Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit didn’t sugarcoat Brandon Staley’s reality as head coach of the Chargers as they got pummeled by the Raiders, 63-21, on Thursday.
And neither did Richard Sherman, who said during Prime Video’s halftime show that the Chargers organization should “make history” and fire Staley during intermission with Los Angeles down 42-0.
Herbstreit, who was calling the game alongside the play-by-play announcer on Prime Video, couldn’t help notice that Staley was trending on X as the Chargers were down 35-0 with less than three minutes to play before halftime.
“Now, you summed it up. I mean, they just look defeated right now,” Michaels said about the Los Angeles team.
“I’m not into piling on a guy,” Herbstreit said. “But I know Brandon Staley — he was on a hot seat when this season started — it’s trending right now on Twitter [currently, X] because of the way this game is going, so.”
Before that, Michaels and Herbstreit weighed in on the Chargers’ defense when they were down 14-0.
“That defense, and that’s Brandon Staley’s pedigree — he came from the Rams where he ran the defense under Sean McVay — they’re 29th in yards allowed, 29th in passing and they look like it,” Michaels said.
“Meanwhile, last week, 12 possessions no points [the Raiders]. Tonight, two possessions, 14.”
Things only got worse for the Chargers as the game went on, and the Prime Video crew reacted accordingly.
“Everything going right for the Raiders, everything going — just a disaster for the Chargers,” Herbstreit said when the Raiders followed up a fumble recovery with a touchdown to take a 28-0 lead.
“Boy… complete nightmare for the Chargers here,” Michaels added.
The Raiders’ defense caused five turnovers and scored two of the team’s touchdowns in their sixth win on the season.
As the Raiders completely embarrassed their division rivals, Sherman chimed in with a bold suggestion.
“It’s throw up in a cup,” Sherman said. “This is one of the worst first halves I’ve seen from a team. It just looks like they’ve given up. They’ve quit. They packed their bags, they packed all their suitcases, they booked their vacations and they’re ready to go.
“Brandon Staley, I hate to say this because you don’t ever want to call for somebody’s job, but they should fire him first. They should make history. They should fire him at halftime.
“They should just say, ‘Hey we have an Uber X carpool outside and we’ll send you on your way because right now, I’ve never seen a team come out this uninspired.”
As for Staley? He said he should keep his job as head coach following the historic loss.
“I know what I’ve done here for three years, and I know what I’ve put into this, and I know where we’re capable of going,” Staley said. “I know the type of coach I am. I believe in myself.”
The 63 points was the most the Chargers had allowed in franchise history — and the most Las Vegas had ever scored, according to ESPN.
“Games like this happen in the NFL to every coach that’s ever coached in this league. You can look at any great coach that’s ever coached in the league.
“Sometimes games like this happen, and I don’t need to retrace history, but it’s just, it’s part of sports.”
Staley also said he was expecting “nothing new” to come out of his conversation with Chargers ownership on Friday, which is a normal occurrence after each game.
The Chargers (5-9) host the Bills (7-6) on Dec. 23.
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