{"id":230960,"date":"2025-09-16T08:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230960\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T08:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:57:08","slug":"chargers-vs-raiders-takeaways-l-a-s-defense-leads-win-but-khalil-mack-hurt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230960\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers vs. Raiders takeaways: L.A.\u2019s defense leads win, but Khalil Mack hurt"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jourdan Rodrigue, Daniel Popper and Sarah Jean Maher<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Chargers shut down the Raiders on Monday night, limiting quarterback Geno Smith to 180 yards passing and intercepting him three times in a 20-9 victory in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

The Chargers allowed only a trio of field goals by Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson and held Las Vegas to 218 total yards of offense. Justin Herbert completed 19 of 27 passes for 242 yards, with two touchdown passes and no interceptions.<\/p>\n

L.A. also played much of the game without star pass rusher Khalil Mack, who left in the first half with an elbow injury<\/a> and did not return.<\/p>\n

Big night for Chargers defense \u2026<\/p>\n

The Chargers are atop the AFC West thanks to a suffocating performance from Jesse Minter\u2019s defense. They picked Smith off three times. They did not allow a touchdown. They held the Raiders under 4 yards per play. No quarterback produced more explosive plays than Smith in Week 1, and the Raiders led the NFL in explosive pass rate, according to TruMedia. Against the Chargers, the Raiders only totaled three explosive passes. All of them came on short Smith throws and yards-after-the-catch opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Chargers put a roof over the deep part of the field. Two of Smith\u2019s interceptions were on down-the-field throws, including Donte Jackson\u2019s in the end zone in the fourth quarter. The Chargers allowed the fewest points in the league last season. They have allowed 30 through two games this season. The Chargers dominated the Raiders without starting safety Elijah Molden, who missed the game with a hamstring injury. And they lost Mack in the first half. The Chargers held Raiders tight end Brock Bowers to five catches for 38 yards. \u2014 Daniel Popper, Chargers beat writer<\/p>\n

\u2026 but an up-and-down night for the offense<\/p>\n

The defense had to overcome a pretty up-and-down performance from the Chargers\u2019 offense. Herbert finished with solid numbers, but the Chargers only scored three points in the second half. Running backs Najee Harris and Omarion Hampton combined for 52 rushing yards on 16 carries. The Chargers only converted three of their 10 third-down attempts.<\/p>\n

The defense had to bail out the offense in the fourth quarter when coach Jim Harbaugh went for it on fourth-and-1 from the 50-yard line. The Chargers attempted a jet sweep handoff to receiver Derius Davis, but Herbert and Davis botched the exchange. The Raiders took over in Chargers territory, down 11 points. The defense got the stop when Derwin James broke up a pass intended for receiver Jakobi Meyers in the end zone, and the tipped pass fell into the arms of Jackson. The defense forced a turnover on downs later in the fourth quarter. The Chargers took over at the Raiders\u2019 29-yard line, and Hampton lost a fumble on the first play of the drive. The defense forced another turnover on downs on the next series. Minter\u2019s unit salvaged a pretty sloppy day from the Chargers\u2019 offense. \u2014 Popper<\/p>\n

Bowers nearly invisible<\/p>\n

A week after he went for more than 100 yards on just five catches, Raiders second-year star tight end Bowers all but vanished from much of Monday night\u2019s game. He was targeted once in the first half for a catch and a 5-yard gain, but it took until the third quarter for him to see his second target. That was a 9-yard catch on third-and-5, and after six more plays, Smith went to Bowers again on third-and-6 for a 9-yard pickup. Smith targeted Bowers in the end zone but missed him on the same drive, which dragged for 11:15 between the third and fourth quarters but only resulted in three points. Bowers was listed as \u201cquestionable\u201d for the game after injuring his knee in a Week 1 win at New England. \u2014 Jourdan Rodrigue, senior NFL writer<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s interceptions<\/p>\n

With Bowers nearly non-existent in the passing game on Monday, it felt like Smith was pressing to try to make plays happen. His first interception was on the very first play from scrimmage, but the next two came after either a negative or no-gain second down, both on third down. Smith\u2019s second interception was on a third-and-6 after an incomplete pass the previous play, and his third interception was on a third-and-15 after losing five yards on a pass behind the line of scrimmage to Ashton Jeanty. James batted the ball on the play into the hands of Jackson. Overall, the Chargers broke up or batted away 15 passes. \u2014 Rodrigue<\/p>\n

Brady in the coaches\u2019 booth<\/p>\n

At the Raiders\u2019 home opener, it became clearer than ever (and it was already pretty clear) that the organization was debuting two new quarterbacks: Smith and Tom Brady. Brady, now a minority owner<\/a> of the team, not only used the spotlight of the Prime Time game (and his fancy new stadium) to announce a flag football game<\/a>\/entertainment venture in Saudi Arabia in March, but also was caught by the broadcast in the coaches\u2019 box with a headset on during the game. According to reporters and analysts on the ESPN broadcast, Brady, who also broadcasts games for FOX, speaks with offensive coordinator Chip Kelly multiple times per week to discuss the game plan, among other topics. The crew discussed this as Brady was shown in the booth on the broadcast, wearing the headset. Head coach Pete Carroll denied this after the game, saying the report was \u201cnot accurate.\u201d However, Carroll allowed that Brady does have conversations with people on the team, including himself. \u2014 Rodrigue<\/p>\n

(Photo of Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley celebrating a stop against the Raiders in the fourth quarter: Sean M. Haffey \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jourdan Rodrigue, Daniel Popper and Sarah Jean Maher The Los Angeles Chargers shut down the Raiders on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":230961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[535,8986,1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-230960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","9":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115213149468981722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}