Chargers: Reasons they win or lose against Raiders

The Chargers won a huge game against the Packers last Sunday. Can they pull off a second victory just a few days later against their division rival?

In a game that surprised most every football pundit, Packers fan, and even Chargers fan, the Chargers not only pulled off a win over a 7-1 team, they absolutely dominated the game from start to finish. If someone had told me Aaron Rodgers would throw for only 161 yards and one touchdown, I would have asked you which quarter he tore his ACL in to keep him out of the game.

But, here the Chargers are, 4-5 and playing their best football of the season.

Now they have a short week this week, and although playing a division rival does help with familiarity and film study, it also makes for a true wild card of a game, as most Thursday night games are.

Will they win or lose this week? Will they reach 5-5, or will they suffer another blow and fall to 4-6 prior to a huge game against the Chiefs? Here’s why they win this week, as well as why they could lose.

Chargers reason they win: They have for four straight games

The Raiders haven’t beaten the Chargers since 2016, and there isn’t a dramatic enough of a difference between the two teams to indicate they’ll break that streak this Sunday.

It’s not like the Chargers are drastically worse and the Raiders are so much better; in fact, many of the Raiders’ key players could be missing, though the same can be said for the Chargers. Philip Rivers has torched their secondary, and the Raiders have yet to score more than 17 points in any of their last four games.