Chargers are in Trouble

Don’t be fooled by the Chargers win on Sunday.  Things are not going good in San Diego.  Eking out a win at home against the Browns is not much to be proud of.  What that means is the Bolts are about even with the Browns… let it sink in… The Chargers are like the Browns.

This Chargers had a lot of hope going into the season.  I even predicted 11 wins, but the Chargers wont come close to that this year.  They will probably eke out 4 or 5 more wins this year. Expect a loss to the Raiders. This is where they are… its time to face reality. Tom Telesco’s neglect in drafting talent on the D-line and O-line has finally caught up to the Chargers and they are in a big mess.

The Chargers O-line was supposed to be much improved after acquiring Franklin and Barksdale and sliding Fluker to guard, but we saw in the first two games of this season that the O-line underperformed. It has been horrendous to watch – guys getting pushed back easily and assignments being missed that have almost killed Phil.  And then there is Chris Watt.  He is not the next Nick Hardwick.  I am not even sure that he is an NFL caliber starting guard much less an NFL center.  The guy continually gets blown up. The Chargers can’t pass protect and they can’t run the ball.  The offense will consist of working out of the shotgun and Phil getting the ball out of his hand in less than 2 seconds, and of course the inside draw. This will be your 2015 offense… get used to it.

The Chargers D-line was neglected in the offseason even though we all knew it was the weakest unit going into the off-season.  Tom Telesco failed to address the need.  Instead he burnt our 2nd and 3rd round picks on an ILB and a CB – two locations where we did not need starters.   The result is the worst run defense in the league.  The Chargers are giving up 4.9 yards per carry.  Yep.  4.9 freaking yards per carry.  Why would any opponent even pretend to have a passing game?  Get used to your Charger defense getting ran over all of 2015.

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Outside of our poor line play an old friend has come to visit the team.  The injury bug is back.  The Chargers need to be leading the league in injured starters. Is it freaky bad luck or do the Chargers need to start looking at the type of players they are acquiring or is this a problem with the Chargers conditioning methods?

Four games into the season and we are on pace for an 8-8 campaign and missing the playoffs again.

… sigh …

The only hope I can think of is that I am being again too optimistic… maybe we can lose enough to get a top 5 pick.  Now there’s something to hope for.