Reasons for Guarded Optimism in San Diego

There’s a lot to come away with from this last Charger’s game, some good, some bad, and some floating around somewhere between.

That having been said, the bottom line most important thing is this: the Chargers beat their first significant team on the road yesterday. The Giants are in a bit of a slide and did some foot-shooting to help out. However, this is the first time San Diego really has something to hang their hat on.

They are now two games over .500 for the first time since 2007, and despite the Dolphins still holding a losing record, the Miami win looks a little better on paper now. To go with this, QB Phillip Rivers showed continued leadership skills and quality in directing a game winning touchdown drive with little time to work with after having been suffocated the entire second half.

Vincent Jackson also showed his quality, with a five catch two touchdown performance.  Yardage is great, but I like seeing some of these less flashy, more stable games where he doesn’t have a forty yard snag to inflate things. True fantasy owners may not care for the showings as much, but it bears witness to a rounded go-to-guy instead of a pure deep threat. Jackson looks more like a franchise guy every time I see him.

You can also take away from this game five more sacks on QB Eli Manning: with a team that had struggled to get pressure on the quarterback all last year and the first five games of this year—that is significant. This is a true pro-quarterback, and getting him to the ground is a better achievement then putting a slow-firing Jamarcus Russell in the dirt. To go with this, no runner went over 70 yards this game, something else to take away.

Now for the mixed bag look. I came away with more concerns then confidence following the Raider game. This one leaned closer to the favorable side; however you still have to look at a few major concerns:

Running the Football

LT was given a few well-earned cheers for his two TDs against Oakland. That having been said, he averaged 2.5 yards a carry when you took those two runs off his byline. This game, without a pair of significant runs to help his stats, he averaged 1.8 yards with the football. I don’t put all of the blame on him: the line has done a poor job run-blocking regardless of who’s in the backfield and this game it was a fairly significant D-line stacking up against him.

With that said, what worries me more are the few plays where he had space and couldn’t capitalize. One came off the left tackle where he made a cut and gained five yards. The cut was a bit slower and less crisp and there were enough defenders in the way that he never would have taken it for a monster gain; a quicker, sharper cut makes it an eight yarder.                                                                                         

The other, coming off the right tackle, showed a decent amount of space and he tripped himself up. The effort was there: he managed to stumble his way to six on the play.  But if he keeps his footing, it is 10-plus yards of space. I understand these types of things happen to all running backs, they don’t take every minor opportunity and convert to a double-digit run, yet these "could have gone for…" type moments present more often then "he went for…" nowadays by a significant margin. He can still put 70-80 yards a game behind good blocking, but everything I have seen this year tells me a return to form is unlikely. 

2. Getting to the Quarterback

This one is a mixed bag. I like that we put five sacks on the board. I like that Merriman’s sack total the last two games equates to about what I thought he’d end the whole season with. I also like what I see of Larry English when he is on the field.  He has yet to do much that will show up in a box score, but even without sacks he’s flushed passers and tipped balls. The athleticism is there and with some time to develop technique, he should be a solid guy (regardless of performance I have a hard time seeing Merriman re-signed.  Pass rushers are too in-demand and some team will overpay for him). 

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