Christmas came early for Bronco fans and the Broncos with San Diego refusing to play with a killer instinct against the Falcons and Denver shredding the Jets in New Jersey.
Not even Ed Hochuli could have gift wrapped the AFC West better than the San Diego Chargers have. Despite some rather questionable calls that have gone against the Chargers this year, the greatest hurdles they could not over come were themselves and Norv Turner's offense.
Norv Turner's refusal to change an offensive scheme that isn't working and isn't fooling anyone contributed to an amazingly poor performance on Sunday. If not for some timely turnovers by the Falcons, the score probably would have been 3-22 instead of 16-22.
Eric Weddle continues to get burned and continues to play out of position time and time again. The only thing he did right was return a fumble 83 yards for a touchdown.
Jacob Hester looked more like a first year Pop Warner player than a NFL rookie, by continuing to block the wrong player over and over again on run plays. He would run practically in the wrong direction than where the play was going, leaving Tomlinson open to getting tackled in the backfield.
The offensive also gave up ANOTHER safety. Here's a hint Norv and the boys, if you are already having a hard time run blocking and you are on your one-yard line, don't run the ball. Try taking a play out of the Miami playbook back when Marino was the quarterback: quick three-step drops and fire.
I digress though. First play from scrimmage for the Chargers...anyone? Bueler? Yup, run play to the left to Tomlinson for no gain. In case you might think that Norv Turner was fooling anyone, the Falcons had eight men in the box waiting for L.T. Does Turner not let Rivers call audibles?
In the same opening series, the Chargers had 1st-and-10 at the Falcons' 41 with the Falcons on man to man. L.T. was the only one in the backfield and the Chargers had three wideouts. As soon as the ball was pitched back to L.T., the Falcons already had two defensive linemen in the back field pursuing L.T.
As L.T. is running to the left side, he has six Falcon defenders within three yards, forcing him out of bounds for a gain of one yard. Granted, it didn't help that Jackson and Manumaleuna both missed their blocks.
On the next play, Gates lets a pass slip through his hands that would have been close to first down. They came up short on 3rd-and-9 and then go for it on 4th-and-3, where Rivers' pass is knocked down, turning the ball over to Atlanta.
I can't blame Turner for dropped passes; Gates should have caught that ball on second down. However, there were times where Atlanta showed a defense that the Chargers and their tall receivers could have taken advantage of with a timely audible.
Fast-forward to the end of the second quarter, the Falcons have 1st-and-oal at the San Diego two-yard line with Atlanta up 15-7, the Chargers pull off another great goal-line stand after the Falcons go for it on fourth down.
The Chargers got the ball back with 58 seconds and two timeouts left, and they have to kick it off to Atlanta to start the second half, instead of trying to, at the very least, get into field-goal range, let the clock run out by running to run plays.
1 comments Last one added 7 months ago — Leave a Comment
Eric Gomez 7 months ago
Sitting at home with my dad this long weekend proved fruitful as we both unloaded our respective gripes about the Chargers and their play this season. During that dreadful second quarter, when Atlanta was moving the ball for what would eventually be a goal line stand for the San Diego defense, FOX decided to show a few close-ups of the players faces during that drive.
My dad said it before I could: "See? They all have a look on their face like they've just quit on this season"
And the coach. It's time to go in a different direction.
Edit Comment Cancel
Leave a Comment
You must register to post a comment.