One more time. If there’s a theme for the San Diego Chargers
heading into their season finale with the Oakland Raiders that has to be it. If you believe the reports, the six-year period where Norv
Turner was the head coach and the 10-year period where A.J. Smith was the
general manager is about to come to end.
One thing, however, stands in the way, and that’s a Sunday
afternoon meeting with the Raiders at Qualcomm Stadium.
“Certainly it’s been a disappointing season to say the
least,” Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said this week. “But we get one more
game. It’s the only one we can control. It’s the one on Sunday. There’s a lot
to be said about finishing this the right way.”
In the minds of Chargers’ fans, the right way would to get
back to winning ways against Oakland.
In Turner’s first three years as San
Diego’s head coach, he went 6-0 against the Chargers
most-bitter rival.
Since 2010, Turner has a losing record against his former
team, going 2-3 (including this year’s win in Week 1).
If there is a “right way” to finish things off for this
season, it’s also going to coincide with San
Diego’s first sweep of the Raiders since the 2009
season.
And if that happens, the Chargers—who have always taken the
blame away from Turner for their failures the last three years—can give their
coach a proper send off.
“It’s hard because you put in a lot of time, in this case
six years with this group,” Rivers said. “This particular team, we’ve been
going since this April, then we’re going to scatter and who knows how many will
be back in four months. It can be sad on Sunday, but it in a lot of ways it can
be exciting if we go out and finish it the right way.”
If San Diego played as efficiently as it did last week in
its win over the New York Jets, then it might finish the 2012 season the way it
began—with a win over the Raiders.
The high-point last week was the Chargers’ ability to
fluster Jets quarterback Greg McElroy. San Diego
sacked the second-year man out of Alabama
a season-high 11 times.
Offensively, San Diego
played as mistake free in weeks. Rivers pushed his interception-less streak to
three games last week and the team had no fumbles—the first time since beating Pittsburgh two weeks ago.
And the team scored at least 27 points for the first time since a 31-13 win
over Kansas City
on Nov. 1.
“I don’t buy into the mindset of not playing for anything,
because obviously didn’t have last week the motivation of playing for the
playoffs of playing to knock someone out of the playoffs,” Turner said. “A
bunch of the guys played as well as they ever played, and defensively when you
go get 11 sacks, there’s obviously a lot of effort spent.”
The aggressive defense may cause problems for Oakland. With veteran
quarterback Carson Palmer out for Sunday’s game, the Raiders will have to rely
on either Terrell Pryor or Matt Leinart.
While Leinart got the start last week—throwing for 115 yards
on 16-of-32 passing with zero touchdowns and one interception—he has split time
in practice this week with Pryor.
And coach Dennis Allen said that no decision has been made
about who is starting Sunday.
Either way, what the Chargers brought defensively to New York is of great
concern to the staff from the Bay Area.
“When you get the backup, a guy that hadn’t had as many
snaps, the guy who hadn’t seen all the looks throughout the season,” Allen told
reporter this week, “you’re going to try to give him a few more looks and make
sure you can affect them.”
Prediction: The
Raiders are even more hapless than the Chargers. Leinart is ineffective and
Raiders coach Dennis Allen publicly stated that Terrell Pryor wasn’t even ready
to be a backup last week. Oakland’s
running game will not help them either. Featured back Darren McFadden is
averaging just 3.3 yards per carry—not enough to take the pressure off of
whoever starts for the Raiders on Sunday. Defensively, Oakland is ranked 21st in the NFL
and they give up 5.8 yards per play (thanks pro-football-reference.com).
As of Thursday, Vegas hasn’t put a line on this game. But
I’ll take the first week win and give San
Diego at least one more touchdown. Chargers win this
one and give Norv Turner a late Christmas gift. Chargers 28 Raiders 10.
Written by Gerald Nicdao
San Diego Union - Tribune
5 comments:
OK...YES...FINALLY it is time for the Raiders to come to Bolt-land!!! Yeap, this season was nothing but a disaster, alas we are in highest hopes of seeing AJ helping load Norv's U-Haul and visa versa come Monday!! But for now, it becomes serious...serious time to smack around the "Faiders" and send them back to their prison or as they call it the Oakland Coliseum. Oh the Q will be filled with the usual gang banger wanna be Raider folks dressed up in their cute Halloween outfits bragging about their dominance of owning the cellar of the AFC West! And they will share their stories of how many signs along the freeway they tagged without getting caught, or how many people they tried to run off the road on the trip or just how many "birds" they got to flip at innocent passers by so they had the "fear of the Raiders" in their eyes...Ha, they need to fear the lightning strikes up their ass this Sunday...I would love to see us beat the sack record for a game and let's see whichever QB they bring brought down uhhhh I like the number 15! And Rivers and his not so band of re-nouns can put up some points so the new bosses (whoever it will be) can see we have some talent and just need a few pieces and a real "holding you ass accountable" coach. I hope Spanos sees how much of the Black and Silver (gang colors) will be in our stadium instead of the power blue and gold...that is the only reason we have it on TV. Fugggget playing down for draft positions Chargers...this is the most hated Team of the Bolts and they deserve an old fashion ass whopping just to remind them of who we are...WE ARE THE Muther F'n San Diego Chargers (just don't look at our record for this year)!!!
THE RAIDERHATER
RH... it's your favorite week of the year!!! It's Raider week and I can't wait! Send them back to Oakland beaten, bruised and bloodied!!!! Raider fans have to be the most pathetic creatures on earth. Al David fleeced them. Basically, an old prison style, up the yazoo, pounding and they are still his bitches! hahahaha Yes, they'll come in droves like they have a chance and they'll go home (or to jail) saddened and red-faced. But they'll be back again next year, spreading their cheeks for Al Davis's corpse. I just hope we put a beat down on them so they never come back. I hate the fact that they are going to be in our house, arrogant little bitches, talking smack to the Charger fans as if they belong here. They don't! C'mon Deano, bring us a heead coach that will return us to a dominant West Division team again that way the stadium will be filled with Charger fans again, the way it should be!!! Go BOLTS!!!
RH... that might have been your best post yet! Loved it... I give it a 10!!!
))))- Ha Ha Nick said they are Al's bitches...yeah buddy!!! It is my week to celebrate, I have been practicing up on gang and jail mate street lingo so any Raider fans I run across (or over) I can chat with in their own language...and "my bitch" is certainly one of the phrases I shall use (and that they clearly understand)!!! I gotta go get fitted for my Kevlar reinforced Charger jersey, Raider fans always pack some form of weapon like a prison shank (they learn that when they are bottle feeding babies, usually Budweiser is in that bottle)...and you gotta be ready in case they get aggressive so a little protection goes a long way!!! Ha Ha...Nick - Power Up Go Bolts!!!
RaiderHater
hahaha... you'll have to figure out all those finger gestures they use when they "sign" each other. But there is only one finger gesture you need to know when dealing with Raider fans at the Q and that's the almighty middle finger! Go RH... Go Bolts!
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