In many ways, the Raiders completely flipped the script on the Chargers in their second meeting of the season. It turned a one-score loss in the opener into a one-score win on Sunday.
The most notable difference came along the offensive line. Where they were unsettled and struggling to find a foothold in the first meeting, 12 weeks later, it was the opposite story.
That first meeting, Derek Carr was sacked five times and Josh Jacobs had his fewest carries and second fewest yards of the season. Sunday, Carr wasn’t sacked once and the Raiders didn’t have a single negative play in the run game.
For the most part, the offensive line had serious issues in the opener. The two possible exceptions were guard Dylan Parham and center Andre James.
The two of them have been steady presences on the line this season, though the rookie Parham moved around a lot while the team looked for the best combination at guard and right tackle.
Over the team’s three-game win streak, the Raiders have fielded the same starting five playing every single snap — LT Kolton Miller, LG Parham, C James, RG Alex Bars, and RT Jermaine Eluemunor. This group had been playing very well as a whole, and Sunday they had their best game of the season.
“Confident. Obviously just progressing,” Parham told me after the game. “You want to be able to play the best ball in November and beyond. And so for us, obviously just getting better, understanding the scheme a little bit better and just having our feet up underneath us. Week one is going to look a little different for everybody and it’s going to be new, especially with the way we were rotating the first couple weeks. And so now we have that chemistry a little bit more and we’ve built that and it feels a little bit different than just like new and you have a little bit of everything going on.”
The lack of pressure allowed Carr to connect on four passes over 30 yards, including two deep touchdowns to Davante Adams. And Carr noted after the game the best thing about that kind of game is with the short week “The main thing is I didn’t get hit in the ribs again, so I’m happy about that.”
And then there’s the ground game, which was dominant again with Josh Jacobs going for 144 yards and a touchdown.
It was Jacobs’s third straight game with over 100 yards on the ground and it comes on the heels of a career game for Jacobs in which he had 229 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
Jacobs has been on this journey with this offensive line. The teamwork and chemistry between the offensive linemen is often discussed, but there’s also a chemistry and feel that occurs between the line and the back. You are seeing it with how Jacobs is seeing his openings.
“They believe in me like I believe in them,” Jacobs said of his line. “I encourage those guys all the time. I’m their biggest advocate. Even when they do bad, I tell them I believe in them. You can tell that they lay it out on the line for me and that’s a great feeling to have.”
That is a two-way street as well. With the way Jacobs has been running, it inspires the line.
“It definitely makes you want to block more because a lot of times when you see it, you’ll be like ‘how did he get through that?’ Parham said of Jacobs. “It’s just like, if he can get through that, then imagine if you just hold up a little bit longer. A little bit extra. He can do a lot of things with the ball. He’s literally a magician back there. . . watching him perform on Sundays it makes you want to go harder. And then seeing him battle through tackles, those extra yards after contact, he’s a dog, man.”
Jacobs has always been known for his yards after contact. But much of that had to do with how often he was hit in the backfield or at the line. And he will still often make something out of nothing. In games like this, the line was clearly doing their part.
