Raiders Beat Chargers In OT, Make Playoffs; Chargers’ Timeout Call Questioned

Following an adversity-filled season, the Las Vegas Raiders are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 in what will be their second postseason appearance since Super Bowl XXXVII following the 2002 season.

A wild 35-32 overtime victory against the AFC West rival Los Angeles Chargers Sunday night at Allegiant Stadium clinched a wild-card spot and the No. 5 seed in the AFC for the Raiders (10-7).

Las Vegas will now travel to face the AFC North champion Cincinnati Bengals (10-7) on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET. Cincy defeated the Raiders 32-13 in Vegas in late November.

The teams traded field goals in overtime before a 47-yarder from Daniel Carlson as time expired sealed the deal. It was the team’s sixth “walk-off” win this season—the most since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

“We’ve been in this situation before,” Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia said. “[Quarterback] Derek [Carr] has been in two-minute situations before; he’s been in four-minute situations before. Our defense has had to come up with stops at the end of the game. So you just can’t say enough about how this team prepares. … I just know they believe in each other when they go out there.

“They don’t blink; they reset. They recover quickly.”

The Raiders will be the fourth playoff team to have a different coach in the postseason than it did in its season opener (1961 Houston Oilers, Wally Lemm; the 1952 Los Angeles Rams, Hamp Pool; and the 1942 Chicago Bears, co-coaches Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Had the game ended in a tie, both teams would have made the playoffs due to a scheduling quirk. But since the Chargers lost, they find themselves out of the tournament. Bisaccia said the Raiders did talk about settling for a tie

“We ran the ball there [toward the end of the game], and they didn’t call timeout,” Bisaccia said. “So I think they were probably thinking the same thing.

“We were going to take the field goal and try to win it. But we were certainly talking about it on the sideline.”

Asked why the Chargers called a timeout with 38 seconds left, coach Brandon Staley said, “We needed to get in the right grouping; we felt like they were going to run the ball, so we wanted to get our best 11 personnel run defense in. Make that substitution so that we could get a play where we would deepen the field goal.”

Los Angeles, which became the first team in the past 30 seasons to convert on fourth down six times in a game, forced overtime with 15 points in the final 4:28 of the game.

The Raiders dealt with coach Jon Gruden’s resignation, receiver Henry Ruggs’ fatal DUI crash, cornerback Damon Arnette’s death threats and Nate Hobbs’ DUI arrest.

Vegas lost five of six games coming off its bye week but bounced back to win four straight to close the season.

Carr was a second-round pick for the Raiders in 2014 and owns nearly every franchise passing record; he’ll play in his first career postseason game next weekend.

“I’m excited, thinking about the next team we play, and then everything hurts,” said Carr, who finished with 186 yards and two touchdowns while completing 20 of 36 passes. “I just have this weird feeling in my heart like, ‘The job’s not done.’ Like my favorite player, Kobe [Bryant], said, ‘Job’s not done.’

“It feels cool, it’s awesome, but … we’ve got to play a team that already beat us. So it’s going to be tough.”