Chargers handle Raiders but miss out on postseason
By Travis Wakeman
The Los Angeles Chargers concluded the 2017 season by winning six of their final seven games. In the end, they still didn’t have enough to reach the playoffs.
The Chargers completed a season sweep of the Oakland Raiders, beating them 30-10 on Sunday.
Philip Rivers had another solid outing, throwing for 387 yards and three touchdowns on the day. Two of those touchdowns came on long tosses of 56 yards to Tyrell Williams and 62 yards to Travis Benjamin.
Keenan Allen caught nine passes on the day for 133 yards and a touchdown and Melvin Gordon had 124 total combined yards. That was enough to easily hand the Raiders their tenth loss of the season, but the playoffs passed them by.
That became official when the Tennessee Titans were able to hold off the Jacksonville Jaguars 15-10.
You can point to several reasons as to why the Chargers won’t be heading to the playoffs this year, but the team just wasn’t able to overcome their 0-4 start to the year.
The Chargers will have a lot of questions to answer this offseason. Is it time to search for Philip Rivers’ successor? Has Antonio Gates played his final game as a professional? What on Earth will the team do about its kicking situation?
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Those are just a few of the storylines we’ll be following this offseason.
While missing out on the playoffs is a huge disappointment, there is plenty to be optimistic about with this team. The team has some solid young pieces, a strong defense to build around, Keenan Allen is back to form and a head coach in Anthony Lynn who appears to be the right guy for the job.
Keep your heads up, Chargers fans.