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“Bolts-For Real or Real Fraud”

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Is it time to get excited about what the Chargers have become, a playoff contender?

Or is the hurt-hate still too strong for fans in San Diego to express any compliments towards their once favorite team.?

Or do we need to take a closer look at how an (0-4) team has gotten to (7-6)?

The Bolts play for first place next Saturday night in Kansas City against the Chiefs. Yes they are both (7-6) but the Chiefs have the edge, because they beat the Chargers early in the season in Carson.

If you watch every one of these games, you have seen marked improvement in most every facet of the team.

Philip Rivers has thrown 8-TDs and just 1-pick in the midst of this 4-game winning streak Anthony Lynn’s team is on.

Keenan Allen continues on his crusade to earn respect as a big time star in the mold of Antonio Brown with another 111-yard performance.

The defense continues to make plays all over the field, if not just the pass rush, but the heavy hitting of Denzel Perryman, and the continued success of a secondary, stretching from the Pro Bowler Casey Hayward, to the development of Desmond King.

The long standing crisis in special teams has taken a break. They are on their third field goal kicker in Travis Coons, and he has converted mostly short-order kicks. The feeble punt return game has shown like with the work of Travis Benjamin.

Clock management issues are gone too, as the staff has grown together.

And the black cloud of injury, that has plagued this team for 3-years in a row, is not part of this years team. They have survived the loss of two offensive lineman, but injuries beyond Matt Slauson and Forrest Lamp have been few and far between.

All positives for sure.

But there are nagging issues. They don’t run the ball very well at all, and sometime before this is all over, they are going to need Melvin Gordon to put together a 100-plus yard rushing day.

And more important than anything else is this.

The Chargers have beaten only two teams with winning records, despite this (7-6) ledger. They beat Buffalo with the panic-stricken rookie Nathan Peterman at quarterback. And they won in Dallas in the midst of the Cowboys shell shocked skid following the Ezekiel Elliott suspension.

They are (2-4) against winning records, with losses to the upper echelon teams, the Chiefs, Eagles, the surprising Jaguars and the ever dominant Patriots.

When you get to post season, you don’t play the teams ripped by injuries, or starting rookie quarterbacks, or teams with inexperienced head coaches.

So we see what transpires in Arrowhead come next Saturday night.

And of course the people infront them, still have key games they have to play, and can win, Baltimore, Tennessee and the Bills are not done with their schedules either.

Winning the division is a possibility. Making it as the wildcard might make it a bit tougher.

I guess getting to the playoffs would be an accomplishment, but are they a complete enough team to do anything more than show and get knocked out?

They started the season with the 3rd easiest schedule in the league. And they haven’t beaten anyone of note yet.

I am still a doubter, surrounded still by a lot of haters. How about you?

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