LA Chargers: 3 things to improve on for Week 7 vs. Jacksonville

The LA Chargers come back from their bye against the Jacksonville Jaguars and are in a prime position to bounce back.

The LA Chargers‘ bye week came sooner than expected, and it was a blessing in disguise to a team that was losing starters to injury every week. While it will be a long run of consecutive games now that there was an early bye, the Chargers will need all hands on deck now if they want to rescue the season.

Sitting at 1-4, the Chargers get the Jaguars at home, followed by the Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets. Winning four of these five winnable games will put them at .500, and in a good spot to make a playoff push.

Getting Melvin Ingram and Justin Jones is huge, as well as having Joey Bosa finally healthy. The defensive line looked great in the first couple of weeks, and we could see a return to that form.

Here are 3 things the Chargers can improve on for their Week 7 matchup against the Jaguars.

1. Tinker with the run game

The Chargers had one of the best run games in the entire league in the first couple of weeks, rushing for 338 yards in two games. The Chargers have since lost their lead back Austin Ekeler, as well as the entire right side of the offensive line.

The Chargers struggled again running the balk against the Saints, although you might not figure that by looking at Justin Jackson’s stat line of 15 carries for 71 yards. He actually had a long carry of 36 yards, while he only rushed for 35 yards in the rest of his 14 carries. Joshua Kelley struggled too, averaging 2.6 yards per carry in 11 attempts.

This is not the first time I call on the Chargers to figure out the run game after Ekeler’s injury, and it doesn’t seem fair to do so considering the personnel they’ve lost. However, they need to go with the next man up.

Anthony Lynn and Shane Steichen are creative play-designers, so even if they’re not on fans’ good graces right now, I expect them to have used the bye to figure out new ways to make the run game work. Jackson and Kelley are very talented backs, and it’s likely that the coaching staff has used the time off to find ways to maximize their talents.