Open Thread: Chargers @ Baltimore

Nov 30, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; San Diego Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen (13) celebrates after beating the Baltimore Ravens 34-33 at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Good Morning Charger fans! It’s Sunday, and we all know what that means… it’s Charger Open Thread Time!

Today the team limps forward to take on the Baltimore Ravens. It’s hard to imagine a team worse than the Chargers, but here you go. The Ravens are coming off of a heartbreaking loss on Monday Night Football against the Arizona Cardinals last week where Joe Flacco marched his team down the field with just seconds left, and threw a 4th down interception in the endzone. It was their Green Bay game, except Flacco didn’t put up recording breaking numbers while doing it, like Rivers did at Lambeau.

The Chargers are 2-5, and trying to pull out of a complete tailspin. The Ravens are just trying to stop the bleeding, at this point. They are not used to being 1-6, and will be looking to beat up on an injury ravaged & weak Chargers team in front of their home crowd.  How weak in the knees are the Chargers? Imagine Bambi on ice skates in a hurricane. That’s how weak. The Ravens will be feeding Justin Forsett the rock early, and often. The Chargers defense has been giving up an alarming amount of yards per carry to opposing backs, and are almost dead last in the league against the run. I’ll be honest, I didn’t look at the stats this week, so they may actually be dead last by now, after an embarrassing loss to the Raiders last week.

The Chargers can’t stop anything, and teams can merely sit back and decide what they want to do. Can they run into the teeth of our defense with success? Absolutely. Can they sit back in the pocket, and wait for receivers to get open? With this pass rush… yes sir! Can they go deep on us? Just throw it at Brandon Flowers. Can they dink & dunk over the middle? They can do that all day too. I wonder if coaches are just trying out different plays on us at this point, to see if they might work against other teams? The tackling has been awful, Pagano’s schemes are ridiculous, and the players are not responding to his “leadership”. We signed Joe Mays this week, after Perryman went onto the IR, so let’s see if he makes any difference.

As for the offense, it’s a “check the injury report to see which barely healthy player we can prop up this week” situation. The backups will most likely see time again this week on the line. They have been pretty bad at times, giving Rivers little time to throw. The run blocking has been sub-par, despite that being the focus & promise of the offseason. The backups have played admirably at some points, but look clearly overmatched on others, and there is no consistency. Melvin Gordon has been in McCoy’s dog house. Hopefully McCoy is in his own dog house with Gordon, keeping him company. Brandon Oliver has taken over his duties, and Woodhead continues to be Woodhead. Unfortunately, he can’t do everything.

The Ravens secondary isn’t that great (Shareece Wright is back there, if that tells you anything). So, maybe Rivers can get going, and put another point in the win column this week. A lot of fans are already calling for the team to tank for better draft picks, so I’m not sure if a win will make everyone happy. Let’s cheer them on, regardless.

Either way, I am hoping for a win today. I want to see our team do well, and break their bad habits. I know that may be wishful thinking, and not very realistic, but this team needs to start playing better. Otherwise, it is going to be a long season… it already is.

Go Chargers!

Schedule