Wild Wild AFC West: Raiders ride into playoffs as Jacobs wears down Chargers

By Case Keefer (contact)

Monday, Jan. 10, 2022 | 2 a.m.

The Raiders sideline looked like an infirmary at the end of Sunday night’s 60 minutes of regulation against the Chargers at Allegiant Stadium.

The physically taxing nature of a win-and-in playoff game at the conclusion of the NFL’s first-ever 18-week regular season, equipped with an emotionally draining collapse on top of it, had taken its toll.

The training staff was running low on bodies to help with the large number of players cramping up. Many Raiders who weren’t getting treated on the grass near the bench were hunched over, gasping for air to muster up energy for 10 minutes of overtime after the Chargers tied the game on the final play.

Josh Jacobs stood tall, but he might have been hurting worst of all. The Raiders’ third-year running back and team captain said it hurt to breathe with a rib injury that had limited him in practice all week. He had to talk to himself internally to power through it.

“I would have felt like I let my team down if I went out there and let the pain get to me and give up,” Jacobs said. “There are so many guys that play with injuries on our team, so many guys that have little things going on, I feel like they deserve my all.”

Jacobs channeled everything he had to deliver the Raiders to arguably the franchise’s biggest victory in at least a decade and perhaps the craziest of all time. Las Vegas ultimately defeated the AFC West rival Los Angeles Chargers 35-32 in overtime behind a career-high 132 rushing yards from Jacobs.

More than half of his production — 69 yards on seven carries — came in overtime, with his ribs at their sorest. Receiver Hunter Renfrow pointed to Jacobs’ effort at the start of the extra period as the moment when he knew the Raiders were going to complete a four-game winning streak to end the regular season and reach the postseason.

“You could see the way Josh was running,” Renfrow said. “He had that little extra tonight. I think everybody played so well, and it was a complete and total team effort, but the way Josh ran and closed the game out was special.”

It was special in part because, at least at the very end of the game, the Raiders were in an ultra-rare circumstance where they could have given up with little repercussion. The Raiders and Chargers traded field goals to start overtime, making it 32-32 and opening the possibility that they’d both make the playoffs.

A tie would have sent Las Vegas to Kansas City next week as the No. 7 seed and Los Angeles to Buffalo as the No. 6 seed. Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia even hinted he was satisfied with that outcome, noting “it was a conversation” on the sideline.

But Jacobs wasn’t satisfied, as he lowered his shoulder for 17 more yards on his final two runs near midfield as the game clock dwindled down to its final seconds.

“That got us in what we felt was advantageous field goal position for us,” Bisaccia said. “We were going to take the field goal and try to win it.”

Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson made his fifth field goal of the night, and NFL-leading 40^th on the season, from 47 yards as time expired. The game-winner lifted Las Vegas to the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs with a trip to play at Cincinnati at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday to start the NFL’s postseason.

The Raiders lost to the Bengals 32-13 earlier in the season, but the game was close until the fourth quarter. It was at least much closer than losing by a combined 66 points in two games to the Chiefs.

The Bengals are therefore a preferable path to the Chiefs, and the Raiders get to take it all because of Jacobs. Bisaccia twice emphasized that Jacobs’ long runs were the reason the Raiders ultimately went for the win, not a late timeout by the Chargers on the penultimate play as some suggested.

“I’ve never been in the playoffs since I’ve been in the league, and I know a lot of the guys that have been around here, how much it means to them,” Jacobs said. “At the beginning of the year when we set our goals, we’re just constantly checking them off. And I told them, ‘There’s no way I don’t play this game.’ Hurt or not, they were going to get everything out of me.”

The Raiders needed it because, as has been a trend all season, they struggled to close out a game they mostly controlled. Despite constant pressure from Raiders Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby — who had a stat line for the ages with two sacks, four quarterback hits, three tackles for loss and four pass deflections — Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert rallied his team back from a 15-point fourth quarter deficit.

Las Vegas had led for most of the game behind well-timed plays by quarterback Derek Carr, who threw a pair of touchdowns to Renfrow, and mistakes by Los Angeles, which had 10 penalties for 108 yards.

Herbert started to outduel Carr late in the game, however, when he converted a series of fourth downs in the fourth quarter including a 23-yard touchdown to receiver Joshua Palmer on 4^th-and-21 with 4:28 left to play. He then led the Chargers on a nine-play, 78-yard drive in the final two minutes of regulation, throwing a 12-yard touchdown pass to Mike Williams as the final second ticked off the clock.

“We gave up some plays, the touchdown at the end,” Bisaccia said. “We didn’t get the drive we wanted. They don’t blink. They reset. They recover quickly and just come back and the next unit goes back out there.”

The mindset is representative of Las Vegas’ season, which has encountered more obstacles than any other team in the NFL. Getting humiliated twice to the archrival Chiefs barely registers in the top five of the Raiders’ most difficult moments.

There was of course the resignation of coach Jon Gruden after offensive e-mails surfaced, the DUI arrest of former receiver Henry Ruggs that cost a young woman her life and the death-threat scandal involving the since-released Damon Arnette. Many counted the Raiders out after each hardship.

“From the outside, people could say whatever they want, but we know inside the building, we’ve got guys with character from top to bottom,” Crosby said before losing his train of thought. “From the upper…I can’t even talk right now I’m so tired.”

The Raiders’ season has been exhausting on the field too. They extended their own NFL record against the Chargers with a sixth walk-off victory in a single season, the last five all coming on Carlson kicks.

But the latest one never would have happened without Jacobs, who's gone through his own struggles this year behind a young offensive line. The Raiders would have been content to tie if Jacobs wasn’t up for fighting through his pain.

“I told (offensive coordinator Greg Olson), ‘Man, I’m the closer. Let me close,’” Jacobs said. “So, with me saying that, I had to back up my words.”

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