Analysis: Raiders have personal score to settle with Chargers beyond playoffs

By Case Keefer (contact)

Friday, Jan. 7, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Maxx Crosby was in a talkative mood Thursday afternoon at the Raiders’ facility in Henderson. So talkative that he appeared to need to catch himself before sharing too much during a virtual news conference.

The defensive end was leaning into the microphone talking about the team’s playoff scenarios going into their Sunday Night Football showdown against the Los Angeles Chargers before abruptly pulling himself back.

“I’m not going to say anything about the Chargers,” Crosby said while cracking a slight smile. “We want to win this game.”

Plenty is already on the line when the Raiders host the Chargers at Allegiant Stadium to conclude the regular season with a victory ensuring a playoff berth, but there’s a little extra incentive for the home team. The fallout from the Raiders’ first game against the Chargers this season, a 28-14 loss in Los Angeles, made this a rematch they’ve highly anticipated even if it’s now going unsaid.

The Chargers may traditionally represent the least heated rivalry of the Raiders’ three AFC West foes, but not this year. The Week 4 game at SoFi Stadium was chippy and combative on the field but nothing too out of the ordinary.

It’s in the postgame news conference where things intensified.

That’s where Chargers’ Pro Bowl defensive end Joey Bosa said Raiders quarterback Derek Carr “really gets shook” when he gets hit. Los Angeles had sacked Carr four times as part of the victory, including one where Bosa forced a fumble.

Carr admitted the remark got under his skin two days later, and teammates rallied to his defense. The consensus among the roster was a thankfulness that they’d get another chance at the Chargers later in the year.

Well, another chance is here. It’s just now, with the stakes already high enough, no one is trying to stoke the flames any higher.

“Honestly, that stuff is so old,” Carr said on Wednesday. “I’ve been through too much to even care to be honest, let alone in my career, just this year.”

But the Raiders clearly do care. Although everyone from interim coach Rich Bisaccia to defensive end Yannick Ngakoue downplayed Bosa’s comments from October when asked this week, no one passes up an opportunity to express their overall support for Carr.

Beating the Chargers to deliver Carr to his first playoff start — he was injured in the franchise’s last appearance in 2016 — is a rallying point for the Raiders this week.

“He knows how I feel behind the scenes,” Crosby said of Carr. “I’ve got his back. He knows that. There’s nothing more I want to see than Derek Carr playing as our quarterback in the playoffs.”

And there’s nothing more Bosa would like to prevent, though he also emphasized during Chargers’ media availability on Thursday that he’s “a fan” of Carr. At the same time, Bosa didn’t exactly soften on the statements he made after the Raiders’ win earlier this year.

“I was just pointing out something I notice that when he gets pressure, he shuts down a little, but it seems like a lot of quarterbacks do that with pressure in their face,” Bosa said. “He’s one of the top passers in the league. I think he’s a really good guy. I have nothing against him. I don’t disrespect him like that. I was just pointing out something you can easily look up and see.”

It’s often been suggested that Carr struggles under pressure, but the numbers don’t really bear it out. In fact, two years ago, Carr was the third best quarterback in the league under pressure by NFL’s Next Gen Stats.

He hasn’t been quite at that level this season, but he’s been far from disastrous by Pro Football Focus’ advanced statistics, sitting in the middle of the pack by most performance-under-pressure metrics.

He even sits sixth in the league with a 54.6% completion rate under pressure, per PFF. By PFF’s overall pressure grades, Carr ranks 17^th in the league. By QBR under pressure, Carr is 14^th.

“It’s the nature of the defensive line position to be aggressive and that’s how (Bosa) is,” Carr said. “I haven’t talked to him. I’ll always talk to him during the game. I’ll probably trash talk with him more, but I think the world of Joey and I think the part we miss is he said I’m a great player and a great dude. I think we should talk about that stuff instead of the negative stuff, because I think the best of him. I wish the best for him except for this week.”

Bosa got in another war of words with a quarterback last week as he registered a tackle for loss after Broncos quarterback Drew Lock pointed at him and said, “he’s tired,” at the line of scrimmage. Bosa joked about the interaction on Thursday, saying Lock made “a good point” and the back-and-forth was all in good fun.

He may feel the same way about his words towards Carr, but that’s not how the Raiders took it. Las Vegas has unfinished business with the Chargers largely because of Bosa’s remarks.

They’re just doing their best not to let it be known this week, as Crosby’s news conference best exemplified.

“I’ll save that for maybe another time,” Crosby said with a laugh when pressed to break his silence on the Chargers.

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