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Morning Coffee: Raiders send TNF soaring over total in blowout win
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It’s that time of the year in the NFL.
Anybody betting on the sport needs to beware of the potential no-show for teams that are out of contention.
The Las Vegas Raiders were shut out in a 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 14.
Four days later, they scored a franchise-record 63 points in a 63-21 win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday Night Football.
It’s the third-most points scored in the Super Bowl era.
In fact, the Raiders scored 42 points in the first half alone.
For perspective, the game total was set at 34.5 points.
Las Vegas hadn’t scored more than 30 points in any game this season prior to last night’s contest.
Just when football fans thought things had hit rock bottom for the Chargers, they turned the ball over five times and allowed eight different players to score a touchdown in a 42-point loss to a division rival that entered the week with an identical record.
It's only a matter of time before we see some major changes in Los Angeles.
For now, there aren’t many positives to highlight.
As for anybody who bet the Chargers to win or cover last night, the one positive was an early bed time, as there was no reason to stay up and watch the game past the first quarter.
This is the Morning Coffee for Friday December 15th, 2023.
Raiders Send TNF Soaring Over Total In Blowout Win
Brandon Staley has coached 48 regular season games for the Chargers.
He’s produced a .500 record during that tenure in LA.
In Thursday’s column, I highlighted how strange I found it that some fans had turned on Justin Herbert in the midst of an inconsistent season marred by injuries.
Last night, we got a glimpse of just how bad it could get without Herbert under centre.
2019 fifth-round pick Easton Stick turned the ball over three times, including a pick-six and a fumble-six.
While the Chargers defence looked disinterested from the outset, the Raiders scored touchdowns off all five turnovers by the LA offence.
As somebody who recommended a play on rookie first-round pick Quentin Johnston to finish with 25+ receiving yards in the game, I still don’t understand why he wouldn’t get more than three targets with his team trailing the entire game.
Since scratching and clawing their way to a 4-4 start, the Chargers have lost five of their past six games to fall out of contention in the loaded AFC playoff race.
It seems like only a matter of time before we see some major changes in Los Angeles.
Whatever happens next, the Bolts absolutely need to get it right when it comes to their next coaching hire.
While all of the talk throughout and after the game was about the state of the Chargers, the Raiders deserve full marks for responding to a shutout loss with a dominant effort from start to finish against their division rival.
Las Vegas might not be a playoff team, but anybody watching last night could tell the difference between a team that was motivated to show up and one that isn’t.
Purdy The Favourite To Win MVP Once Again
There will be a lot of talk about the NFL regular season MVP award over the final four weeks.
The reason is simple.
There’s no obvious top choice to win that award.
Dak Prescott entered Week 15 as a slight favourite at FanDuel, becoming the sixth different player to hold that distinction this season.
As of Thursday morning, Prescott and Brock Purdy were co-favourites to win that award at FanDuel.
As of this morning, it’s Purdy who has emerged as the slight favourite ahead of Prescott.
At this point, I wouldn’t be shocked if either Purdy or Prescott won that award.
At the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if neither one was named NFL regular season MVP at the end of the season.
In fact, if I was awarded a free credit and asked to use it on one choice to win MVP, my pick would be Josh Allen at +1400.
It wasn’t that long ago that Allen was the favourite to win that award, and he might still be if it wasn’t for a 12-men on the field penalty, a couple of missed field goals, and the injuries that have really limited the Buffalo Bills on both sides of the football this season.
The Bills are currently on the outside looking into the AFC playoff race.
They will host Prescott and the Cowboys on Sunday.
If they win that game and then take care of business against the Chargers and New England Patriots, they could still have a shot at the AFC East division title by the time they meet the Miami Dolphins in Week 18.
It’s definitely a long shot, but I don’t think Buffalo would be anywhere close to playoff contention without Allen, and they still have a chance at a division title if they win out.
With the MVP race wide open right now, I’d be willing to risk a credit on Allen to win that award at +1400 at FanDuel.