Did Brandon Staley's timeout cost Chargers playoffs?

Week 18 of the NFL season needed every last second to finalize the 2021 NFL playoff picture, thanks to a 35-32 overtime win from the Las Vegas Raiders over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night.

The dramatic ending not only lit up social media, but also ultimately sent the Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers to the playoffs while sending the Chargers home.

But the game wasn't without controversy, thanks to a timeout call from Chargers head coach Brandon Staley that was debated late Sunday night and on into Monday morning.

With the score tied at 32 apiece with 38 seconds remaining in overtime, the Chargers called a timeout to stop the clock on third down. It appeared as if the Raiders were going to be content with letting the clock run out and settle for a tie, which would have sent both the Chargers and Raiders into the postseason, but the Chargers' timeout altered the plans of the Raiders.

The Raiders used the third down to get into field goal range to kick the game-winning field goal and knock the Chargers out of the playoffs. This immediately led to widespread criticism of Staley's decision to stop the clock.

And the conversation only continued on Monday morning.

Nick Wright discussed on "First Things First" how the timeout wasn't the death knell for the Chargers, seeing as how the Raiders never had officially conceded the game.

"They weren't in kneel down formation, they were about to run the ball," Wright said. "Staley knows the Chargers' run defense is awful."

The timeout could have been used to help out a defense that was gassed, and which was being dominated by Raiders running back Josh Jacobs, who accumulated 92 rushing yards in the fourth quarter and overtime alone. Staley even said after the game that he called the timeout to get his best run defenders on the field — it just didn't work.

While Wright was willing to back Staley for his timeout, ESPN's Rex Ryan wasn't as merciful.

During an appearance on ESPN's "Get Up," Ryan detailed how Staley's blunder left NFL fans "robbed" of seeing the Chargers rising superstar quarterback Justin Herbert in the playoffs.

"This guy coaches like he is a Division-III coach that nobody cares about," Ryan said. "It's hard not to make the playoffs with a franchise quarterback, but congratulations, he did it. How he faces his football team after this one is incredible to me."

Herbert passed for 383 yards and three touchdowns in the game, but now he and his team will have to watch the postseason from home.

And Chris Broussard pointed out that Staley made other mistakes, including going for it on fourth down in the third quarter.

"Fourth-and-2 from the Raiders' 19 is a lot different from fourth-and-2 from my own 18-yard line," Broussard said. "It cost them three points. It was in the third quarter so I won't say definitively that it cost them the game, but it could've."

Whether you think Staley cost his team a spot in the postseason, the coach will now have the entire offseason to ponder whether he made the right decisions.