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

3. Play to win

While Lynn is a great coach in many ways, he has one big deficiency that has continually affected the Chargers and cost them many games. Whether it’s with conservative defense or offense, Anthony Lynn doesn’t play to win, or at least doesn’t commit to that for the full game. We’ve seen sizeable leads created by incredible game scripts and beautiful football by the Chargers wiped away way too often.

Lynn’s main philosophy right now is to avoid turnovers as much as possible, but in that struggle to avoid turning the ball over, he is making the team lose what makes it great in the first place.

The old formula of stout defense and good run game is always great on paper, but in the modern NFL, when you’ve got quarterbacks with the skill of Justin Herbert, you can’t take the ball out of their hands if you want to unleash the potential of your team.

Just look at the success of the Seattle Seahawks this year, that have finally let Wilson cook and are unbeaten to show for it.

It’s time to let Herbert cook and give him the reigns of the offense, the rookie has shown he can handle it. When he leads the team to big leads in games, it’s time to trust him to expand that lead even more, not dial down the play calling and avoid turnovers to a fault.

The defense is not exempt from blame either. If there’s a member of the coaching staff that is on the hot seat right now, it’s likely Gus Bradley. Injuries have decimated his defense, which makes fulfilling his vision for the defense a tough task.

Healthy or not, he has shown that he can do the job but has a huge weakness against defending good receivers out of the backfield, mobile quarterbacks, and two-minute drills. That’s a recipe for blown leads.

Last year, it was the defense that performed admirably considering injuries and how often the offense put them against the ropes. This year, however, the offense has put up points and taken care of the ball, and while we already explored how they haven’t done enough to win games by failing to put the foot on the throttle, the defense has flashed dominance but failed at the most crucial times possible.

Both sides of the have to play to win, and that ultimately falls to the head coach. Lynn has more job security right now than Charger fans would guess, but if the Bolts keep blowing leads and losing games in the same fashion, his seat will start heating up.

They’ve got a very winnable slate of games incoming, and the Chargers’ season will depend on if they can do their job and win these must-win games.