Oakland Raiders beat San Diego Chargers First Half
The Chargers came tantalizingly close of taking away the game but a brilliant play by the Oakland defence snubbed their hope of a victory on Sunday. The Raiders finally ended a 13 game losing streak against the Chargers with a 35 – 27 victory.
The Raiders defence was on top of their game. After the kick off, the Chargers started at the 22 yard line and did not advance an inch in 4 plays against the raiders defence after the kick off. Even the punt was blocked by the Raiders for a two point safety.
The Chargers then struggled in their offence. They started on the 20 yard line and were still on the 21 yard line 3 plays later.
The Chargers opted for the punt once again and it was blocked again this time for much more serious consequences. The loose ball was recovered by Hiram Eugene at the five yard line that carried it down for a touchdown. The field goal was good and the Chargers
took a 12 point lead within the first 5 minutes.
San Diego tried to recover and were almost successful. In the next drive, Phillip Rivers took the Chargers from the 20 yard line to Oakland’s 1 yard line. The drive was in jeopardy after a penalty and two botched plays pushed the chargers back to the 15
yard line. However, Rivers came through with a 34 yard pass to rescue the Chargers and take them forward into the redzone. Just one yard short of the end zone, the drive ended for the Chargers when running back Mike Tolbert crashed into linebacker Ricky Brown
and fumbled the ball. Mike Mitchells recovered the ball for the Raiders.
The Raiders weren’t able to capitalize on the turnover but denied the Chargers a touchdown, something their defence would do again in the next drive. Rivers started off the Chargers’ assault from the 28 yard line with an amazing 55 yard pass. Malcolm Floyd
followed up with a 3 yard rush to Oakland’s 14 yard line. Then the Raiders defence denied the Chargers their touchdown again with another turnover. Rivers was sacked by Matt Shaughnessy and the hit caused Rivers to fumble the ball. Lamar Houston took the ball
for the Raiders.
Again the Chargers were denied but the Raiders still weren’t able to capitalize. The subsequent drive went into the second period but ended with a 58 yard punt from the 28 yard line. A 25 yard return put the Chargers on the 36 yard line for the first drive
of the second quarter. Flawless football followed. The Chargers moved up to the 19 yard line in 7 plays in which all but two produced yards for San Diego.
Rivers finished off the drive with a 19 yard deep middle pass to tight end Aaron Gates for touchdown, the first for the Chargers. Just then the San Diego defence kicked into high gear. While Jason Campbell led the Raiders after the touchdown, the Chargers
sacked the quarterback in the third play for yard forcing the raiders to punt.
Rivers produced a touchdown from the next drive with help from Ryan Mathews rushing 13 yards in three plays. Rivers carried the rest of the drive from San Diego’s 19 yard line and a 15 yard penalty on Oakland. When the Raiders came back on the offense San
Diego’s defensive line was able to sack the quarterback twice but the determined raiders still pushed on for a 30 yard field goal. The second sack by San Diego’s Stephen Coopers sent the ball out of the hands of the quarterback but fortunately for the raiders,
Oakland’s Daniel Loper was the first one to get to the loose ball.
The Chargers followed with a field goal of their own in the next drive as the final minute of the quarter came to an end. The scores stood at 15 against 17 in the Chargers’ favour by the end of the second quarter.
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