Raiders dump Chargers into familiar territory
The San Diego Chargers followed their script.
The Oakland Raiders tore theirs to bits.
For the fourth consecutive season under Coach Norv Turner, the Chargers are off to a 2-3 start.
But how they got there Sunday -- with a 35-27 loss at Oakland -- is worthy of a double-take. The Raiders had lost 13 games in a row to the Chargers, dating to the days of Oakland’s Rich Gannon versus San Diego’s Drew Brees.
“It definitely meant a lot, just seeing the guys on the sideline, how hard they were fighting,” said quarterback Jason Campbell, who replaced an injured Bruce Gradkowski. “The one thing I said was, ‘You didn’t give up.’ And guys said maybe in years past they would have tucked it in, but this time they didn’t.”
The Raiders ended their seven-year drought with a flood of touchdowns, the pivotal one coming when Tyvon Branch scored on a disputed 64-yard fumble return with 58 seconds to play.
That was the death blow in a bizarre game that included the Raiders blocking two punts in the first quarter -- resulting in a safety and a touchdown -- and an ultimately meaningless statistical domination by San Diego, which nearly doubled Oakland’s yardage, 506-279.
The call that will spark water-cooler debates up and down the West Coast was Branch’s touchdown, which came as the Chargers were driving for the potential go-ahead score. A blitzing Michael Huff hit Rivers as he was preparing to pass, and knocked the ball from his grasp. Branch scooped the fumble and ran it back.
The question: Was Rivers’ arm moving forward, as he argued, making it an incomplete pass? The ball did wind up about 10 yards in front of him, after all. Referee Clete Blakeman upheld the fumble call on replay.
Mike Pereira, the NFL’s former director of officiating who now works as a Fox analyst, said the crew was looking for definitive evidence that Rivers’ hand -- not his elbow -- was moving forward.
“I thought the one from the side looked like it might be [moving forward], but the one from the front looked like it wasn’t,” Pereira said in a phone interview. “From what I’ve seen with so many reviews this season is they’re not going to reverse them unless it’s absolutely, 100% disputable.”
This much is indisputable: San Diego’s streak is over.
The L-word
Nobody’s perfect.
The Kansas City Chiefs, the NFL’s last undefeated team, joined the ranks of the vanquished Sunday with a 19-9 loss at Indianapolis.
In a testament to the competitive balance of the NFL, there are no 4-0 teams. That’s a first since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.
On the same field where the 14-0 Colts pulled Peyton Manning and lost 10 months ago -- ending the best perfect-season bid of 2009 -- the Chiefs found themselves on the wrong end of some early gambles.
Two dicey decisions in the first quarter showed Kansas City felt it needed to be extra aggressive: opening the game with an onside kick (it didn’t go the required 10 yards) and going for it on fourth and two from the Indianapolis eight-yard line (incomplete pass) instead of kicking the would-be tying field goal.
Save the date
There are no more perfect teams but, in a sense, Sunday was the “perfect 10” date: 10/10/10.
Fitting, then, that a couple of No. 10s came through in a big way.
Eli Manning, who wears that number, threw three touchdown passes in the New York Giants’ 34-10 victory at Houston.
Connor Barth, another No. 10, kicked a 31-yard field goal with one second left to lift Tampa Bay over favored Cincinnati, 24-21.
Breaking through
The Detroit Lions didn’t just win -- ending a losing streak at 10 games -- they exacted some punishment, beating St. Louis, 44-6, for their widest margin of victory since beating the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars by 44 points in 1995.
Three of the Lions’ first four losses this season were by a total of 10 points, including the controversial loss to Chicago when Calvin Johnson was stripped of an apparent touchdown catch at the end.
“Our players understood how close we were,” Coach Jim Schwartz said Sunday. “But you need validation.”
His players might have to hang on to that feeling for a while, as their next games are against the Giants, Washington Redskins and New York Jets, three of the league’s hottest teams.
Head games
Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered a concussion near the end of the Packers’ overtime loss at Washington. He was slow to his feet after an interception by safety LaRon Landry.
The Packers offense never got back onto the field, but Rodgers’ backup, Matt Flynn, was warming up on the sideline.
In light of the league’s newfound sensitivity about concussions, it will be interesting to watch how the Rodgers injury is handled this week with two big home games on the docket: Miami and Minnesota.
Already, the Packers are confronting a significant setback. Standout linebacker Nick Barnett could be out for the rest of the season, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as he’s facing likely surgery on his injured right wrist.
Unfortunate twist
St. Louis receiver Mark Clayton suffered a knee injury in the loss at Detroit that had him carted to the locker room in the first quarter. His right knee simply buckled as he was running a deep route down the sideline.
Clayton went into the game as the leading receiver for the Rams, who lost last season’s top receiver, Donnie Avery, to a right knee injury in an exhibition game this summer.
Certain ring to it
CBS commentators made an interesting observation during the Jacksonville-Buffalo game that Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick wears his wedding band during games. Good thing he’s right-handed or that ring might get in the way.
sam.farmer@latimes.com
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