Chargers Awful Win Better than Awful Loss
Uninspiring, unimpressive, unwatchable. That’s 5-games in a row with negatives stapled to game plans and stat sheets.
The Chargers record may be (6-4), but they in no way do they compare to the best teams in the AFC in the NFL.
When your punter is the highlight guy from a game, it means you usually lost. Luckily Mike Scifres, the Chargers punter, likely saved the day, because no one else played well enough to win the game, this Chargers hideous (13-6) triumph over the hapless Raiders.
There is something not right, right now, with this coaching staff. They had the mini-bye heading to Miami and got shutout. They had a full bye week to review what they are doing, how to attack the next team, and they scored 1-touchdown against the worst team in the NFL.
Scifres bailed the Bolts out time and time again, pinning the Raiders back deep into Mission Bay. Oakland had to start drives at their 2-4-6-7-12 and 12-yard lines during that game. Being a rookie quarterback is hard enough, and it was impossible for Derek Carr to get much done when he had the ball.
But San Diego was not much better. At one point, the Chargers had run 22-plays for 94-yards. The Raiders first 25-plays netted them 88-yards. It was a miserable first half, and it did not get much better. The two teams combined for (7-30) on third downs…and there were 18-punts.
And now Philip Rivers is officially hurting. You take the heavy hits he has taken in 10-games, and it catches up to you. Courage does not prevent injury. Poor play in front of your million dollar quarterback, leads to injuries.
A possible strained knee, when he was rolled up on by left tackle King Dunlap, whose pass protection is getting worse by the week. And then bruised ribs on a heavy hit, one of 9-big hits, he took in the game, along with 2-sacks.
The running game did not net much till late in the game, as Ryan Mathews showed glimpses, bursting to the finish line with 70-yards rushing. Rivers got banged around so much, there were few big plays, a trademark of this team early in the season. In fact, the team had just 2-plays of 20-yards or more. Remember when they would get 10-of them a game?
The defense continued to blitz, and until garbage time, never quite got there, recording just 1-sack and 2-hits on Carr, despite dialing up 15-blitzes. In the last 3-games, they have blitzed 51-times with 2-sacks.
The Raiders helped themselves to the loss with dropped passes, penalties, and an apparent mis-use of skill people. Not sure where WR-James Jones was most of the game, or why they kept running the ever disappointing lst round pick Darren McFadden much of the day.
There are problems everywhere right now, and the games on the schedule are being checked off.
The play-calling from Frank Reich is suspect; the pass protection is leaky every series; they desperately need the run game to get them over 100-a-game; and I don’t know what has happened to the theory, of no-huddle, dictating to the defense, with big plays.
Remember, this all started 5-games back, with what could have been a loss to Oakland up there, proceeding thru the 3-straight losses, and now this poor performance.
Yes I said the Rams were coming to town, and I indicated this might be a walkover. But not now, not when you consider Jeff Fisher has gotten his battered team cranked up enough to beat the Niners-Seahawks and yesterday’s brass-knuckles win over the Broncos.
Mike McCoy has had bye weeks twice now in a month, and we saw a blasting by Miami, and a substandard struggle against an awful Raiders team. It’s tough enough to know the season is fast coming to a close. McCoy and Reich are either tone deaf or too hard headed to change what needs to be changed before the schedule runs out..
It’s impossible to see how this team can beat the elite left on the schedule, with what we are seeing on the field.
An uninspiring game plan; an unimpressive outing; an uwatchable team, San Diego, not Oakland. This supposed playoff bound team has scored 1-TD in its last 8-quarters against bad teams.
If you’re optimistic, then you must not know football, or you must work for Team Spanos. Hard to believe this team looks more like somebody going home in January, rather than playing on in January.
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It was a very ugly game…However it is better to win that kind of game than lose it. Hopefully Rivers can get healed up for next week because the Rams have beaten some good teams of late.