Three and Out: Oakland Raiders at San Diego Chargers

Three and Out is a weekly series that will examine three areas where the Oakland Raiders played well, and three areas where they didn’t. This is the Week 15 edition.

The Oakland Raiders are officially back in the playoffs. They punched their ticket to the dance with a 19-16 victory over the San Diego Chargers, in front of what might as well been a home crowd.

With the playoff drought that had been ongoing since 2002 now over, the focus now lies solely on winning the AFC West and earning a first-round bye. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about the game that clinched the playoff berth.

It wasn’t a pretty game (is it ever?) but at the end of the day, another ‘W’ was added to the win column. As always, there are areas where the team played well, and areas where they didn’t. Let’s start with the positives.

Here and three things the Raiders did well on Sunday.

Nov 6, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders outside linebacker Bruce Irvin (51) reacts towards the crowd before a play against the Denver Broncos in the first quarter at Oakland Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Bruce Irvin

Since Week 11, Bruce Irvin has been the player all of Raider Nation hoped he would be when he signed with team this offseason. Irvin has a total of 5 sacks in the last five games and beyond that, his play against the run has been outstanding, and he if doesn’t get the sack himself, there’s a good chance he wasn’t too far behind.

Against San Diego, with a playoff berth at stake, Irvin had his best game as a Raider. He had 2 sacks, 2 tackles for a loss, he tied for the team lead in tackles (6), and he had 3 additional hits on the quarterback.

What makes Irvin’s performance on Sunday even more impressive was the timing of the plays that he made.

On 2nd & 10, with the Chargers down by 3 points with 2:31 to go in the game, Bruce picked up his second sack of the game. Two plays later, on 4th & 15, Irvin was a fraction of a second away from his third sack, but his hit on Rivers as the ball was being thrown did enough to lead to Reggie Nelson’s game-clinching interception.

Run Game

There was a time very recently where the run game appeared on the wrong side of this column for two straight weeks, because this phase of the game had completely disappeared. And now for the third week in a row, the run game is back to its early season level of play.

139, 135, and 145 — those are the rushing yardage totals each of the last three weeks, with none of the yards per carry averages in those games being below 4.3. Against San Diego, the Raiders racked up 145 yards on just 29 carries, good for an average of 5 yards per carry. Both Latavius Murray and Jalen Richard had an average YPC of 6 or more, which is ridiculous.

With Carr still unable to take snaps under center, it makes this feat even more impressive. It was also nice to see DeAndre Washington back in action after being a healthy scratch in recent weeks, and he didn’t skip a beat with his play.

If the Raiders are forced to play out of Shotgun for the rest of the season, the run game is going to be as critical as ever. Especially as January creeps in — the AFC is a cold-weather conference, so if the Raiders have aspirations of a playoff run, the rushing attack will be a crucial part of making that happen.

Sebastian Janikowski

Old reliable. The 17-year vet got it done for the Raiders once again on Sunday, converting all four of his chances (plus one PAT), accounting for 13 of Oakland’s 19 points.

For his performance, Janikowski earned the nod in our weekly “game ball” column:

Finding themselves in an early 7-0 hole, it was crucial for Oakland to respond with points of their own. When Michael Crabtree dropped a pass on 3rd & 8, Seabass marched onto the field and drilled a 45-yard field goal.

With the game tied 10-10 early in the 3rd quarter, the Raiders seemed poised to take the lead with a touchdown. But an incompletion on 3rd & 2 from the 15-yard line forced the offense to settle for a field goal. Janikowski calmly hit from 33 yards out to give Oakland a 13-10 lead.

Once again trailing, this time 16-13 with about nine minutes to go in the 4th quarter, the Raiders were on San Diego’s 1-yard line. But a Latavius carry, a Carr pass that fell incomplete, and another run by Murray all failed to find the end zone. And once again, Janikowski trotted onto the field, and tacked on 3 more points with a 21-yard field goal.

And then with the game still tied at 16, with under three minutes to go in the game, the Oakland offense stalled on San Diego’s 26-yard line. So out came Seabass, and like he has done so many times in his career, he connected from 44 yards out.

Jano’s fourth field goal of the game gave the Raiders a 19-16 lead, which would prove to be the final score, clinching their first playoff berth since 2002.

Next: The Negatives: Raiders at Chargers

Oct 25, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders wide receiver Amari Cooper (89) looks on during the second quarter against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Amari Cooper

Where in the world has Amari Cooper gone?

For the sixth consecutive game, Coop has been held to 59 or less receiving yards. He has 22 catches for 251 yards over that span, and although he has scored twice, he’s only posted an average of 3.6 catches and 41 yards per game.

Against the Chargers, Amari recorded just 1 catch for a total of 28 yards, and he was targeted 3 times. Cooper faded down the stretch last season, but his play has taken an even bigger step back compared to last year’s decline.

It could be any number of reasons that are contributing to the poor play, but regardless of the reason, Bill Musgrave has to find ways to get Cooper more involved, and Carr has to do whatever he can to make sure that happens. If that means manufacturing Coop’s touches with quick slants and WR screens, then so be it.

Oakland may be 5-1 over the last six games, so they’re winning even without Cooper making a big impact, but it’s hard to say that will continue to be the case in a playoff game.

Red Zone Turnovers

Coming into Week 15, the Raiders had 62 consecutive trips to end zone with no turnovers, the longest such streak in the NFL. And by several accounts, they had one of the most efficient red zone offenses in the league. But on Sunday, the none of mattered.

The Raiders turned the ball over twice in the red zone in two tries early in the game. The first was a Latavius Murray fumble on 1st & 10 from San Diego’s 14-yard line. The second came on the following drive, on 3rd & 6 from San Diego’s 16-yard line. Carr underthrew a pass intended for Seth Roberts, which fell in the hands of a player in the wrong colored jersey.

It was an uncharacteristic sequence of possessions for the team that led the NFL in turnover differential to make two careless mistakes in a row.

Austin Howard

The Raiders offensive line boasts four players worthy of Pro Bowl — and likely All-Pro — consideration, and then there is Austin Howard.

It was another week and another rough outing for Howard, as he was beat for both of the sacks allowed on Sunday night. Per Pro Football Focus, the offensive line as a group allowed 10 pressures against the Chargers, and five of those were by Howard himself.

On a recent special guest appearance on the JBB Podcast, Ted Nguyen said that Howard is a quality starting right tackle, just not in the AFC West. Which is a fair way to look at it. With Von Miller, Justin Houston, Joey Bosa and others, teams essentially need elite right tackles to keep their quarterbacks upright. Howard is not that.

Menelik Watson had a solid performance, and it’s hard not to wonder why he hasn’t been given the starting job back. Even if he’s not able to stay healthy enough to keep the job, when healthy, he’s clearly the best player at the position. So while he may not be trusted to stay healthy, he’s healthy now, and should be the starter.