the radio drove back and Frank Youell was almost full again at the finish.
The Raiders and Chargers have played only once in the post-season, when quarterback Dan Fours and AFC West champion San Diego were huge favorites in the 1980 AFC Championship Game and at home in Jack Murphy Stadium.
However, after beating the Houston Oilers and Cleveland Browns in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Raiders scored first when tight end Raymond Chester caught a deflected pass from Jim Plunkett and went 65 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.
Plunkett threw another touchdown pass and ran for a score as the Raiders built a 28-7 lead late in the first half and they held off a rally by Fouts and the Chargers for a 34-27 upset victory that many fans of the Silver and Black consider among their best ever.
Two weeks later, the Raiders became the first wild card team to win the Super Bowl by dominating the favored Philadelphia Eagles, 27-10, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans as Plunkett threw three touchdown passes.
Incredibly, after all, they’ve been through this season, interim head coach Rich Bisaccia’s Raiders would have a chance to duplicate that feat if they can pull off what would be another memorable victory over the Chargers.
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