Now And Forever, F— The Raiders

All I could think on Sunday during the game against Seattle was that Sturgis needed to be as bad as he was or the Chargers wouldn’t cut him.  Seriously.  The tripping penalty should have been the last straw, although I wasn’t sure that the guy wasn’t going to score on that return.  Rivers is far too classy to say it, but he and every guy on that team knew that with a decent kicking game that game is over without the defense having to defend five fourth downs or whatever it was to end it.  It would have been nice if they had, though.  The roughing penalties, etc were far too reminiscent of so many meltdowns.  For Addae to be the one who got a finger on that last pass…

The Chargers have tempted the football gods enough.  Caleb Sturgis was going to cost us a game and thankfully they cut him before it happened.  I don’t know if Badgley will fix his kickoffs before Sunday, but Novak used to have the same problem.  Once he went to Houston, he was magically able to kick 50 yarders and kick to the end zone.  Jones still sucks, although I don’t see the Bolts moving him until they absolutely have to.

Look, the Chargers would normally have lost the Niner, Titan, AND Seahawk game in the past.  But they haven’t and they really did take it to Seattle last week.  Every time Rivers had a long field he drove the team down.  Melvin Gordon, coming off an injury, was fantastic.  When he gets going and start galloping like that, it’s a thing of beauty.

Of course, it would have been nice if the Chargers had put Seattle away on offense.  It’s not like Rivers could have done anything on that sack.  Keenan Allen had a great day, although I didn’t love him trash talking the guy on the turf.  I was told on Twitter that the defender went after Allen on the play and that it wasn’t entirely uncalled for.  But Allen walks the fine line a lot.  Receivers need to be fed the ball and to have their egos fed.  I don’t really care that TMZ caught him grabbing his dick after the game.  Marcus Peters, who Allen called a bum after getting hurt for the year, did the same thing in Oakland opening Monday.

Oakland, man I hate them.  I don’t care how many guys Gruden trades or how dysfunctional they appear.  We can’t ever let up on them.  The good thing is that this team looks like they know that.  The fact that KC keeps winning might be a little more incentive for the Bolts to keep their foot on the gas.  It seems like a few years ago, all the Chargers could talk about was “stubbing their foot” against teams they would later regret losing to.  Those would of course be teams who would make the playoffs instead of us.

There is no way having watched this team make the mistakes they have over the years that I won’t worry about them losing, especially to Oakland.  But it seems like at least they don’t seem stupid about their approach.  If so, then Lynn deserves some credit.  I’m not there yet.  That’s why I’ve got the voodoo doll out again.  As you can see, my kids can’t stop stabbing it in the junk.  I can’t blame them for that.

At this point, I’ve stopped believing that Bosa is coming back.  I don’t subscribe to the view that the team is looking at the schedule and thinking that they don’t need him back until Pittsburgh.  The fact that they’ve been able get a pass rush lately certainly doesn’t make them think the walls are caving in.  But I think his Lisfranc injury has just been that bad.  I’ll never understand what the purpose of not being upfront about it was.  Did they actually think it would affect the gameplanning of the opposition?  I know they are cognizant of the fans as it relates money.  The fact that they sent him out there to talk the Monday before the Seattle game speaks to that.  I didn’t notice that Darius Philon was carted off on Sunday.  But he returned to the game, which is impressive.

Trevor Williams was benched according to performance and Davis mauled his man on fourth down in the end zone with the game on the line.  Now Williams’ knee is injured and he’s out for the game tomorrow?  Since he won player of the week, I hope Desmond King feels a little looser in the return game.  He went from being decisive and running forward to becoming like Benjamin and not being able to get out of his own way.

I know I’m being all pissy.  Believe me, I’m happy with how this team has been playing.  But of all teams to be the supposed worst, the Raiders?  We can’t let up.  It’s been such a pleasure to not have to hear about how few fans this team has and how they will never be successful after moving.  A loss would end all that.  I still have no idea how we would ever beat Kansas City but I know that we probably need four more wins to get into the playoffs.  That’s the goal and I am sure the Chargers know that they’ve got a great chance to collect some before December.  They’ve put themselves in that spot by winning five in a row when I would never have thought it possible.  So yeah, if they could get into January and Bosa, Henry, and White could be there to help…who knows?  But they need to win tomorrow.

Fuck the Radiers, now and always.

JIC,

RLW