The Las Vegas Raiders week 2 opponents are the hated rivals, the Los Angeles Chargers. Making a short-distance first road trip to the Raiders’ second home stadium, SoFi Stadium. Taking on a Jim Harbaugh-led team with offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel as both the play designer and play caller. McDaniel is coming off being fired as the Miami Dolphins’ head coach for a lack of wins and offensive inefficiency.
Coming off a 26-14 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the Chargers have more questions than answers. “The league’s best quarterback, Justin Herbert,” threw for 209 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Top rusher Omarion Hampton had 12 carries for 43 yards and a touchdown, proving the rushing attack wasn’t anything special against the Cardinals’ defense. Ladd McConkey’s five catches for 82 yards and a touchdown was the featured pass catcher of the day.
Fehoko, is a former Chargers nose tackle who played against McDaniel’s offense and dominated it. As amusing as it may be to watch Chargers on Chargers crime, the great French general, Napoleon Bonaparte, once said: “Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake.” Harbaugh has admitted that he didn’t give his starters enough preseason action and it showed against the Cardinals in a lack of physicality. Completely unheard of for a Harbaugh-coached team.
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What does it mean for the Raiders defense?
Folorunso Fatukasi, Adam Butler, “Professional game-wrecker” Maxx Crosby and Kwity Paye will face both an embarrassed coaching staff and an embarrassed offensive line. McDaniel and Harbaugh will most likely view the undersized defensive line as an opportunity to run 12/13 personnel (one running back and two/three tight ends) and attack them with power football.
Misdirection and attacking the backside of the field is where the Chargers had the largest impact against the Cardinals. Featuring a mixture of run-pass options, play-action passes, gun runs and in-breaking routes were hallmarks of McDaniel’s offense. However, the offensive line wasn’t sharp, allowing lots of pressure on Herbert and forcing him to alter his launch points quite frequently.
Raiders second-year cornerback Darian Porter will miss the game against the Chargers and either Hezekiah Masses or Jermod McCoy will have to be the next man up. McConkey is listed as questionable and his absence would be a further detriment to the offense. Should he play, will Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Leonard allow his number one cornerback, Eric Stokes, to travel with McConkey on both sides of the field?
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Final thoughts:
The Chargers offense represents a step up, talent-wise, from the Miami Dolphins. Hampton is a one-cut runner without much wiggle or shimmy, yet still capable of breaking tackles if allowed to gain a head of steam. Should Fatukasi continue getting a great jump into the backfield on both run and pass plays the defense will be in good shape. Remember the Chargers offensive line had a huge problem picking up twists, stunts and blitzes. Against the Dolphins the Raiders tallied five sacks doing just that.
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