Success Lies with the Chargers Run Game
By Ernie Padaon
The San Diego Chargers need to get back to their bread and butter. They need to get back to the ball control offense and keep milking that clock.
The San Diego Chargers have strayed away a bit on their approach on offense. They are looking for deeper passes and taking more risks in the passing game and it is hurting. The Chargers can beat elite teams when they play their football and are patient with the gameplan. The patience has not been there for the last few games.
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The run game is the key for the Chargers and it always has been. When the team is able to run the football and milk the clock, this team wins. We all know that Philip Rivers can do a number of magical things, but we still need to remember that success in the run game is key.
It has been difficult for this team to be patient with all the negative plays in the run game. Branden Oliver has done much better than Donald Brown at gaining positive yards, but it still hasn’t been fun watching him work so hard to gain a half yard or so.
Getting Ryan Mathews back on the roster should help the run game, but it won’t immediately help the lack of holes in the run game. Mathews is good at gaining positive yards on first down, but we will have to see what holes the offensive line can make for him as well.
It all is going to start up front. Let this run game roll and we will get back to winning football. The team has gone through half of their schedule and they know the rotation that they will need to roll with at the running back position.
At the start of the season, we thought it would be Ryan Mathews, Danny Woodhead and Donald Brown. Now we know that it will be Ryan Mathews and Branden Oliver that will carry the running back duties. Brown should not even be in the rotation at this time. Ronnie Brown might get some snaps, but he should be used sparingly as well.
It is fun watching the pass game have success. It all starts in the run game though. We need to get back to focusing on having success in that department.
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