Week 1 Referee assignment is great for Chargers, bad news for Raiders

The LA Chargers host the Las Vegas Raiders in the first game of the season on Sunday in what is also the first game of the Jim Harbaugh era. This is the perfect team for the Chargers to start the season against as the Bolts can not only get revenge in Week 1 against a bitter foe but can start the season against a lesser opponent.

Despite having a good pass rush and a star wideout in Davante Adams, the Raiders are not projected to be a very good team in 2024. Las Vegas has one of the worst quarterback situations in the league and has the classic trait of a Tom Telesco team of lacking depth in key areas.

Of course, anything can happen on any given Sunday and the Raiders cannot be taken lightly by the Chargers or else the Bolts will be punched in the mouth. That being said, for the Chargers to lose this game they would truly have to beat themselves and there are two key ways an NFL team can do that: turnovers and penalties.

Only the Chargers can control the turnover differential but the team cannot control how aggressive the referee crew is with the whistle. Thankfully, the perfect referee was assigned to the Chargers-Raiders game in Week 1 as fans should not see many yellow flags on Sunday.

Week 1 referee assignment is good news for Chargers, bad news for Raiders

Last season the Chargers and Raiders were two of the least penalized teams in the entire league. The Chargers finished with the third-fewest penalties in the league (and that will only improve under Jim Harbaugh) while the Raiders finished with the fewest penalties.

If this game turns into a penalty fest then anything could truly happen and the talent on the field will matter less and less. The more penalties there are in the game, the better chance an underdog has of pulling off an upset.

The fewer penalties, though, means that the talent should win outright in a head-to-head matchup. Of course, the NFL tends to surprise fans every single Sunday and this is not always the case but it does remove at least some of the volatility.

With two mistake-free teams playing with a referee who notoriously swallows his whistle, fans should see a clean game where the two teams are simply allowed to play football. And if that is the case, it becomes much easier for a team with Herbert to emerge as the obvious favorite over a team with Gardner Minshew and Co.

Again, anything can happen and Chargers fans cannot take a win to the bank simply because of the referee assignment. But fans can at least sleep easier on Saturday night knowing that the officiating shouldn't be a problem on Sunday.