San Diego Chargers – Breakdown of a Loss
By Mike Murray
This loss may make you want to think that your San Diego Chargers might be pretenders instead of contenders. After re-watching the game I am hear to tell you to not worry about your Chargers. They are FINE. Sure, on Sunday there were some bonehead plays. Mistakes that the Chargers had not been making until this week. But the sky is not falling – the end is not near.
Lets go over the plays that were real back breakers in the game.
the sky is not falling – the end is not near.
1st QuarterNow while I am one of Philip Rivers biggest fans he had an off day. The Chargers first two drives ended with 3rd down throws that were uncharacteristically off the mark. The first one, Eddie Royal was able to get his fingertips on but didn’t bring it in.
2nd QuarterThe Chargers defense gave up a 3rd and 15 screen play to Thomas for first down.
Reggie Walker roughed the passer. This was bone headed. The play was right in front of him, it was easy to see the ball was gone and Walker lowered his head into Smith.
The Chargers allowed Rivers to be sacked twice, putting the team in a big hole that was too much to dig out of. Fluker was the guilty party on the first one, but it was not entirely his fault as he tripped over one of his own linemen. The second was on Dunlap – the one where the ball got stripped and left us at 2nd and 25. I won’t put it all on Dunlap. If Rivers was a half step forward this doesn’t happen.
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3rd QuarterRiver forces two passes after Oliver picked up 7 on first down. Why we did not run on 2nd and 3, I don’t know. Rivers tried to force an in route to Keenan Allen who was well covered. The second was downfield to Eddie Royal, and there was either a miscommunication or a really bad throw, because it wasn’t close.
The reception and run by Jenkins on 3rd and 12 when it appeared the Chargers had him wrapped up at the line of scrimmage… ugh.
Defensive holding on Richard Marshall when we sacked Smith on 3rd down. This was as bad as Walker’s roughing call. Marshall’s receiver was out of the play and not even really trying to run a route. BACK BREAKER.
Oct 19, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers (17) reacts during the fourth quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
4th QuarterThe Chargers had the ball, 2nd and goal from the 5. First off this should have been two running plays by Branden Oliver. Then I could be writing an article about how this guy should be getting his 3rd Rookie of The Week Award instead of this article. But the Chargers decided to throw. First play was a fade to the Malcolm Floyd and a bad throw. It should of had more air under it and been to the back shoulder of Floyd. Where Rivers threw the ball it was well covered. The second throw to Allen was well covered. Allen was not open for a second. I’m not sure what happened here. Rivers was not under pressure, he just made uncharacteristically bad throws that were hurried.
The last one was the play call to the endzone with 3 minutes left. Oliver was stuffed on 1st down leaving us at 2nd and 10. The Chargers decide to take a shot at the endzone. Why? Even if we scored we would have only been up by 4 with 3 minutes left with the Chargers defense being tired. And if we don’t score it leaves us at 3rd and long. This was a bad play call.
ConclusionThere it is. All that went wrong to make a loss. If we get one or two of those back we win this game. 3-5 of them and its a easy win.
Don’t worry fans, this game was uncharacteristically sloppy. If we lose the bone headed mistakes, Philip Rivers will be back on his game next week and we will be competing with Denver.