Stakes sky high for Raiders, Chargers in season finale

The Raiders and Chargers will meet in Las Vegas on Sunday night in the final game of the NFL regular season.

The prime-time matchup between AFC West rivals has another, even more significant designation. Given the stakes, it will amount to the first NFL playoff game at Allegiant Stadium.

All of the participants are fully aware of what they will be playing for when the game kicks off at 5:20 p.m. Sunday. The winner advances to the postseason.

“It’s one of those games that will be remembered forever,” Raiders’ defensive end Yannick Ngakoue said. “Sunday Night Football, both teams know if they win, they’re in. Everybody’s level should step up tremendously and hopefully we can get the win.”

That victory would make the Raiders an unlikely postseason participant. They were 6-7 after dropping five of six and appeared destined for an offseason overhaul in a season that has also included plenty of controversy off the field.

But somehow, interim coach Rich Bisaccia and a leadership group that includes quarterback Derek Carr has figured out a way to win the final three games and make the finale meaningful.

It’s an accomplishment in itself, though one that will soon be forgotten if the Raiders don’t finish the job.

“When you get in the NFL, this is what you think about,” defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “Playoffs, Super Bowls. … Ever since I got here, we’ve been close. This is the closest we’ve been. But we’re not there yet.”

Of course, no game on the schedule is worth more than any other. Both the Raiders and the Chargers could have put themselves in a position to not need this win by taking care of business earlier in the season.

They also could have played their way out of contention and rendered this game meaningless.

Yet in this first year with 17 games on the regular-season schedule, the division rivals still have plenty to play for in the final game.

“I think it’s almost like we’ve had a 16-game season, and this is the first round of the playoffs,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “It’s almost that mentality. So, to be in this position to where you have an opportunity like we have presented to us, we just don’t want to miss it.”

It would be a particularly important accomplishment for the Raiders, a franchise that has made just one postseason appearance since 2002. That came in 2016 when Carr was in the MVP conversation before suffering an injury late in the year and missing the playoff game, a loss to the Texans.

The Chargers haven’t exactly been regular entrants in the playoffs, either. They have been just once since 2013, beating the Ravens in 2018 before falling to the Patriots.

Raiders’ linebacker K.J. Wright is one of the few players in the game who has routinely qualified for the tournament during his days with the Seahawks.

He has provided veteran leadership for the Raiders this season and shared this advice for his teammates this week.

“Don’t make this game bigger than what it is,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a very important game, but don’t get so outside yourself where the moment gets too big. It’s a very cool moment, one you’ll remember for a long time once we seal the deal. But let’s keep it simple, trust the call, trust your teammates. Do the little things right, but do them with a nasty attitude. If we do that, we’ll get the results we want.”

Crosby has taken the words to heart.

“It’s going to be a one-play-at-a-time mentality from start to finish,” he said. “Everything matters. We have to play good, clean football. … we don’t want to overthink anything or try to be Superman out there. We just want to do our job and focus on what we have to get done.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.