Chargers Dose of Reality
They deserved to win it, they were lucky they did not lose it, and it only counts as one game, though it might be a statement game of sorts.
The Kansas City Chiefs came into San Diego and beat up the Chargers in their Power Blues (23-20), in a game in which they dominated, nearly gave away, and yet managed to win.
If you don’t have the ball it’s tough to win. If you don’t stop the other guy with the ball, you won’t win. And so Mike McCoy’s team got knocked out of first place in the AFC-West, and got knocked around badly in the process.
Pick any stat you want, aside from the final score, and you know this was a real beating. The Chiefs had the ball for 39-minutes to 21 for the home team. Kansas City muscled its way all day, running off 70-plays to San Diego’s 49. The total offense was (365-251) for the guys wearing red.
It could have been alot worse, and actually was. But the Chiefs made a ton of mistakes. A wide receiver streaking down the sideline with a TD catch, steps out of bounds with no one around him. Wide open receivers drop balls deep in San Diego territory on passes that could have gone all the way. A holding call wiped out a big first down pass in San Diego territory. Two quarterback sacks around the 10-yard line ended another TD drive.
For the Chargers, all the fears I had, were realized.
They were no longer playing the weak links in the league. The Bolts last three wins had comes against teams with a combined (1-16) record.
Now they played a Chiefs team and got taken to the woodshed, pounded, pushed around and dominated. KC rammed their way to (154Y) on the ground; QB-Alex Smith moved the pocket, and ran the ball. Their no name tight ends caught passes too. When it was done, the Chiefs has 12-rushes of 7-yards or more…and 10 passes of 10-yards or more on the afternoon. They gashed and dashed, never gave up the ball..
Outside of 5-big yardage plays over three hours, there was no offense to help Philip Rivers. The running game was turned off till the end. Outside of two big catches from Malcom Floyd, one by Eddie Royal, and two by Antonio Gates, there was no rhythm to the offense.
And people had bad days. Cornerback Richard Marshall gave up 5-completions and took a bad holding call. King Dunlap got beat 3-times and gave up a sack. DJ Fluker was run off and gave up another sack.
The defense got dinged up, the latest being an ugly concussion to CB-Brandon Flowers on an end zone collision with Jamal Charles, who was running over people and thru people all day.
A steamed Mike McCoy gave shorter and shorter answers to the media after the game, upset at the tone of questions, upset at his teams inability to tough it out, and likely knowing it does not get any easier, with a short work week and Peyton Manning and the Broncos just ahead.
It’s only one loss, and the record is (5-2), but they got hammered, and those are leaks in the defensive dike that might get bigger before they get better.
The Chiefs are believers. They did whip New England, they lost by 5-and-7 to the 49ers and Broncos, and now they dropped the hammer on San Diego in theri own statdium..
Kansas City looks like they are for real. The Chargers look like they are in trouble. It only counted as one game in the standings, but it sure seems to have a real message attached to it. A statement win for the Chiefs. A punch in the mouth loss for San Diego.
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