Both the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders are out of playoff contention, but the AFC West rivals fought hard under the bright lights of Thursday Night Football. It took a massively mistake-filled drive in overtime, but the Raiders came out on top, 23-20, and improved to 7-8 on the season.
Chargers vs. Raiders 2015 final score: Oakland holds on for 23-20 overtime win
This was an ugly, ugly game.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The first drive of overtime was a roller coaster for both the Raiders and the Chargers. The Raiders converted a third down on a pass that needed to be reviewed and then were called on a pair of holding penalties and a false start. Facing a second-and-29, the Raiders were bailed out by an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Chargers, and the Raiders were called for another false start before they finally made it into San Diego territory.
A delay of game made things even more comically terrible, but the Raiders eventually got the lead on a Sebastian Janikowski field goal. That proved to be the final score and the Raiders got a win in cornerback Charles Woodson's final home game. The legendary defensive back announced this week that he will retire at the end of the season.
Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers finished the game 31 of 49 for 277 yards with a touchdown while Raiders quarterback Derek Carr had 209 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Oakland outrushed San Diego, 106 to 72 yards but the game was close all over the stat sheet.
It was a promising but ultimately disappointing start to the game for the Raiders. Carr led the Raiders down field and the team was clicking until Carr tossed an interception to Kendall Reyes and the drive set San Diego up in Oakland territory. It took seven plays over 32 yards for the Chargers to convert it into points, but they did when Donald Brown ran in a 1-yard touchdown.
The Raiders were able to come back and find the end zone themselves, going 77 yards in nine plays when running back Latavius Murray took a 22-yard rush in for a touchdown. Murray's rush put him over 1,000 yards on the season.
San Diego was able to keep the pressure on in the opening half, though. Rivers found Dontrelle Inman for a 7-yard touchdown and they added a field goal to take a 17-10 lead into the half.
In the fourth quarter, the Chargers kicked a field goal, but the Raiders were called for holding and they got a new set of downs, They then had a touchdown pass that looked like a sure thing, but the touchdown was then overturned and the Chargers had to settle for a field goal again.
Unfortunately for the Chargers, that field goal sailed wide left and San Diego went from three to seven to no points in a matter of minutes.
At that point, the game was 17-12 thanks to a Raiders safety -- the first sack of the game for Oakland -- and the Chargers were in trouble. They forced a Raiders punt on the next possession, but after three plays, David Johnson fumbled after a catch and the Raiders recovered. That them up in position to score, which they did on the first play of their drive to make it 20-17.
The Raiders were unable to put the game away late though, and another field goal from Josh Scobee tied the game and forced an overtime period after a dreadful two-minute drill from the Raiders.
Oakland will play its final game of the season on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs. San Diego will also finish on the road, against the Denver Broncos.
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