Joey Bosa and Tuli Tuipulotu had been getting all the praise in weeks prior, as they had three and two sacks, respectively. All the while, Khalil Mack, who hadn’t recorded a sack entering Sunday, was gearing up for a monstrous performance of his own.
Mack posted six sacks in the Chargers’ 24-17 victory over the Raiders, two of which resulted in fumbles. His six sacks are a career-high for a single game and a franchise record. It’s also tied for the second-most sacks in a single game in NFL history.
Mack was one sack shy of tying the single-game sack record, which is held by Pro Football Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas, dating back to 1990.
Last season, Mack had a three-sack performance the first time the Bolts played the Raiders, the team that drafted him back in 2014 and where he spent the first four seasons of his professional career.
“You can say it’s something extra, but it is what it is,” Mack said about delivering big performances against his former team, per the team’s official website.
“I mean obviously you want to play good against your old team,” Mack later added. “But just knowing where you come from and knowing that organization and what it meant to me to get drafted to that organization. It’s a lot of respect, but it’s a lot of wanting to get back too… At the end of the day, it’s just another game.”
The offensive line was a strength of the Raiders coming into the game, as they allowed just four sacks through the first three games. But this was with Jimmy Garoppolo under center. Instead, rookie Aidan O’Connell started in place of the inactive Garoppolo.
With that came growing pains for O’Connell, who frequently held onto the ball for too long, resulting in an easier path for Mack to get to him. Plus, Mack wasn’t double teamed as much as other opposing teams would. He was double teamed on just two pass rushes.
Despite being 32, Mack showed on the field that he can still play at a high level.
“He had been [pass] rushing at a high level for three games,” Brandon Staley said postgame. “We do this thing — he taught me back in Chicago, — close, he had been close the whole year, to having three monster games. He was close.
“Today, he put it all together,” Staley added. “This guy is one of the best edge players of a generation and he is still that guy, he is still that guy — he just showed everybody, ‘I’m still that guy.’ He’s one of our leaders.”
Mack will look to keep the pressure on two Sundays from now when the Chargers take on the Cowboys in Week 6.
