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Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley sticking to call for late-overtime timeout that backfired

Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson, right, waits to see whether his overtime field goal try was successful, which it was, against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday in Las Vegas. (AP photo)

Al Davis’ mantra wasn’t “Just tie, baby!”

The Las Vegas Raiders could’ve punched their ticket to the playoffs — and got the Chargers in too — by taking a knee on the last play.

It looked like they might have been willing to settle for the tie when they ran the ball on second down from the Chargers 46 as the clock ticked under a minute in overtime Sunday night.

With 39 seconds remaining and four seconds left on the play clock, Chargers first-year head coach Brandon Staley called a timeout that stunned the broadcast crew of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth.

Staley said afterward that he wanted to get the proper personnel on the field to defend the run and keep the Raiders either out of field goal range or make it a lot longer of an attempt for Daniel Carlson, who’s longest kick this season was from 56 yards.

Had the Chargers stuffed Jacobs for no gain, the attempt would have been 57 yards and at the edge of Carlson’s range.

“We needed to get in the right grouping,” Staley said. “We felt they were going to run the ball. We wanted to get our run defense in. (We made) that substitution so we could get a play that would deepen that field goal.”

Staley’s strategy backfired when running back Josh Jacobs darted for 10 yards on third down to put Carlson and Vegas in solid range for a kicker who was a remarkable 40 of 43 this season.

“We popped the run in there and gave us a chance to kick the field goal and win it,” Raiders coach Rich Bisaccia said. “We were certainly talking about” the tie, but then “we had the big run. When we had the big run, it got us to what we thought was advantageous field-goal position for us. We were going to take the field goal to win it.”

Staley didn’t bother using another timeout to ice Carlson, who nailed the 47-yard field goal as time expired in overtime for a 35-32 Raiders win that eliminated the Chargers and sent soon-to-retire Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers into the playoffs instead.

“It definitely did, obviously,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said in an interview when asked if the Chargers’ timeout changed the Raiders’ strategy. “But we knew, no matter what, we didn’t want a tie. We wanted to win the football game.”

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