Officials spotted San Diego 9-24 points in the 1st Quarter.

The officials caused this loss. What follows is a play by play breakdown. The bolded areas are specific about how bad officiating gave San Diego 9-24 points in the 1^st quarter of the Oakland Raiders vs. San Diego Charger game.

After a 60 yard kickoff return, (which I did not see because the Jaguar game ran late) San Diego started their first drive at the Raider 43 yard line.
1^st and 10. Gates false starts.
1st and 15. Danny Clark knocks down a pass down the middle, meant for LT.
2^nd and 15. Pitch right to LT. Gibson strings it out, knocking a Charger offensive lineman backwards. Fabian Washington makes a nice tackle. Gain of two
3^rd and 13. Excellent pressure up the middle forces Brees to throw the ball early to LT. It is pretty much a throw away, as Kirk Morrison had excellent coverage. (GREAT DEFENSE.)

Punt. Chargers get a great bounce and down the ball at the Raider 4.

1^st and 10. Crockett up the middle for 3.
2^nd and 7. LJ up the middle for 1 or 2 yards.
3^rd and 6. Bonehead play by Collins or Moss… Either Moss didn’t turn when he was supposed to or Collins screwed up. With all the talk about Moss not finishing routes, I think he assumed the pass wouldn’t come to him and decided to just run up field to clear out. (Disappointing series by Oakland offense. Turner needs to learn to set up the run with the pass. Duh.)

Punt. Great punt by Lechler, 55 yards and high enough to give coverage time, and great coverage by Cooper. Cooper blasts the return man, knocking the ball loose, but SD recovers.

1^st and 10 from SD 30. LT up the middle for a yard. D-Line dominating the trenches.
2^nd and 9. Pass to TE Peele in the right flat. CWood makes the tackle but not before the 1^st down. No db covered Peelo on the play.
1^st and 10 from SD 40. LT up the middle for -1. GREAT DEFENSE.
2^nd and 11. Pass to Peele up the middle for 6. Kirk Morrisson was on him immediately. Good coverage, immediate tackle.
3^rd and 5. Brees has time but nobody is open. He’s flushed to his left and throws a prayer to Eric Parker. No catch. The official calls defensive holding on Nnamdi. The instant replay shows, unequivocally, unquestionably, that there was NO holding. The official is not reaching for the flag until AFTER Parker makes his cut, which means the official is reacting TO Nnamdi’s left hand which DID NOT REACH OUT AND HOLD PARKER. There was no hold. Had there been a hold the correct call would have been pass interference since the ball is catchable. An absolute bullshit call. There is NO hold. THE RESULT OF THIS TERRIBLE CALL IS THE CHARGERS GET A 5 YARD AUTOMATIC 1^ST DOWN. They would have been forced to punt.

1^st and 10 from Raider 49 yard line. Pitch left to LT. Raider string out the play. Tyler Brayton runs himself out of the play. At the snap he runs diagonally towards the Raider 35 yard line, hoping, apparently, to catch Thomlinson 15 yards downfield! I can’t blame this on coaching. It is inconceivable to me that Brayton was not told to contain. LT cuts back and there is ZERO containment. Gibson ends up making the tackle after a 15 yard gain. Another good play by Gibson, actually, to recover that quickly.

1^st and 10 from Raider 35. Off-tackle to Thomlinson. Gibson makes a SUPERIOR PLAY. He comes up , takes on the pulling Charger offensive lineman, number 68, KNOCKS HIM ON HIS ASS, and then KNOCKS LT ON HIS ASS!!! Great play!
2^nd and 10. Touchdown pass to LT. Somebody didn’t pick him up. The only guy I saw running free was Danny Clark. Gibson, who was on that side, covered the tight end. Clark covered a crossing receiver for a moment but I think CWood had him in coverage, much the way he had coverage on TO on that play where he delivered the big hit agaist Philly… Not sure. Anyway, touch down Chargers. But the drive should have ended with a punt on the Bolt 45. This touchdown was the result of bad officiating.

