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Chargers, Raiders react to the big decision that avoided a tie, and got the Steelers in the playoffs | TribLIVE.com
Steelers/NFL

Chargers, Raiders react to the big decision that avoided a tie, and got the Steelers in the playoffs

Tim Benz
Tim Benz

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Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley walks the sideline during the second half of Sunday night’s game against the Raiders in Las Vegas.

If the Pittsburgh Steelers have any leftover Christmas cards laying around the team offices, it may be nice to send a few to Las Vegas.

Specifically, address a couple to the likes of Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson, quarterback Derek Carr and running back Josh Jacobs.

Those guys were instrumental in the eventual game-winning field goal drive for the Raiders in their 35-32 overtime win against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night. Carlson drilled a 47-yard field goal as time expired in the extra period to narrowly avoid a tie.

Had that game ended in a tie, the Steelers would’ve been out of the postseason and both the Chargers and Raiders would’ve made the playoffs.

That’s because the league flexed their game to the night slot, thus allowing the Colts to lose at Jacksonville and the Steelers to win in Baltimore earlier in the day. Those results eliminated the Colts and put the Steelers on the cusp of making the bracket, so long as there was a winner and loser in the Raiders-Chargers game.

But well into the 69th minute of the game in overtime, the teams were still tied with a ticket into the playoffs there for the taking for both if the game ended 32-32.

Credit the two franchises for playing to win, even if the NFL made a greedy decision to set up a drama-filled scenario that put those two clubs in an awful position of weighing NFL league integrity against the best interest of their own franchises.

Actually, maybe the Chargers were trying to win too much. Quarterback Justin Herbert was seen saying on the sidelines, he “never wanted a tie so bad.”

But it seems like his coach, Brandon Staley, was posturing for the potential of getting the ball back late if the Raiders tried that field goal and ended up missing it.

Or, at the very least, he was overly concerned about the idea that the Raiders may end up going for the win.

So much so, that he used an odd timeout with 38 seconds remaining in overtime. It stopped the clock when it appeared that the Raiders were going to be content to run the clock down—maybe even take a knee— and go into the playoffs with a tie, taking the Chargers with them.

But when Staley called the timeout, that appeared to give the Raiders time to reconsider. At least that’s what Carr said during his postgame interview on NBC.

So the Raiders ended up running the ball with a purpose as Jacobs gobbled up 10 yards to get a first down on third-and-4. That was enough to get Carlson within range for the field goal.

On the NBC broadcast, they were openly doubting Staley’s decision.

After the successful kick, it appeared one Raiders player — long snapper Trent Sieg — may have told Austin Eckler that Vegas was going to take a knee until the timeout was called.

Staley’s explanation after the loss was, um, questionable at best.

His stated position is that the timeout was called because he wanted to get the Chargers’ best possible run defense package on the field, so he called a timeout in order to do that.

But the Raiders had just run the ball two plays in a row before that decision. Even if, as Staley said, he wanted to make sure that their defensive package was the best possible look to stop a one-back set, is it really that different — and that complex — to tweak the personnel from the version of the run defense that was on the field the previous two plays?

And isn’t that possible to do in the time allotted between snaps without needing to burn a timeout? How hard is it to change a run defense package in 30-35 seconds? In fact, as NFL commentator Emmanuel Acho points out, a substitution Staley made as a result of swapping that package may have cost him the game.

Some were wondering if the Chargers only had 10 men on the field. According to this photo, no.

Whatever the reason, the Raiders used that timeout to determine how many yards they needed to try the field goal. And since Jacobs went from the Los Angeles 39 to the 29, that was close enough to warrant a try by Carlson.

And why not? That meant that the Raiders get to avoid the Chiefs, and they go to Cincinnati instead. Not exactly a great option. But I’d prefer that over going up against Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City.

Which is the fate of the Steelers right now. But given that their other option would be sitting at home and looking for a new quarterback to replace Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers will happily take it.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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