Bolts – Electric Win
The game had more mood swings than an insane asylum, this Chargers (27-24) win over the St. Louis Rams.
The stat sheet will show Marcus Gilchrist jumped a route and intercepted a pass in the end zone after Shareece Wright got beat on a pattern. A good play, leads to a lucky win, against a team that continued to self destruct.
Maybe it was fitting Gilcrhist finally made a play; he got beat all day, as did Wright, and even Eric Weddle on the back-end.
It would have been heart-wrenching had the Chargers lost, for Philip Rivers did everything he could to will his team into the lead and the victory, only to have the defense keep giving up pass plays.
Frank Reich, his quarterback getting hit early, and looking jumpy, found the missing pages in the back of the playbook that read ‘no huddle’ offense, and went to the package late in the lst quarter, and rode the fast paced attack to a win.
Rivers, who displayed alot of bad body language after a sack and a couple of hits early, got comfortable when the ball got out of his hands quicker from the second period on. He wound up a red-hot (29-35) and a touchdown, spitting bullets and screaming in joy after key plays. The 99-yard interception return for a TD looked horrible, but from that play on, he was vintage Rivers.
Ryan Mathews showed how much he was missed, busting off physical big runs, finishing with (102-yards) rushing.
Luckily for San Diego, it was the Rams they played, the young, battered Rams, the Rams, who self destructed.
The Chargers were relentless on defense, blitzing journeyman quarterback Shaun Hill all day. They called 24-blitzes, the pressure was enormous, and though they got no sacks, they got a couple of big hits, triggered a fumble recovery for a TD, and had him rattled all day.
St. Louis must feel sick. They committed a penalty that led to a blocked field goal. They had a 51-yard TD pass wiped out by a facemask call. They had a 77-yard punt return taken off the books by a questionable blocking call, and then the Hill interception down on the goaline, when the QB threw into traffic.
They probably left 24-points on the field and Coach Jeff Fisher will probably wish he had tried to power into the end zone with his hot rookie running back Tre Mason on the final series.
This Rams team didn’t have its quarterback, left tackle, top wide receiver, or top pass rusher, and still was right there at the end, using grit and grime to scare San Diego.
The Rams played hard enough to win, but young teams make mistakes, and this was one after another, after another, all day.
The Chargers get to live another day in the playoff race. They are one of five teams fighting for two wildcard spots, and a brutal five game stretch to the finish line starts next weekend in Baltimore.
It was an emotional, inspiring, much needed win for the Bolts. A loss could have ended the season. A win keeps post-season alive.
This was like being in a sanitarium, a Jack Nicholson moment in “1-Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” movie, with so many highs, so many lows, but at least on this Sunday a good result.
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