Now, some people like to say “Well they didn’t score a touchdown on the next play so you can’t blame the officials.” This argument is stupid. The Chargers score touchdowns on about 1/3^rd of all their offensive drives. The percentage of times they score touchdowns on drives that begin on their opponents’ 49 yard line or better is obviously higher than 33%. They average 2.83 points per offensive drive. (These statistics are available here, at Football Outsiders) Again, the average number of points they score from their opponents’ 49 is higher than that. The officials, by any fair or logical measure, just gave them at least 3 points, but if you could get the stats the number would probably be 5 or 6 points. So far the officials have spotted San Diego 3-7 points.

Chargers Kick off. (Why do you people like Carr? For every exciting return he makes he flubs two catches. He can’t judge a punt in the air! Turner needs to David Dunn his ass.)

1^st and 10 from Raider 28. Play action. Collins tosses it high and deep for Moss. Moss is double covered. He sees the ball in flight, adjusts, (Ghost-to-the-Post-ish) and is about to make a great catch when the San Diego defensive back impedes his progress, stopping his run to get under the ball. Watch this play again. It is clearly pass interference. The dolt db is NOT MAKING A PLAY FOR THE BALL. HE IS TURNED AROUND!!! HE IS FACING MOSS WHEN MOSS RUNS INTO HIM!!! MOSS THROWS A HAND UP LOOKING FOR A FLAG. IT IS OBVIOULSY PASS INTERFERENCE! THE BALL WAS CATCHABLE. The other dolt DB makes the interception. (Moss then taps him on the helmet before he can get off the ground. No call on the tap. I’m not 100% sure about the tap, you can’t tell.) This happens at the San Diego 30 yard line.

Janikowski can make a field goal from there, assuming the Raiders don’t gain another yard. However, the Raiders may have been able to go in for a TD. We’ll never know. That’s another 3-7 points the officials have GIVEN the Chargers. SO FAR THE OFFICIALS HAVE SPOTTED THE CHARGERS 6-13 POINTS. To make things worse yet, the interception is returned all the way to the SD 45.

1^st and 10 at the SD 45. LT to the 47. Great play by CWood and Clark.
2^nd and 7. Draw to LT. CWood was blitzing and couldn’t adjust to make the tackle. 5 yard gain.
3^rd and 2. Pitch left to Thomlinson again. Once again the Raiders string it out. Once again Thomlinson cuts back. ONCE AGAIN BRAYTON HAS RUN HIMSELF OUT OF THE PLAY!!! AHHHHH!!! AHHHHH!!! WATCH SOME FILM! I don’t blame this completely on Brayton. LT’s vision is crazy and he makes a move on him. In the end CWood fights off THE CLEAR AND OBVIOUS HOLD. THE BLOCKER’S ARM IS OUTSIDE CWOOD. CWOOD’S JERSEY IS DISTENDED. And CWood makes a vicious tackle after a gain of 18. I'm not counting this as a penalty that translates to points. Had the hold been called it would have been a short 3rd down, and I'm only translating the most obvious and direct bad calls into points.

1^st and 10 at the Raider 29. Turner up the middle for a gain of 15. CWood makes one of his cause-a-fumble tackle attempts and Turner runs through it. Ugh. Turner then runs through Hill’s two attempts to tackle him before going out of bounds. CWood’s fault. (I hate to admit it, he’s my favorite Raider, but he should have stopped that run after a 5 yard gain.)

1^st and 10 at Raider 14. Turner off tackle. CWood makes a great play but it is holding on San Diego anyway.

1^st and 20. Brees with lots of time… Good coverage forces him to dump it off to Turner. Gain of 7. Nice tackle by Morrisson.
2^nd and 13. McCardell jukes Washington but drops a beautiful pass in the endzone. It should be 3^rd and 13. Is it? No. Burgess swats Brees’ shoulder pad at the end of the play- his wrist passes along the side of Brees’ head, and he gets called for roughing the passer. This is an obscene call. The Raiders were in a great position to force a field goal, and instead have to contend with San Diego getting a new set of down at the Raider 7 yard line. You can reasonably assume the Raiders would hold San Diego to a field goals given 3^rd and 13 from the 17 yard line. You cannot reasonably expect that given a 1^st and goal from the 7!!! The officials just spotted San Diego another 0-4 points.

The officials have now spotted San Diego 6-17 points!!!

1^st and goal from Raider 7. Thomlinson off tackle left scores a touchdown. Sigh… Not sure where the D failed. Seemed like Kelly didn’t shoot the gap fast enough or Sapp took himself out of the play. The score is now 14-0.

