Los Angeles Chargers defense softer than Charmin

The Los Angeles Chargers defense can’t stop anyone. It felt like the Los Angeles Rams could do anything they wanted on offense.

It is crazy to think that we opened the season with some lofty expectations from this Chargers defense. We thought that it would be one of the best in the league. We thought that we would be able to create pressure and create turnovers. At the moment, this defense is nowhere close to good!

The Chargers were demolished by the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday because the defense was not able to slow down anything. The Rams were able to do whatever they wanted on offense and the Chargers could do very little to slow it down.

What is wrong with this defense?

The biggest reason: we cannot generate any pressure up front. Quarterbacks are able to stand back in their spot and read the whole defense and find their open target. Without Joey Bosa on the field, Melvin Ingram is getting hit by 2 or 3 guys any time he is trying to get to the quarterback.

Nobody else on this roster has been able to generate pressure unless Gus Bradley asks Derwin James to come down from his safety spot. Getting Bosa and Corey Liuget will do wonders for this team, but we still don’t know when Bosa gets back.

Without the pressure up front, our secondary is getting torched. Casey Hayward has not had a good start to the year. Jahleel Addae seems to be a step too slow to everything. He is taking bad angles and missing tackles that should get us off the field.

Compile that with all our penalties. When it seems like we were able to get off the field, we would get caught with our hands in the cookie jar and would have to stay on the field. Stupid penalties for taunting. Hands to the face. Defensive holding.

Is there any hope for this defense?

Getting Bosa back on the field will change everything. Can one player make that much of a difference? YES! Yes he can!

The defense does look much faster with players like Derwin James and Kyzir White flying around. The defense hits hard. This is probably one of the best tackling defenses that we have had in the past. Even without being able to slow teams down, it still does force turnovers. There is still some hope.

Without any pressure up front though, this defense is garbage.

Gus Bradley needs to find ways to get to the quarterback. He has to take more risks and send more people. It was nice being able to create pressure last year by only sending 4, but we don’t have that luxury until Joey gets back on the field. Until then, Gus better start adjusting to the players he has.

How much will change when Bosa gets back? Do you still believe this defense can be good?