LA Chargers: Five players who need to improve to defeat the Chiefs

LA Chargers that must improve: Tyrod Taylor

A lot of Chargers fans were pretty negative when it came to the performance of Taylor on Sunday. While I still think Taylor is the right quarterback for the team, he could certainly use a better performance. QBR doesn’t tell the whole story, but a 26.6 rating isn’t going to get it done this week

To me, the issue was less Taylor specifically and more the offensive scheme in general. The Chargers rarely went up-tempo except at the end of the second quarter. That was arguably one of their more successful drives with the Taylor-Hunter Henry connection looking very good.

Having no designed runs for Taylor in the game bothered me as well. Taylor rushed out when the pocket broke down or tried to get to the first down marker on a few third/fourth downs, but it resulted in six carries for seven yards.

That simply shouldn’t happen, regardless of the offensive line missing some pieces. The Chargers have to employ the use of designed runs with Taylor this week, much like the Patriots did with Cam Newton in Week 1.

Of course, it isn’t all speed or scheme. On some throws, Taylor just has to be more accurate. While Mike Williams caught four of his passes for 69 yards, it seemed like he got hit hard on each pass partially because of poor ball placement. As mentioned earlier, three of the balls thrown to Allen were not catchable.

Let’s get some creativity going with Taylor and the offense this week. For example, some screens to Ekeler, short underneath routes, designed runs, passes to Joe Reed and K.J. Hill. Simple changes in scheme and volume to certain players can produce a good week for Taylor and the Chargers.