and
Raiders throughout the years.
1960–1969: AFL days Both the Chargers and Raiders were charter members of the
American Football League when the league began playing in 1960. The Chargers moved to
San Diego after their first year in
Los Angeles, appearing in four of the first five AFL Championship games and winning one.
Al Davis, who would later become the famous Raiders owner, started off as an assistant coach for the Chargers until becoming Oakland's head coach in 1963. Under Davis, the Raiders held a competitive edge over the Chargers from the late 1960s to the 1990s, appearing in four Super Bowls and winning three of them.
1970–2014 In 1978, the Raiders won over the Chargers in San Diego with a controversial
fumblerooski play later dubbed the
Holy Roller. The loss helped the Chargers miss the playoffs that year and sparked an NFL rule change. Two years later, both teams returned to the playoffs, where they faced off in the
1980 AFC championship game. An offensive shootout between Raiders quarterback
Jim Plunkett and Chargers quarterback
Dan Fouts saw the Raiders prevail 34–27; they later won
Super Bowl XV over the
Philadelphia Eagles. This remains the teams' only playoff meeting From 1982 to 1994, the Raiders played in Los Angeles, where they developed a
strong following, which to this day has impeded the Chargers' ability to develop their own following in the city. One of the ugliest games in the rivalry's history occurred in 1998. Chargers rookie quarterback
Ryan Leaf completed just 7 of 18 pass attempts for 78 yards and 3 interceptions. The Raiders did not fare much better on offense, but Raiders backup quarterback
Wade Wilson passed for a 68-yard touchdown, his only completion of the day. In the end, both teams had benched their starting quarterbacks as the Raiders narrowly won 7–6. The game set an NFL record for the most punts in a game. Though the Raiders had largely dominated the series for much of the later 20th Century, the Chargers amassed a 13-game winning streak from 2003 to 2009, shortly after the Raiders' appearance in
Super Bowl XXXVII and subsequent collapse. One of these losses saw Oakland squander a 15-point halftime lead to lose 28–18, head coach
Lane Kiffin was subsequently fired. The Raiders ended the losing streak in 2010, defeating the Chargers 35–27 with two blocked punts, two second-half scoring drives led by quarterback
Jason Campbell and a
Philip Rivers fumble returned by
Tyvon Branch for the Raiders' game-clinching touchdown. San Diego won the season's second matchup, 26–13, keeping its playoff hopes alive.
2015–2019: Bids to return to Los Angeles After the 2015 season, the Raiders and Chargers proposed to move back to Los Angeles and indeed to the same home venue, announcing a
shared stadium proposal in
Carson, California. The proposal was rejected by NFL owners in favor of the
St. Louis Rams' proposal to move back to Los Angeles; the Chargers were first being offered a one-year window to accept the chance to share the Rams'
stadium and the Raiders to receive the offer should the Chargers decline. On January 12, 2017, Chargers owner
Dean Spanos announced his intention to join the Rams in Los Angeles and leave San Diego to play at
SoFi Stadium, ultimately leading to Raiders owner
Mark Davis accepting a deal to move his team to
Las Vegas to play at
Allegiant Stadium with the
NCAA's
UNLV Rebels football program.
2020–present: Post-move After both teams' moves by the 2020 season, the Chargers' first home game in the series at the new
SoFi Stadium featured a notable final play. Down 31–26, Chargers rookie quarterback
Justin Herbert threw a pass to
Donald Parham that was initially ruled a touchdown but was overturned after review as Raiders cornerback
Isaiah Johnson was seen barely jarring the ball loose from Parham's hands as he fell out of bounds. The Raiders held on to win. Both teams narrowly missed the playoffs that year. After a 63–21 Raiders win in the series on
Thursday Night Football in 2023, head coach
Brandon Staley and general manager
Tom Telesco were fired by the Chargers on December 15, 2023. The Chargers-Raiders game set a Chargers franchise record for most points allowed in a single game, along with a Raiders franchise record for most points scored in a single game. The following offseason, Raiders owner
Mark Davis hired Telesco to be the team's new general manager.
2021 Week 18 Raiders-Chargers game The game between the two teams during the final week of the 2021 season would decide the final AFC wild card spots that year. Las Vegas took a commanding 29–14 lead in the fourth quarter, but Herbert led the Chargers back to tie the game at 29 apiece after Herbert converted 4 fourth downs by the end of regulation, forcing overtime. After both teams scored field goals in the extra period, the Raiders were set to run out the clock and accept a tie, but after a Chargers timeout, Las Vegas drove back to field goal range and won the game with a kick in the final seconds of overtime, clinching the #5 seed while eliminating the Chargers and allowing the
Pittsburgh Steelers to clinch the #7 seed. Had the teams tied, they would have both made the postseason over Pittsburgh, which both teams had defeated earlier in the season. After the game, Raiders quarterback
Derek Carr was asked by
NBC sideline reporter
Michele Tafoya whether the timeout changed their mindset on the final drive, he replied, "It definitely did, obviously." When asked about the timeout by the
Los Angeles Times, Chargers head coach
Brandon Staley said "We felt like they were going to run the ball. So we wanted to ... make that substitution so that we could get a play where we would deepen the field goal." In Justin Herbert's post game press conference he said "I had never been rooting for a tie more in my life. That's the unfortunate part of being so close." ==Season-by-season results==