In the words of LT after his first-quarter TD…..

Posted by Charger_Girl

December 5, 2008 |

…”That was easy.”

Chargers 34Â , Raiders 7

With this win, the Chargers now own the current longest winning streak against one team (Oakland) at 11 games.

It was nice to see both the offense and defense show up andÂ actually play.Â Now if we can only get the special teams to join the party.Â Giving up that 92-yd kickoff returnÂ TD just before halftime was just nonexistent tackling.Â Now, granted, the defense wasn’t the stellar ‘nuts and bolts’ defense of days ago.Â There were several missed tackles, but collectively the team looked immensely better.Â A fumble recovery (Phillips), INTs (Cooper x2 and Wilhelm), sacks (Phillips 2.5, Tucker .5)….THAT’s what I’m talking about!Â Although were the Chargers truly that good or were the Raiders that horrid.

Now all of my faithful readers know that I ADORE Darren Sproles andÂ Vincent Jackson and the twoÂ of them were on fire!Â The 59-yd TD grab byÂ Jackson in theÂ 2nd quarter was stellar, andÂ Sproles’ 2 TDs looked way too easy.Â You know, though, I suppose I ought to give kudos to the offensive line.Â I haven’t this year and my overall aggravation with the season has eclipsed my usually keen observations.Â My apologies, guys.

Back to Sproles, what a maniac…that kid can RUN as evidenced by his 80+ PR TD; however, an illegal block in the back penalty by Antoine Cason negated it.Â (Besides, the “penalty” was bogus, as usual.)Â And then he fumbles the next one; which, of course, is forgiven with the INT by Wilhelm to give the Bolts the ball back!

There were way too many penalties (by the Chargers, I mean….with Oakland it is expected), which needs to STOP (especially false starts which should NEVER happen when you play at home.)

The 2nd half did become quite boring as the Bolts focused upon running the ball and running the clock down.Â Not that I have anything against Mike Scifres, but he took the field entirely too many times.

The 3rd quarter phone conversation with Marty Schottenheimer was amusing.Â Did anyone else detect a little hostility in his voice when he made reference to A.J. Smith?

I do have to say that I enjoy listening to Cris Collinsworth as he brings a unique intelligence and unbiased personaÂ to the booth that is sorely lacking on ESPN’s MNF as of late.

The Chargers travel to the always toughÂ Kansas CityÂ next week (after a long week, thankfully), but this week, GO CHIEFS (vs. Denver)!!