LA Chargers: 3 areas that Bolts need to improve in after Week 1 win
By Jason Reed
3. Penalties
We have definitely seen worse showings from the LA Chargers when it comes to penalties and you can definitely make the case for a few of the calls that were made to not be made. For example, Joey Bosa's second roughing the passer call was horrible.
However, his first roughing the passer call was justified and it helped Washington drive down the field and score. All in all, Washington scored six points because of penalties by the LA Chargers in this game.
And whether you think they are justified or not, allowing a team to score multiple times because of penalties is not a good thing. Luckily, the Chargers buckled down and kept them to field goals each time, but this really could have been a blowout without the red-zone inefficiency, drops and penalties.
The first penalty against the team was a long pass interference call on Asante Samuel Jr. that set Washington up for its second field goal of the game. Then you had Bosa's first roughing the passer that put Washington in a good spot to get into field goal range at the end of the second half.
All in all, the Chargers had six penalties for 94 yards. Six penalties are not terrible but the 94 yards allowed is.
It is unfair to expect the team to be perfect. Penalties will happen, some will be bad calls and others will be justified. But they can definitely do better than what they did on Sunday, which should be scary for the rest of the league.