LV RAIDERS | ESPN praises Justin Herbert, Chargers dominate on defense to open Harbaugh era with win

a buck 35 to his name and for more it's time to take you out to the booth where the great Tony Romo is standing by Tony always great to see you and start a new season here and I want to start with the final words you uttered on the broadcast Chargers you might have found your identity it's really an identity in the image of their head coach what stood out to you about the game plan I mean that was almost exactly what you'd expect like a tough physical hardfought Jim Harbaugh game and the one thing is the Raiders were equally as physically tough and I think um there'll be very few games this year that someone will impose their will on either one of these teams uh you'll have styles and different fights but this was just one of those persevere like a real 15 round fight and it was ugly it was tough this dline dominated the first portion than the next dline did and uh it was old school football and I enjoyed the heck out of the whole game both sides and in round 14 it did actually turn into a fight there for a moment let's talk about the Raiders for a couple seconds here because so often we see that magic captured by an interim head coach and then you get to the actual opportunity and it doesn't happen too often where the interim gets the headman job how do you bottle up what they had last year down the stretch run and use it this year in what's required of a full-time head coach I wouldn't worry about the Raiders and and Antonio Pierce is for real like I've played against him I've communicated with him a bunch you know sense he took over last year and I think he's outstanding in almost each area you know that you want your head coach he has the ability to communicate with the players at a very high level he has a standard that he sets that they follow his players play as hard as any unit or any team that you'll see on tape week in week out last year you'll see that again today it Leafs out they had too many turnovers and I think that caused them when they were right in that position to kind of extend the lead and to me there's a lot of positives there but they didn't get the W but they're much more exotic on defense than you think he knows how to hide disguise I think they're going to have a really good year they're just in a very tough Division I mean you got the Chargers you got Andy Reid and the Chiefs Shawn pyton a Young quarterback we'll see but the Raiders are are going to be fine they just going to have to win some of the close ones that's it everybody looking up at that Big Red Machine opening arguments have been made between the Raiders and the Chargers it's a win as the Harbaugh era begins Tony Romo appreciate you stopping by as always thanks all right to look into the numbers here it's it's plain and simple the man gets his teams ready to play most recently a decade removed from his last a win over the Raiders in week 1 22-10 and it started on the ground with a positive gain from JK dobins time and again it looked like Harbaugh it's going to be hard to stop but as we said the Chiefs at the top far more multiple see if this sort of bruising ball can withstand a full season in that division back in studio alongside the two-time Super Bowl champ Bryant mcfaden Joe muso your host bmac that was exactly what we thought it was going to be it was two teams that maybe are at a little bit of a talent deficit relative to those at the top of their division there's really no hiding that the Chiefs have gotten better we saw that on opening night but as it pertains to these two they're going to be tough outs for anybody that looks at them what's stood out to you on the Chargers side first and foremost that physical brand of football uh just their ability to stay with the running game you know often times offenses if they see something not working and they kind of switch it up but for coach Hall and his entire staff offensively they stayed patient with the running game and in the second half is when we really saw running opportunities for the Chargers led by JK dobins he finished with 135 yards on the the the in the ball game but if you look at in the first half the Raiders did a great job and not allowing any running lengths but they stayed patient and then of course one small crease open and he took one 60 plus yards to kind of jump start everything when it came to this game kind of getting out of hand in favor of the Chargers and that's the mentality we know they're going to stay patient and stay devoted to the running game and also they're going to play clean for football one side was sloppy three turnovers two fumbles one interception the other side clean spotless football and they were able to win this ball game guys with Justin Herbert only throwing for 144 yards those are Pop Warner numbers for quarterbacks right that's not an area that Justin Herbert is used to being in especially winning ball games I want to hear more about that because Justin Herbert is a guy that it seems like since that rookie season and the number the godess of them this is going to be a different offense and Justin Herbert's going to be asked to do different things within it that might be what the winning stat line has to look like with the weapons he has around him obviously want to strike a little bit more of a balance but do you think that they're doing a disservice if it is this run first plotting offense are you not taking advantage of your top weapon no I don't think they're they're doing just in a disservice and the reason why is because the other way when we've seen him become more of a volume quarterback when it comes to the opportunities it didn't really provide a lot of wins right so this offense when you look at all the offenses in the National Football League their signature is ball control ball control playing smart with the football and play tougher longer that's their that's their mindset and it works for Coach hobaugh every stop he's been has been the same mindset ball control play tougher longer and be smart that's what we saw today and eventually you talked about the talent concerns they're going to get more Talent into the building right but if he's able to make things happen right now with this said roster just wait until he gets more talent in the building but most importantly you can tell he has the respect of the locker room everyone has bought into everything that he is selling regardless if it's full price or half price they're buying it because they know he has a resume of doing what winning and turning things around quickly that's whats Jim Harbaugh has done every Le place that he has gone and we'll see if you know they continue to buy into this run style we'll see what happens when they face off with a team that's airing it out over the top what we do know is that a record was broken the most yards in a debut for a running back in Chargers history as JK Dobbins surpasses leanian Tomlinson's number let's see from Dobbins postgame with Tracy wolson it congrats yes thank you so much you heard it right there our coach fights and we're going to fight it's what we do now JK doin a 35 did it on 10 totes that was 13 12 yards per carry math is ma those are the easy ones for me just move that decimal point right over that's about as far as I go JK dobbin's going far in his debut as a charger [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] e