Revamped Chargers Defense Vital to Success vs. Improved Seahawks Offense

The San Diego Chargers had a terrible defense in 2013. The lack of talent was an obvious problem from the start, and the team admitted as much by retaining defensive coordinator John Pagano and focusing their entire offseason on revamping the personnel on the defensive side of the ball.

In an 18-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals Monday night, the defense played well for three quarters but collapsed in the fourth quarter. If the Chargers are going to beat the Seattle Seahawks, their revamped defense playing four good quarters of football will be critical.

Quarterback Philip Rivers and the offense put the defense on their backs to get to the playoffs last season, but they won’t be able to do that this year. The Chargers simply face too many good defenses to execute the game plans they did in 2013. Week 1 was a great example of how the offense may struggle in 2014.

The defense will have to pick up some of the slack for the offense, especially against the team they face in Week 2. The Seahawks are vulnerable on the road, but knowing where they are vulnerable and how to exploit their weaknesses is the key.

Last season, Seattle’s defense was in some way more vulnerable on the road than the offense, but that isn’t clear simply by looking at points allowed. The Seahawks scored 6.1 fewer points per game and allowed 1.4 more points per game on the road last season, which suggests the offense struggled more on the road.

That’s good news for San Diego’s defense, but the rest of the numbers from last year tell us a little different story. The Seahawks offense may have scored fewer points, but they were just 3.3 percent less productive in terms of yardage on the road. Seattle actually had one fewer turnover on the road than it did at home.

Split	PTS/GM	YDS/GM	1st Downs/GM	Turnovers
Split	PTS Allowed/GM	YDS Allowed/GM	1st Downs Allowed/GM	Turnovers
Home	29.125	350.1	20.8	9
Week 1 vs. GB at Home	36	398	25	1
Road	23.0	327.9	17.6	10
Home	13.8	254.3	15.5	21
Week 1 vs. GB at Home	16	255	19	1
Road	15.1	293.0	19.8	18

In terms of points scored, first downs, total yards and turnovers, Seattle offense was only about 4.5 percent worse on the road than at home. In those same categories on defense, the Seahawks were 7.9 percent worse. The offensive categories had greater variance than the defensive categories—an easy way to gauge consistency.

What this means for the Chargers Sunday is that they should expect a tough defense, but it should be an incrementally weaker one than if they were playing them in Seattle. The offense should be able to get something going, but the defense needs to do its share. If the offense is able to get a couple scores against the Seahawks defense, the pressure will be on the Chargers defense to keep the Seahawks offense out of the end zone.

Pagano’s primary concern should be wide receiver Percy Harvin. NFL National Lead Writer Matt Bowen called Harvin a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses based upon his film study from Week 1.

The Seahawks showed many things on film that will make it hard on San Diego’s defense on Sunday. The Chargers simultaneously have to slow down the inside zone runs of running back Marshawn Lynch, the jet sweeps from Harvin and the potential on any of those plays for quarterback Russell Wilson to pull it down and run or throw a pop pass to one of his other receivers.

That’s just in the running game, but the Seahawks are a running team. 

The key defenders for the Chargers are the edge defenders. Linebackers Melvin Ingram, Dwight Freeney and Jarret Johnson as well as defensive ends Corey Liuget and Kendall Reyes will all have to play disciplined football to slow the Seahawks down.

Expect the Seahawks to attack Reyes when they have the opportunity. Last week, Pro Football Focus (subscription required) gave Reyes a run defense grade of negative-2.2. In 2013, they graded him 44th out of 45 3-4 defensive ends against the run.

It’s not hard to see why. What ended up being a big play for the Chargers on Monday night started with poor run defense by Reyes and Johnson.

Chargers Run Defense

Tight end Troy Niklas turned Reyes inside easily and tight end John Carlson just as easily kicked out Johnson. Running back Andre Ellington used his speed to get to the edge and through a huge hole. The Chargers were lucky to be able to force and recover a fumble at the end of this play.

Ellington is fast, but he was playing at something less than 100 percent. Harvin won’t be nearly as forgiving, so the Chargers must set the edge to bottle up the outside running lanes. If they can do that, then they only have to worry about Lynch running over them.

The Chargers struggled against teams that deployed the zone-blocking scheme last season. The Houston Texans had 120 yards rushing in Week 1, Washington had 209 yards rushing in Week 9 and the Denver Broncos ran all over the Chargers in the divisional playoff game last January. There were better games, but the front seven will have to do a better job at the point of attack than they did last week. 

In the passing game, the Chargers need to build off what they were able to do against the immobile, but strong-armed Carson Palmer. Liuget and rookie outsider linebacker Jerry Attaochu each had a sack, and Freeney had a handful of hurries.

Wilson will be tougher because he can evade the rush. Wilson will force the Chargers secondary to cover longer than they did against the Cardinals. Last season, Wilson took the longest of any quarterback that played at least half the time to throw the ball at 3.18 seconds, according to Pro Football Focus. Palmer finished 23rd at 2.47 seconds, but took 2.82 seconds Monday against the Chargers.

The relatively good showing by the secondary last week could prove to be an aberration, but there is reason for optimism. Rookie Jason Verrett played well in his rookie debut and would start if Brandon Flowers missed the game due to a groin injury that popped up this week.

The Chargers have a challenge ahead, but if they can build upon what they did against the Cardinals at home against the Seahawks defensively, they may have a realistic shot of beating the defending champions.