What to watch for in Raiders-Chargers on Thursday Night Football
ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Raiders barely had time to enjoy Sunday’s victory over the Lions before they began preparing for Thursday night’s home game against the Chargers. But in no way does that diminish the importance of this game — for both teams.
The 4-4 Raiders are in the middle of a three-game home stretch, and getting to 5-4 before facing the lowly 0-8 Bengals and 1-7 Jets in consecutive weeks could set them up for a strong playoff push.
The Chargers started the season 2-5, but the club now has a chance to even its record after back-to-back victories over the Bears on the road and the Packers at home.
With the national spotlight on the contest, this is a showcase game for both teams. And it’s likely the last prime-time matchup for the Raiders at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum.
With all that in mind, here are three things to watch for on Thursday Night Football.
1. Who starts on the offensive line?
This has been a constant talking point for the Raiders all season and will be again for Week 10. After missing Sunday’s game against the Lions with an ankle injury, center Rodney Hudson is once again questionable for Thursday. Right tackle Trent Brown, who had to leave Sunday’s game with a knee injury, also is questionable.
If both players are unable to play, Andre James would start in place of Hudson at center, as he did last week. David Sharpe would start in place of Brown at right tackle, as he did against the Packers in Week 7.
Given that this could be the seventh combination of starting offensive linemen for the Raiders in nine games, it’s fairly remarkable that the team has given up just nine sacks. Only the Steelers have surrendered fewer with eight.
“Have a lot of confidence in those guys,” said quarterback Derek Carr, who also credited offensive line coach Tom Cable and assistant offensive line coach Lemuel Jeanpierre for keeping the group prepared.
2. Can the Raiders stop the pass?
The Raiders have been one of the better teams against the run, giving up an average of 92.5 yards per game, seventh-fewest in the NFL. But they’re the worst team against the pass, surrendering 297.5 yards per game. The Chargers, on the other hand, come into Week 10 No. 6 in passing offense at 281.3 yards per game,
This means Thursday’s game is going to pit weakness versus strength. Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn said he made the change at offensive coordinator, promoting former UNLV quarterback Shane Steichen into the position last week, in part because he felt his team had not run the ball enough.
But Thursday night, given the matchup, it stands to reason that the Chargers will aggressively attack the Raiders through the air.
3. Who makes the fewest mistakes?
Thursday Night Football is often sloppy given the small amount of time teams have to recover and prepare for the game.
The Raiders have done well protecting the ball in their last two games. The Chargers, however, have not.
The Raiders haven’t committed a turnover since the Week 7 loss to Green Bay. They also finished plus-2 in turnover margin in the Week 9 win over Detroit, recovering a fumble and intercepting a pass, key plays in the Raiders’ win. The Chargers have committed at least one turnover in every game but their Week 4 victory over the Dolphins.
If the Raiders can come up with timely takeaways and turn them into points as they did last week, that should go a long way in neutralizing what could be a lot of yards from the Chargers’ pass game.
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Contact Myles Simmons at msimmons@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @MylesASimmons on Twitter.