Carr makes a nice runback on the kickoff. Okay let him return kickoffs. NO PUNTS!
1^st and 10 from 35. LJ up the middle for 2.
2^nd and 10. Porter watches the ball into his chest, watches it bounce off his chest. The Raiders are shell-shocked. You can’t blame them.
3^rd and 8. 1^st down to Porter down the middle for 12. Nice catch and run.

1^st and 10 from Raider 47. Bomb to Moss. Once again THIS IS OBVIOUS, (RIDICULOUSLY OBVIOUS!!!) PASS INTEFERENCE. MOSS IS JUMPING FOR THE BALL WHEN THE SAN DIEGO DEFENDER PUTS BOTH HANDS ON HIM. THE DEFENDER IS NOT FACING THE BALL, HE IS FACING MOSS! HE HAS HIS ARMS ON MOSS’S ARMS!! THE DEFENDER BEHIND MOSS ALSO HAS AN ARM SWATTING MOSS’S RIGHT ARM BEFORE THE BALL GETS THERE. THIS PLAY HAPPENS ON THE SAN DIEGO 7 YARD LINE. THE OFFICIAL IS STARING AT THE PLAY. HE CHOOSES NOT TO CALL IT. THE OFFICIALS JUST GAVE SAN DIEGO 3-7 MORE POINTS!!! (Remember, btw, that Moss’s injury was the result of San Diego knowing they could rape Moss and not get called for it.)

WE ARE STILL IN THE FIRST FUCKING QUARTER AND THE OFFICIALS HAVE SPOTTED SAN DIEGO 9-24 POINTS!!!

2^nd and 10. Collins takes a sack. San Diego celebrates as though they’ve earned anything all day. 3^rd and 14. Collins to Gabriel. He breaks 2 tackles and gets to the 25. Gain of 42. GREAT PLAY by Gabriel.

1^st and 10. 21 yard pass to Randall Williams. Great pass.

1^st and 10 from the 4. LJ for a touchdown. You might ask why I still say the officials gave 3-7 points to the Chargers when we scored on the drive despite the bad non-call. How else are you to judge these things? I mean are you only supposed to count the bad calls the Raiders CANNOT overcome? No. That makes no sense. You count them all. Do you count the bad calls that went against San Diego. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, you do. And I’m counting them. There are none.

Kickoff. Chargers return it to the 26.

1^st and 10 from San Diego 27. Pass to O’Neal. Gain of 8 after CWOOD MISSES ANOTHER TACKLE. UGH.
2^ND and 2. LT for 4 up the left side.

END OF THE 1^ST QUARTER.

Summary:

At the end of the 1^st quarter the score is Oakland 7, San Diego 14. The officials have GIVEN San Diego 9-24 points. Had the officials called the game fairly the Oakland would be leading by 2 at worst, and leading by 31 at best.

I’m reading a lot of people calling for Turner to be fired, for Collins to be benched, or for both. Many people are worried the Raider players will grow discouraged and stop trying. No team in the NFL can overcome this kind of officiating when playing against a team like San Diego. It is simply impossible. Don’t blame Turner, don’t blame Collins, don’t blame Al Davis, and DO NOT credit San Diego. The officials are playing against the Raiders. They are not being neutral.

I challenge any professional sportscaster to sit down and show where any of the calls or non-calls highlighted above were correct calls or non-calls. They cannot. The officials are growing arrogant. They are not even bothering to try and hide their “management” of the game. Raider fans, do not allow them to make you hate or feel disgust for your Oakland Raiders. All the anger, pain, disappointment, and frustration you feel should be focused and channeled toward protesting the officials’ blatant bias. They are ruining our game.

GO RAIDERS!!!

Comments are greatly appreciated, even criticism, so don't be shy. For more Harkonnendog Raider click the links below:

1. 8 Raider Predictions for 2005 season- How'd I do so far...?
2. 8 Raider Predictions for2005 season
3. Plunkett: Best Raider QB Ever? 5/19/2005
4. And yes MORE incompetent Raider reporting! 3/17/2005
5. More incompetence from the Bay Area media 3/4/2005
6. Monte Poole and Tim Kawakami = Sad but Funny 2/24/2005

(This is generally a political blog, with occasional short stories or exerpts from my novels CLOWN, NEVA, or JACOB.)