The timeout heard round the world
The Raiders and Chargers battled through the most chaotic final minutes of regulation to get to overtime all square, 29–29. The stakes were simple: the winner of this game advanced to the playoffs, while the loser went home. A tie, as unlikely as that outcome seemed prior to kickoff, meant both teams advanced and the Steelers were eliminated. After both sides traded field goals to start overtime, the prospect of a mutually-beneficial tie was inching ever closer to fruition.
The Raiders seemed more than happy to accept this result. Las Vegas converted a 3rd-and-8 to advance the ball to the Chargers’s 39-yard line as the clock stopped for the two-minute warning. Three plays with no clock stoppages would bring the game to an end, and the Raiders ran twice for a net gain of six yards while eating up all of the play clock on each play. Then, with under 40 seconds left, Chargers head coach Brandon Staley called a timeout.
Did the timeout drastically impact the Raiders’s ability to manage the clock? Not really, as the play clock had nearly wound down when Staley called it. But after the game, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said the move impacted the offense’s strategy.