‘Barbecued chicken’: Raider defense awakens to answer Chargers’ challenge

By Case Keefer (contact)

Monday, Dec. 5, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Every defensive player in the Raiders’ locker room on Sunday evening at Allegiant Stadium had the same two words whenever Chargers receiver Keenan Allen’s name came up — “barbecued chicken.”

That was the phrase Allen used earlier this week to describe what he would do to the Raiders if they stuck with their preference for playing man-to-man defense when the divisional rivals squared off. The trash talk may have coaxed something out of the previously struggling Las Vegas defense, as the unit played with as much unity on the field against the Chargers as it spoke with regarding Allen afterwards.

In by far their best defensive performance of the year, the Raiders gave up only one offensive touchdown in a 27-20 victory over the Chargers that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. If anyone got smoked, it was Allen’s Chargers as the Raiders outgained them by an average of 1.6 yards per play en route to a fourth straight victory.

“Barbecued chicken…yeah, it’s for dinner now” team captain and strong safety Duron Harmon said. “Keenan Allen is a great player, one of the best receivers playing this game but at the end of the day, you’ve got to respect the game. You’ve got to respect the opponents and at that point, he didn’t.”

It would have been difficult to regard Allen’s comments as inaccurate coming into the game considering the Raiders ranked at the bottom of the league in almost every cumulative pass defense statistic. Opposing quarterbacks had torched the Raiders on a weekly basis, which is perhaps the biggest reason why the team remains in a hole with a 5-7 record and two games out of the playoffs with five left to play.

But the players had stayed positive and believed in an imminent turnaround. It came Sunday behind the long-awaited return of top cornerback Nate Hobbs and the even longer-awaited breakout of edge rusher Chandler Jones.

Hobbs had missed the last six games with a broken left hand, while Jones had only one half-sack before exploding for three against the Chargers.

“It’s a complementary pass defense,” Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said. “It doesn’t work if you’re not tight in coverage and you don’t stop them from making these quick throws, then the rush sometimes can’t get there.”

The Raiders discovered their offensive duality quicker under McDaniels, making the big-time playmaking ability of running back Josh Jacobs and wide receiver Davante Adams their identity. It’s now been intact for several weeks, and while both stars have previously put together huge games, they’ve never done it to the extent they did against the Chargers in the same contest.

Despite continuing to play through an injured calf, Jacobs put up a league-high 144 rushing yards on Sunday with an early touchdown to cut into a 10-0 Chargers lead. Adams put up a league-high 177 receiving yards on Sunday with a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter to give Las Vegas its first lead.

“Whenever you call something that (Adams or Jacobs) have a good chance of touching the football, you feel pretty good about it,” McDaniels said. “They come through over and over again in critical situations…two really gifted football players.”

A pair of All-Pro days might not have been enough to avenge a Week 1 loss to the Chargers if it wasn’t for the defense working out of early precarious positions though. The Raiders went three-and-out on their first drive of the day, and then committed turnovers deep in their own territory on the next two.

Quarterback Derek Carr — who completed 16 of 30 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns on the day —threw an interception returned for a touchdown by cornerback Bryce Callahan on the second giveaway. That came less than three minutes after Chargers linebacker Kenneth Murray stripped Jacobs after a short reception for a fumble recovered by edge rusher Kyle Van Noy.

But the defense forced a stop when Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert tried to scramble on a 4^th-and-2 play from the 17-yard line. Jones tripped Herbert short of the first-down marker, the veteran’s second big play of the day after a third-down sack to force a punt on the Chargers’ opening drive.

“The quarterbacks are starting to fall now,” Jones joked after the game.

The four-time Pro Bowler had been under major scrutiny for a slow start to the season after signing a three-year, $51 million deal this offseason. But he was finally unleashed Sunday, feasting on a beaten-up Chargers’ offensive line that seemed more focused on slowing standout Maxx Crosby on the other side.

Jones also had two tackles for loss, a key pass deflection on a fourth-quarter third down and two more quarterback hits that nearly gave him his second career five-sack game.

“It’s a team thing,” cornerback Amik Robertson said. “I told Chan (before the game) the reason why he hadn’t gotten a sack yet was on (the defensive backfield). Even though, it probably wasn’t true, I tried to encourage him. At the end of the day, we know who he is. Chandler is one of the best d-linemen in the league.”

Robertson made several plays of his own in an expanded role after starting cornerback Rock Ya-Sin went down with an injury, but one he didn’t make was all he could think about after the game.

Las Vegas appeared to pull away in the third quarter after facing a 13-10 halftime deficit. On Los Angeles’ second play out of the locker room, Harmon forced a fumble on running back Austin Ekeler that Hobbs recovered. Adams scored on the next play, pulling in a 31-yard pass from Carr with one hand despite tight coverage from cornerback Asante Samuel Jr.

He then got behind Callahan on the next possession with a 45-yard touchdown pass off a flea flicker to put the Raiders up 24-13. The Raiders added a 25-yard field goal from Daniel Carlson to start the fourth quarter and seemed in position to put the Chargers away for good as the visitors faced a 4^th-and-12 from the 35-yard line.

But Allen went up over Robertson to catch a bomb thrown into the end zone for a touchdown. The receiver then started yelling and making a mouth gesture with his hands towards the Raiders’ sideline.

“I’m very upset with myself with the catch,” Robertson said. “The good thing about it is we won. I was hoping they came back at him again because the second time I was going to make a play on the ball. Unfortunately they didn’t pass him the ball. I told him, ‘The game is on the line, let’s see who’s going to come alive then.”

The Chargers didn’t throw at Robertson again but they might wish they did. Instead, they tested Hobbs on multiple occasions and the second-year cornerback once again proved himself as the team’s best cornerback despite wearing a club on his healing hand.

On the Chargers’ last real chance to tie the game, a 4^th-and-9 play at the Raiders’ 42-yard line before the two-minute warning, Hobbs stuck to Deandre Carter down the sideline to force an incompletion.

“I realized he was getting the ball and he gave me a little push, so I just battled back from it and just competed,” Hobbs said. “I forced him to the sideline and put my hand up.”

Hobbs stood near the Chargers’ sideline for a couple extra seconds gesturing incomplete over the downed Carter — the latest in a long series of Raider defensive celebrations throughout the day. Jones ran around flailing his arm wildly after all his big moments; Robertson got in Allen’s face on a couple occasions.

It was as if the Raiders’ defense needed something to rally against to bring out the best in them.

“Barbecued chicken,” Hobbs said. “That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or