Brandon Staley’s first season with the Chargers ended in heartbreak, and the head coach himself was part of the reason why.
Los Angeles and the AFC West rival Las Vegas Raiders met for the final game of the 2021 NFL regular season with fascinating stakes. The winner of the primetime contest would claim one of the AFC’s Wild Card spots, but thanks to what happened earlier on the Week 18 slate, both teams would reach the playoffs if the contest ended in a tie.
The sides did not employ the full-game kneel down strategy that some suggested, but as fate would have it, the game was set up to end in a draw. The Raiders and the Bolts played deep into overtime, and Las Vegas appeared to be content on letting the clock bleed out as it stood on Los Angeles’ 39-yard line facing a third-and-4. After all, a 56-yard field goal is no chip shot, and you also risk a blocked kick.
But Staley inexplicably decided to put the game on pause when he called a timeout. The Chargers changed their personnel, and the Raiders responded with a 10-yard run from Josh Jacobs. The Silver and Black, in turn, were in comfortable field goal territory, and Daniel Carlson sealed the deal with a game-winning 47-yard boot. The Raiders now will play this weekend, while the Chargers are starting to plan vacations.
Staley explained the timeout after the game.
“We needed to get in the right grouping,” Staley told reporters, per Yahoo Sports. “We felt they were going to run the ball. We wanted to get our run defense in. (We made) that substitution so we could get a play that would deepen that field goal.”
Staley added: “I don’t think it changed their mindset because they were going to run the ball the play before and then they ran the ball the very next play. So we wanted to make sure we got our run defense in there.
“We didn’t execute well enough. But we wanted to get our premium defense in there and that’s what we did.”
The Raiders certainly benefitted from Staley dissuading them from going for a tie. Had the sides drawn, Las Vegas would have been tasked with traveling to Kansas City to battle the two-time defending AFC champion Chiefs. But with the win over LA, the Raiders notched a Wild Card date with the Cincinnati Bengals, who haven’t played a playoff game since the 2015 season.
