Raiders have to account for Chargers’ aggressive mindset

For the Raiders to even arrive at the final regular-season game with the playoffs a possibility required a major assist from the Los Angeles Chargers, who provide the opposition Sunday night at Allegiant Stadium.

More specifically, it took the backfiring of an aggressive philosophy that first-year Chargers head coach Brandon Staley steadfastly adheres to.

Three weeks ago the Chargers coughed up a winnable game against the Kansas City Chiefs that would have sealed their spot in the playoffs. Instead the 9-7 Chargers now face the 9-7 Raiders with a playoff berth on the line.

The Chargers went for it on fourth down five times against the Chiefs and came up with just two conversions. Of the three that fell short, two occurred inside the Chiefs 5-yard line while the third was at the Kansas City 28-yard-line.

By declining makeable field goals in search of touchdowns, the Chargers left nine points on the SoFi Stadium turf. And that turned out to be the difference in a 34-28 win for the Chiefs.

That culture, incidentally, is something the Raiders have to account for when they host the Chargers. Staley and the Chargers push the envelope, not out of recklessness but rather an analytically driven mindset.

Their approach forces opponents to match up, intellectually and situationally, to prepare for a team liable to use all four downs at any point on the field in pursuit of extending drives.

“They’ve shown it game in and game out that they have the ability to go for it at anywhere on the field and they can execute,” Raiders defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “And a lot of times it’s big plays off of it. So our players have to be fully aware of the team we’re dealing with.”

The Chargers have gone for in on fourth down 27 times this season, ninth-most in the NFL. Their 59.3 conversion rate (16 of 27) is the ninth-best in the league. That has caught the Raiders’ eye.

“Very aggressive, as they should be,” Bradley said. “They have a really good quarterback, really good skill players, good offensive line.”

Yet it was that exact same thought process that put the Chargers in the predicament they face against the Raiders.

“I felt like doing that made our chances of winning increase in a big way,” Staley said at the time. “What we’re trying to establish around here is the mindset that we’re going to try and go win the game on our terms, and the team is going to have to beat us.”

Nevertheless, that loss to the Chiefs, and the inexplicable setback they suffered against the Houston Texans a week later, blew open a door for the Raiders, who were mired at the time in a three-game losing streak that left their playoff hopes on life support.

Four days after the Chargers’ loss to the Chiefs, though, the Raiders began a three-game win streak that eventually pulled them even with Los Angeles entering the last week of the regular season.

That isn’t to say that Staley’s thinking was not sound or prudent, it just points out that every decision, even those driven by analytics, has the potential for favorable and unfavorable outcomes. Sometimes profoundly so.

In Staley’s defense, a similar approach helped the Chargers beat the Chiefs earlier in the season. Clearly, there is some bad you have to accept with the good no matter what approach you take.

Either way, it’s something the Raiders have to keep in mind.

“If it’s fourth and short, we have to be ready,” defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “They’ll go for it. They do it all the time.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on Twitter.