Mistakes cost Raiders in loss to Chargers
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A consistent message throughout Raiders training camp was that in order to learn how to win football games, a team must first learn how not to lose them.
They emphasized it. Talked about it. And at times, even self penalized themselves for big and small errors they committed in practice that were deemed self-inflicted.
The goal was to minimize the type of mistakes that draw the line that separates winning from losing. podcast
All of which made the 24-19 loss they suffered to the Chargers on Sunday so frustrating. The Raiders failed to heed their most ardent offseason lesson, and it cost them a football game they could have won.
Three Derek Carr interceptions, each of them the result of what Carr described as his own overly aggressive play, sabotaged the Raiders in a season-opening loss against a division rival they fully understand must be dealt with in the loaded AFC West.
“That’s on me,” Carr said. “That’s decisions, being way too aggressive in certain moments.”
It turned out to be the key to the game.
“It doesn’t matter what type of turnovers they are, you’re just giving the other team extra opportunities to do something with the ball,” said Raiders coach Josh McDaniels. “ I thought they made a few good plays on the ball, obviously. But before you can win, you have to figure out how to not lose the game.”
In and around the interceptions were mental breakdowns that tight end Darren Waller said led to “blown assignments” and a shaky first game for an offensive line that surrendered five sacks of Carr.
In an otherwise evenly matched game — one the Raiders still had a chance to win late in the fourth quarter — it was their own mistakes that led to their demise.
“We did too many good things,” Carr said, expressing a frustration that was felt locker room-wide at SoFi Stadium. Only to be haunted by demons they believe they had exorcised.
“The things that we set out to do as far as standards, we didn’t accomplish today,” Waller said.
That will lead to a little bit of soul searching this week as they flush this loss and brace for the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
“You’ve got to look at it from a standpoint of being urgent about getting better and being honest about what it looks like,” Waller said.
To be sure, the Raiders left Los Angeles with plenty of positives to build upon. They played the Chargers to a push in total yards (365 to 320) and first downs (18 to 18) and finished with fewer penalties than the Chargers, three to five.
And in spite of the turnovers — one of which led to a late first-half touchdown that pushed the Chargers to a 17-3 lead at halftime, and another that occurred at the Chargers 2-yard-line that denied the Raiders a chance to cut into a 24-13 deficit — they still had possession of the ball with 3:30 remaining, down by five points, with a chance to drive for the game-winning touchdown.
“The opportunity to win was there,” left tackle Kolton Miller said.
That the Raiders played themselves into a position to win — thanks primarily to a defense that held the Chargers to just seven points in the second half — was a source of both frustration and hope. But with 16 games still left to play, the Raiders pledge to put the good and the bad in proper perspective.
As Waller said, to avoid “beating yourself over the head with a sledgehammer. Because it’s a marathon.” Added Carr: “We’re not going to overly freak out.”
Davante Adams was brilliant in his Raiders debut, collecting 10 catches for 141 yards and a touchdown. That it came in a loss was disappointing, but Adams seemed confident the miscues were a matter of inefficiency rather than talent.
“Nobody wins the season in Week 1,” Adams said. “We’re going to be hard on ourselves because that’s the type of team we are and the type of players we have. But we’ll find a way we could have performed better so we can capitalize on some more of those opportunities.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on Twitter.
