Raiders vs. Chargers: Raiders were this close to settling for a tie and bumping Steelers from playoffs

Just how close were the Las Vegas Raiders to settling for a tie against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night, which would have kept the Steelers out of the postseason?

Really close, according to their coach, Rich Bisaccia.

But a timeout by Chargers coach Brandon Staley with 38 seconds remaining in overtime gave the Raiders a chance to reconsider, Bisaccia said, and the Raiders pulled out a 35-32 victory.

“We were talking about (running the clock down),” Bisaccia said. “We ran the ball there, and they didn’t call a timeout. So I think they were probably thinking the same thing.”

The Raiders faced first-and-10 at the Chargers’ 45 with two minutes remaining in overtime. On first down, Josh Jacobs was stopped for a 1-yard loss.

The clock kept ticking away — a tie would have vaulted the Raiders and Chargers into the playoffs and kept the Steelers out.

On second-and-11, Jacobs ran for 7 yards … and the Chargers called timeout with 38 seconds remaining.

“We were certainly talking about it on the sideline. We wanted to see if they were going to call a timeout there on that (first-down) run. They didn’t so we thought they were thinking the same thing,” Bisaccia said.

On third down, Jacobs ran for 10 yards, setting up Daniel Carlson’s winning 47-yard field goal as time expired.

“We felt like they were going to run the ball so we wanted to get our best 11 personnel run defense in,” Staley said. “I don’t think it changed their mindset because they were going to run the ball on the play before and then they ran the ball on the very next play.”

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said the timeout did change the mindset on the team’s sideline.

“It definitely did, obviously,” he said, “but we knew no matter what we didn’t want a tie.”