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 and converted four of 14 third downs. 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, 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. It did not get to enjoy it. On the next snap Nakobe Dean punched the ball out of Omarion Hampton's arms, and Jeremy Chinn scooped it at the Las Vegas 41 and ran 43 yards to the Chargers 16. 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. ESPN's win probability had the Raiders at about 70 percent after the sack, 84 percent after Chinn's return and better than 98 percent after the score.

Masses was a fifth-round pick in April, No. 175 overall out of California, and he was 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 a third down in the fourth quarter, which kept a Chargers drive alive. Rookies do that. Two interceptions on the road cover it.

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. On the opening drive he hit Herbert as a third-and-3 throw fell incomplete, which pushed the Chargers into a 58-yard field goal try that Cameron Dicker missed. Late in the first quarter he stopped Hampton at the 3 after the Raiders had turned it over on downs at the 1. The data available does not track pressures or hurries, so what is left is the evidence around him: nine Raiders quarterback hits, three sacks, three Herbert fumbles, two of them on sacks, five of 14 third downs for Los Angeles and a 59.5 passer rating. How much of that runs through Crosby the numbers cannot separate, and it would be dishonest to pretend they can. What they do show is a quarterback who never got comfortable against a front built around him.

The Chargers player who lost his afternoon was Joe Alt. He was flagged for three false starts, and with 1:41 left he was called for holding in his own end zone on an incomplete pass, a safety that made it 26-14. The play-by-play does not say whom he was holding.

White was elevated from the practice squad for the second straight week after going without a catch in the opener. He caught two passes, and both were touchdowns. The first, a 13-yarder 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 to the Chargers' go-ahead score. That drive also included a fourth-and-1 conversion on a direct snap to Connor Heyward at the Las Vegas 35 and a 27-yard catch by Dareke Young.

Dean finished with 10 tackles, seven solo, half a sack shared with Koonce, two quarterback hits and the forced fumble. He also stopped Hampton for no gain on third-and-2 midway through the fourth quarter to force a punt. Quay Walker had 10 tackles of his own.

Tre Tucker, who caught two passes in Week 1, caught five for 119 yards on seven targets. His 40-yard touchdown down the left side opened the scoring in the second quarter, and his 42-yard catch with 31 seconds left in the half set up the field goal that put the Raiders ahead at the break. Cousins went 19 of 29 for 253 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, a deep ball for Tucker that Cam Hart picked off on the Raiders' first possession.

The running game is the part nobody should gloss over. Ashton Jeanty ran 21 times for 48 yards, and the Raiders were stopped on four straight runs from the 3 in the first quarter, the last a fourth-and-goal direct snap from the 1. Hampton had 94 yards on 23 carries on the other side.

Field position covered some of that. AJ Cole punted six times for a 46.2-yard average, four inside the 20, with a long of 56. A 55-yarder in the first quarter pinned the Chargers at their 17, and Masses intercepted Herbert three plays later. A 46-yarder was fair caught at the 10 before the two-minute warning, the Chargers punted it back, and the Raiders got the ball for the drive that ended in a field goal. A 36-yarder downed at the 10 early in the fourth quarter preceded Eric Stokes' sack of Herbert at the 2. With two minutes left, rather than go for it on fourth-and-2, the Raiders punted, Cole put it at the 6, and the safety followed two snaps later. Chargers punter JK Scott actually averaged more, 51.6 yards. Cole's punts just landed where they did damage.

Matt Gay made a 59-yard field goal with four seconds left in the half, the longest of his career, and all three extra points.

The coaching staff under Klint Kubiak deserves credit for a plan that fit what the roster had on Sunday. With no running game, the offense kept taking shots, two completions of 40-plus yards to Tucker, and went for it on fourth down twice, once at the Chargers 1 and once at its own 35. Defensively, with two rookie corners on the field, the Raiders kept the Chargers' passing game underneath: Los Angeles had one completion longer than 19 yards, the 53-yarder to Harris that set up Oronde Gadsden's touchdown. The Raiders also committed six penalties, and the too-many-men flag came at the worst possible moment.

Brock Bowers, listed as doubtful, was inactive. Michael Mayer caught three of four targets for 23 yards and had a false start. Safety Treydan Stukes was hurt in the third quarter and was listed with a concussion. Dareke Young was listed with a hamstring injury and returned, and Jeanty was shaken up in the fourth quarter and came back. The roster decision to watch is White, a practice squad elevation who now has two touchdowns.

The Raiders are 2-0 for the first time since 2021 and 1-0 in the division. Two weeks in, the defense has allowed 13 and 14 points. That is the part that has shown up twice. The running game has not held steady, and this one was won on takeaways, not on sustained offense.

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