The Chargers Long Year

I’m sorry Bolt fans there is no good news about your Chargers. After a disappointing loss on Monday night it is easy to get caught up in the should’ve would’ve could’ve of a football game. It’s easy to point out certain plays and certain players and coaches and blame them for the loss. But the reality is that this team has serious problems and it is going to be a long long year.

What we learned from last night:

We are worse than the Steelers without their QB. It says a lot about the Chargers when they can’t beat an opponent who is starting a backup QB. The Chargers despite putting up some good numbers are a bottom 15 team in the league. If you can’t beat on opponent on your home turf when they are starting a backup QB, you are bad. If the Chargers were good they would have won easily by 14.

We had one of the worst run defenses in the league last year, SOMETHING NEEDED TO CHANGE! TT did NOTHING

Both lines lack talent. This is not new news. We knew this last year going into the off season. We knew we needed to improve the O-line and the D-line.We had one of the worst run defenses in the league last year, SOMETHING NEEDED TO CHANGE! TT did NOTHING. We lost Hardwick and Clary (we used to complain about Clary, but man I would take him now in a heartbeat). We knew Rinehart and Troutman were mediocre to poor players. So what did we do? We signed Franklin in FA and some other budget FA guys to compete at camp. The Watt experiment has failed. Franklin has underperformed and the budget guys are budget guys. TT failed to provide a plan B and now WE ARE SCREWED for the season.

We still don’t have a return man. Jacoby Jones returned last night and was unimpressive. 5 return yards. 2 questionable decisions on punts which cost us field position. The guy has one job to do on the team and could not get it done. Why Javontee Herdon is not on the roster I have no idea. Cut Jones and move on to someone younger with more talent.

Phil is all that is holding the offense together. Can you imagine this team without Rivers? I would predict that the Chargers would win just one game. One. That’s it. Your defense is not going to win you any games and the O-line can’t run block and can’t pass protect. The only reason we look somewhat good is because of Phil. He can read defenses and make play calls at the line of scrimmage. Rivers is the best coach we have. And he can work with a crumbling pocket and throw the ball with people hanging on him. No one in the NFL can work in the phone booth like he does. Without him we would be bottom dwellers.

McCoy lacks any kind of killer instinct. You need to put pressure on the opposing team. Last night it felt like once we were up 7-0 we let off the gas and went into game management mode. We should have smelt blood in the water and been thinking KILL! KILL! KILL! Instead we made a focused effort to establish a run game behind a non-existent O-line. After the initial scoring drive the Chargers had four 3-and-outs. Three of those drives started out with a Melvin Gordon run two which were ‘up the middle’.

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Unfortunately the lines cannot be fixed mid year. This is the mess and we are going to have to live with it for the next 11 games. Its going to be a long year.

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