3 pitfalls Chargers must avoid in Week 12 vs. Cardinals

Don’t sleep on David Johnson

Todd Gurley, Ezekiel Elliott and even Le’Veon Bell, who hasn’t played a snap all season, are the names you hear when talking about the best running backs in the league. But David Johnson, despite playing on a poor team, deserves to be on that list.

Johnson has had a quiet season for the most part and those who drafted him in their fantasy leagues have likely dealt with a little frustration, but he’s coming on and gaining steam in recent weeks.

During the Cardinals’ first eight games, Johnson didn’t rush for more than 71 yards in any of them. But the Cardinals seem to be focused on getting him the ball and in his last two games, he’s rushed for 98 yards and 137 yards, respectively. In addition, he has 54 touches in those two games as he is quite capable of hurting a defense as a receiver as well.

That news isn’t great for a Charges with a recent problem of stopping the run seemingly rearing its ugly head again. Dion Lewis had some big runs against them in the game played in London and last week, Phillip Lindsay had success, including bursting threw a hole for a 41-yard touchdown run.

The Chargers are nowhere near as bad as they have been against the run, but facing a hot running back such as Johnson is a bit of a concern. They’ll need to stop him early and force rookie quarterback Josh Rosen to beat them.