In a game where the Chargers continued to hemorrhage starting players like a bad dream you wake up from in a cold sweat, Josh Lambo turned it into a much needed victory.
Yes, he missed the first attempt, and the Browns were as inept as the Charger team we saw over the last two weeks, racking up a plethora of penalties, including a crucial penalty on a kick that Lambo sent wide right. HOWEVER, he had a great game up until that point, and was a HUGE part of why the Chargers were even in position to win this game. As if I was channeling the ghosts of Nate Kaeding’s past, I wrote an article earlier today about how Lambo would need to pull it together in order for this game to be won.
Not only did Lambo win the game, he booted it out of the endzone on almost every kick off. By the way that our return coverage played, any doubts that cutting Nick Novak wasn’t the right move should be completely erased, as it was field position that won this game. Had Novak kicked it off to the returner on every kick, like we saw so many times, this game would have been a blowout. The losses by the Chiefs, and Raiders today would have been an afterthought. too bad the Broncos NARROWLY pulled out a win over the Vikings today, or this would have been a much bigger victory than it already is.
I also want to give a shout out to the pass rush. McCown was under pressure ALL DAY, and it made a huge difference. The blitz was on, and I have to give them props. The CB’s had moments of greatness and horrifying coverage. The defensive line held up OK, but this wasn’t a top rated rushing attack, and they started gashing us again at the end.
Woodhead, Gordon, Allen, Inman, Johnson, Floyd, Green, and Oliver deserve MAJOR props in this contest. the entire team does. Even when the chips were down, they never gave up. It was a big team win. My biggest thank you goes out to Rivers and the offensive line, who struggled early, but pulled it together enough that they could allow El Capitan to get the ball out fast enough that we saw some of the LONGEST plays of our weapon’s careers today! Just when it looked bleak, they rattled off some huge gains.
But, quite honestly, the game ball goes to Lambo. Welcome to the team kid! You did good today, and made me some pretty friggin awesome fantasy points! I’ll post the second half events later, so you can see the blow by blow, but I wanted to get this one off first.
Oh… and remember… you heard it on Bolt Beat first ; )
Keep Bolting Toward Excellence,
Peter Thompson