Raiders Enjoy Day in San Diego
Another 300-yard passing game for Rich Gannon. Another rowdy crowd. Another three-interception game for the defense.
Just another Oakland Raider victory.
Gannon, the Raider quarterback, passed for 328 yards as the Raiders defeated the San Diego Chargers, 27-7, Sunday to move into sole possession of first place in the AFC West.
Before a raucous crowd of 67,968, with Raider fans bellowing louder than Charger fans, the Charger offense sputtered and the defense was porous.
“We had opportunities but we stepped on our own feet,” safety Rodney Harrison said.
The Raiders (9-4) moved a game ahead of the Chargers (8-5) in the division. The Chargers have lost four of the last six; the Raiders have won five in a row.
Gannon set an NFL record with his 10th 300-yard game in a season, breaking a tie among him, Kurt Warner, Warren Moon and Dan Marino.
(Another record was the more than 120 arrests made for fighting and drunkenness among fans, a high number even for a Charger-Raider game.)
Charger running back LaDainian Tomlinson gained only 57 yards in 18 carries and quarterback Drew Brees was sacked twice and threw three interceptions, including one in the third quarter when the Chargers were on the verge of taking the lead.
“We’ve got a young quarterback who is going to be outstanding [but] there are going to be days like this,” Charger Coach Marty Schottenheimer said.
Down 13-7 at halftime, the Chargers pushed to the Oakland 30 with a 37-yard punt return by Tim Dwight and a 15-yard run by Tomlinson. But a Brees pass intended for Dwight was intercepted by Raider cornerback Tory James at the 13.
Two plays later, Gannon connected with Jerry Rice for a 56-yard gain. A one-yard touchdown run by Zack Crockett pushed the Raiders’ lead to 20-7.
The 56-yard play, said Rice, “really jump-started us.”
Said Gannon: “The way the defense played today, I felt we had to take advantage of some of the opportunities, and that was one of them.”
Brees was 22 for 41 for 239 yards. Schottenheimer said he never considered pulling Brees in favor of veteran Doug Flutie. But he did bench rookie standout guard Toniu Fonoti in the second half.
“We struggled up front,” Schottenheimer said.
When the Chargers beat the Raiders, 27-21, in overtime in Oakland earlier this season, Tomlinson gained 153 yards, including the game-winning 19-yard touchdown. Not this time.
“Our guys put a lot of hits on number 21 [Tomlinson],” Raider Coach Bill Callahan said. “I thought that was one of the deciding factors.”
Gannon completed 26 of 41 passes and Rice caught seven passes for 113 yards.
One bright spot for the Chargers was Eric Parker, who caught a career-high seven passes for 96 yards.
The Chargers’ only score came on a one-yard dive by Tomlinson in the second quarter. With his 57 yards he set a Charger single-season record of 1,375, eclipsing the mark of 1,350 set by Natrone Means in 1994.
“It’s bittersweet,” Tomlinson said. “Obviously you want a win to go with it but that’s not the way it worked out.”
*
Associated Press contributed to this report.