‘A play I regret’: Raiders defensive lineman explains big penalty

By all accounts, Jerry Tillery is as intelligent and well-rounded as they come.

The Raiders defensive lineman holds a degree in economics from Notre Dame and has crisscrossed the world in search of knowledge and life experiences. Those travels include a hedge-fund internship in Ireland, a study-abroad program in Tokyo and a trip to South Africa to study racial inequality.

Talk to anyone in South Bend, Indiana, Los Angeles or Las Vegas — the three major stops in his educational and professional journey — and they all talk about Tillery’s insatiable appetite for enlightenment and understanding.

“A unique young man,” is how Tillery’s Notre Dame position coach, Mike Elston, described him.

Then Tillery gets on a football field and, well, something takes hold of him. And often it ends up hurting his team.

Like the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty he committed Sunday against the Chargers when he slammed into Justin Herbert after the quarterback stepped out of bounds after a scramble.

The Raiders were docked 15 yards on a drive that ultimately ended with a Los Angeles touchdown. Nearly as painful, Tillery was kicked out of the game. That meant an already short-handed Raiders defense was even more compromised.

“A play I regret,” Tillery said.

One that his former Chargers teammates won’t soon forget.

“It was definitely a cheap shot,” Chargers cornerback Asante Samuel Jr.

Tillery insists otherwise.

“It wasn’t some malicious play. It wasn’t dirty,” he said. “The player, specifically, is a dear friend of mine. I love Justin.”

Nevertheless, it was the latest in a handful of head-scratching plays he has made over his career.

In college, Tillery once kicked Southern California running back Aca’Cedric Ware in the helmet while he was lying on the ground. He also stomped on the leg of USC tackle Zach Banner while Banner was stretched out on the field.

In the same game.

While playing with the Chargers from 2020-22, Tillery committed 19 penalties, 12 of which resulted in first downs for the opponent.

Then, soon after joining the Raiders last year, he cost them a game when he swiped the ball out of Rams quarterback Baker Mayfield’s hands after a play right in front of the referee, who had no choice but to flag Tillery for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Even more painful, the penalty negated a sack by Maxx Crosby. Instead of the Rams facing second-and-19 from their own 13-yard line with 1:30 remaining and no timeouts, they got a fresh set of downs and eventually scored the go-ahead touchdown.

And now Tillery pulled a similar stunt Sunday against the Chargers.

His penalty was one of nine the Raiders committed Sunday to raise their infraction total to 28, eighth-most in the NFL this season.

“The best thing we can do is keep educating, keep coaching it, keep talking about it,” Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said. “I think our guys want to play penalty-free. They’re not trying to commit penalties, I know that. We just got to make better decisions in certain situations.”

Tillery said he is trying to do better. He insists he isn’t fueled by nefarious motivations. He just has a hard time balancing the aggressiveness needed to play football with better awareness.

“I think it is a fine line,” Tillery said.

The Herbert play is a case in point. At the moment Herbert started to scramble, he was at the 40-yard line with Tillery 10 yards in front. Herbert’s objective was to get to the first-down marker six yards away.

Tillery went into high gear and actually won the battle, forcing Herbert out of bounds a yard short.

But with Tillery focused on Herbert, he said he wasn’t aware of how close he was to the sideline.

“No, not really,” Tillery said. “I’m a 6-6, 300-pound man running, probably 17, 18 miles an hour. He’s a 6-5, 220-pound man running 19, 20 miles an hour. So that collision is a big one.”

With everything moving as fast as it was, Tillery said he didn’t time the play out correctly.

“I’m out there playing as hard as I can,” he said. “It was a close play, and I was late on it.”

A play that he immediately regretted, especially against a former teammate and good friend. Tillery reached out to Herbert after the game with an apology.

All he can do now, he said, is learn from the mistake.

“We take it, we roll and we move on,” Tillery said. “That’s what has to happen. Because we’ve got a lot more games to play.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow@VinnyBonsignore on X.