LA Chargers: The great, good and ugly in win over New York Jets
By Jason Reed
The ugly:
Casey Hayward’s regression:
Casey Hayward has not been great this season and it just proves that cornerbacks can get old really quickly in the NFL. It got to the point in this game where Hayward was getting legitimately targeted by Joe Flacco as he could not slow down the passing attack.
Hayward was burnt deep multiple times in this game and when he was not burnt he could not make many plays on the ball. He also committed costly penalties that extended some Jets’ drives.
Hayward is no longer a CB1-caliber player and not getting the consistency out of him that the Chargers got in year’s past has really hurt the secondary.
More special teams gaffs:
It is easy not to get as mad at these things when the LA Chargers actually win but the team still as not fantastic on special teams. Most notably, Joshua Kelley put forth a terrible effort on the punt blocking unit, allowing the Jets to block the Chargers’ first punt of the game.
That has to be better. The Chargers may have gotten away with it in this game but the fact that it is a trend is seriously alarming.
The run defense:
The Chargers’ defense still was not as great in this game as you would think. They did have a pick-six but they allowed a bad Jets’ offense to score more than they really should have. Part of the problem was Hayward, the other part was the run defense.
The Jets ran their way down the field on their first touchdown drive and the Chargers made Frank Gore look 10 years younger.
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It was not horrible, but the Chargers also were not coming up against the best running back attack. It needs to be better.