Hezekiah Masses picks off Herbert twice as Raiders force three turnovers and beat Chargers 26-14

The Raiders did not outgain the Chargers on Sunday. They finished with 305 yards to 310, ran for 57 yards on 29 carries, converted four of 14 third downs and held the ball for 27 minutes and 43 seconds. They won 26-14 at SoFi Stadium anyway, because they took the ball away three times, gave it up once, and turned the biggest of those takeaways into the touchdown that ended it. A rookie cornerback named Hezekiah Masses had two of them.

The game turned with 3:52 left. Las Vegas led 17-14, and Malcolm Koonce had just strip-sacked Justin Herbert on third-and-7 from the Chargers 40, only for Tre' Harris to fall on the ball at the Chargers 46, a yard short of the line to gain. On fourth-and-1, after a Raiders timeout, the defense handed Los Angeles a first down with a too-many-men penalty. ESPN's win probability had the Raiders near 70 percent after the sack and about 55 after the flag. They did not have to live with it. On the next snap Nakobe Dean punched the ball out of Omarion Hampton's arms, Jeremy Chinn scooped it at the Las Vegas 41 and ran 43 yards to the Chargers 16, and the number went to 84. Three plays later, on third-and-5 from the 11, Kirk Cousins hit Cody White for an 11-yard touchdown with 2:59 to play. After that it read better than 98 percent.

Offense

Cousins went 19 of 29 for 253 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, a 113.1 rating at 8.7 yards an attempt, and three throws produced most of it. Tre Tucker, who caught two passes in the opener, caught five for 119 yards on seven targets. The touchdown came on busted coverage, with rookie safety Genesis Smith, filling in for the injured Elijah Molden, losing him down the left side. The 42-yarder, on second-and-10 from the Las Vegas 16 with 31 seconds left in the half, put Matt Gay in range. A 27-yard catch by Dareke Young set up the go-ahead score.

White was elevated for the second straight week after going without a catch in Week 1. He caught two passes and both were touchdowns. The first, from 13 yards on third-and-10 with 3:53 left in the third quarter, retook the lead at 17-14 and capped an 11-play, 74-yard answer that included a fourth-and-1 conversion on a direct snap to Connor Heyward at the Las Vegas 35.

The running game is the part nobody should gloss over. Ashton Jeanty ran 21 times for 48 yards, the team averaged 2.0 a carry, and Las Vegas produced two rushing first downs all day. The worst of it came in the first quarter, when the Raiders took over at the Chargers 3 and ran four straight times without scoring, the last a fourth-and-goal direct snap to Jeanty from the 1 that Del'Shawn Phillips and Tony Jefferson stopped for no gain. Seven points went unclaimed in a game decided by 12. Cam Hart, meanwhile, won more of his afternoon than his line suggests, intercepting a deep ball for Tucker on the opening possession and breaking up two more.

Defense

Herbert finished 15 of 27 for 192 yards with one touchdown, two interceptions, a 59.5 rating and an 11.4 QBR. The Chargers converted five of 14 third downs and had one completion longer than 19 yards.

Masses was a fifth-round pick in April, No. 175 overall out of California, in the lineup with Darien Porter out with a foot injury. His first interception came on third-and-5 late in the first quarter, a deep ball for David Njoku that he caught at the Las Vegas 48 and returned 29 yards to the Chargers 23. His second came on third-and-11 with 2:29 left, a short throw for Derius Davis, and it ended any thought of a comeback. He added five tackles, a tackle for loss on Hampton and two passes defensed. He was also flagged for pass interference on third-and-3 in the fourth, which handed the Chargers a first down. Rookies do that. Two interceptions on the road cover it.

Dean finished with 10 tackles, seven solo, half a sack shared with Koonce, two quarterback hits and the forced fumble that decided the game, and he stopped Hampton for no gain on third-and-2 with 9:10 left to force a punt. Quay Walker had 10 tackles, Koonce had 1.5 sacks, and Eric Stokes sacked Herbert at the Chargers 2 early in the fourth quarter.

Maxx Crosby's line reads one tackle, one quarterback hit and no sacks, and that is an accurate count of a game the count does not describe. The play-by-play names him twice: a hit on Herbert on third-and-3 that pushed the Chargers into a 58-yard field goal try Cameron Dicker put off the right upright, and a stop of Hampton at the 3 late in the first quarter. The data available does not track pressures, so what is left is the evidence around him: nine Raiders quarterback hits, three sacks and three Herbert fumbles, two of them on sacks. How much runs through Crosby the numbers cannot separate, and it would be dishonest to pretend they can. The Associated Press has Herbert spinning away from a potential Crosby sack before finding Oronde Gadsden for the go-ahead touchdown, which cuts the other way.

The ground is where the defense gave. Hampton carried 23 times for 94 yards, Los Angeles ran for 127 at 4.0 with seven rushing first downs and scored on both red zone trips, and the 10-play, 69-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter was six Hampton carries and little resistance. The one explosive throw, 53 yards to Harris on third-and-5 with Chinn trailing, set up the only lead the Chargers held.

Special teams

AJ Cole punted six times for a 46.2-yard average with a long of 56, four inside the 20, no touchbacks and no return yards allowed. Every punt was fair caught, downed or kicked out of bounds, and the Chargers finished without a punt return.

The sequence matters more than the average. A 55-yarder in the first quarter pinned Los Angeles at its 17, and Masses intercepted Herbert three plays later. A 46-yarder fair caught at the 10 late in the first half was punted back, and the Raiders drove for the field goal that gave them the lead at the break. A 36-yarder downed at the 10 early in the fourth quarter preceded Stokes' sack at the 2 on the next snap. With two minutes left, instead of going for it on fourth-and-2, Las Vegas punted, Cole put it at the 6, and the safety followed two snaps later.

Gay made a 59-yard field goal with four seconds left in the half, the longest of his career, and went 3 for 3 on extra points.

Coaching

Klint Kubiak's plan fit what the roster had. With no running game, the offense kept taking shots, two of which went for 40 or more to Tucker, and went for it on fourth down twice, converting once. With two rookie corners on the field, the Raiders kept the Chargers underneath and lived with Hampton, a trade that held at 14 points allowed.

The goal-line sequence is the argument against. Four straight runs from the 3 with a back averaging 2.3 a carry, ending in a direct snap on fourth-and-goal from the 1, ignored what the first three had already shown. The Raiders also took six penalties for 42 yards, and the too-many-men flag on fourth-and-1 cost nearly 30 points of win probability on one snap. The players erased it, which is not the same as the staff avoiding it.

Joe Alt, one of the league's better tackles, lost his day with three false starts and the holding call in his own end zone that produced the safety. Jim Harbaugh fell to 0-2 for the first time in his coaching career.

What it means

The Raiders are 2-0 for the first time since 2021, 1-0 in the division, and they beat Los Angeles for the first time in five meetings. Two weeks in, the defense has allowed 13 points and 14. That is the part that has shown up twice.

The rest is less settled. Las Vegas has played eight quarters without a reliable running game, and this win came on takeaways rather than sustained offense. Takeaway rates do not hold at three a game. Brock Bowers, listed as doubtful, was inactive. Treydan Stukes was hurt in the third quarter and listed with a concussion, and both Dareke Young, with a hamstring injury, and Jeanty, shaken up in the fourth quarter, returned.

What is next

New Orleans, on the road, next Sunday at 1:25 p.m. Pacific on CBS. The Chargers go to Buffalo. The question for the week in Las Vegas is whether this offense can run the ball well enough that it does not need three turnovers to win.