LA Chargers: How the Chargers can beat each team in the AFC West
By Jason Reed
How the LA Chargers beat the Las Vegas Raiders: Exploit the secondary
The Las Vegas Raiders did make some additions to the secondary this offseason, although I am not sure that they are particularly great ones. The team drafted Damon Arnette from Ohio State with the 19th overall pick and a depth safety in Tanner Muse in the fifth round.
The team also brought in safety Jeff Heath and really bolstered their linebacker room with Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski. Those two additions are huge and are going to make running the football much harder against the Raiders, while Littleton also provides better pass coverage in the middle.
At the end of the day, though, the Raiders are a team that struggle in getting outside pressure to the quarterback who also allowed the seventh-most passing yards per game last season. They also have a quarterback that seemingly isn’t believed in by Jon Gruden or Raider fans, which is going to cause some hiccups.
To beat the Raiders the Chargers want to embrace that offensive slugfest and attack the secondary and try to put up a lot of points. Put trust in the defense and know that they can make stops against Carr and put riskier plays in the playbook.
Throw the ball more and force Derek Carr to throw the ball. Load the box early and often to try and take Josh Jacobs out of the game, jump out to an early two-possession lead with quick-strike passing plays and utilize the secondary against a mediocre quarterback.
I am still not sure if Gruden is a good coach or not and the best way to figure that out is to kick the Raiders in the teeth early in the game and make them play from behind.