Philip Rivers and Keenan Allen Must Get on Same Page for Playoff Push

Wide receiver Keenan Allen was a rookie sensation in 2013 for the San Diego Chargers when he caught 71 balls for 1,046 yards and eight touchdowns in 15 games. His sophomore year hasn’t been bad by any stretch, but he has struggled to get on the same page with quarterback Philip Rivers far too often for a No. 1 receiver.

Allen is on pace for fewer yards and touchdowns than last season despite the fact that he has become Rivers’ favorite target with 35 more looks than tight end Antonio Gates.  Five of Rivers’ nine interceptions have been in Allen’s direction. Until last week, he also hadn’t done much after the catch.

If the Chargers are going to make a playoff push over the final five weeks, the River-to-Allen connection needs to perform as if hardwired. Hiccups, drops and interceptions could be devastating, and the slightest disruption could spell doom for the Chargers season.

Five for Fighting

Of their final five games, three are on the road, and all of them are against teams with a winning record fighting for a playoff spot. The combined record of San Diego’s final five opponents is 38-17—ouch.

Team	Record	RUN D RANK (YPC)	Pass D Rank (ANY/A)
@BAL	7-4	6	19T
NE	9-2	16	10
DEN	8-3	3	6
@SF	7-4	13	1T
@KC	7-4	32	12

To put that in perspective, the Chargers haven’t defeated a team with a winning record since Week 3, a 22-10 win over the now 6-5 Buffalo Bills prior to their switch from EJ Manuel to Kyle Orton at quarterback. The Chargers defeated the Seattle Seahawks at home in Week 2 but have otherwise been unable to replicate that type of performance.

Since Week 6, the Chargers have three wins, with two over the 1-10 Oakland Raiders by a grand total of 10 points and a three-point home win over the 4-7 St. Louis Rams. They also have three losses, all to teams with winning records, and the only game that was close was played in San Diego.

Obviously, the Chargers have their work cut out for them. If they want to be a contender, they must play better than they have recently, particularly on offense. The soft part of their schedule is done, and it’s going to be a grind from here on out.

Passing Prerogative

The good news is the Chargers are getting healthy, and a healthy Ryan Mathews could do wonders for an offense that hasn’t had a competent running game week-to-week. The run defenses of their final five opponents are more vulnerable than the corresponding pass defenses.

With the relative strength of their opponents' pass defenses, it’s not going to be easy for Rivers and Allen to connect even when they do everything right. The Rivers-to-Allen connection must make up for some of the offense's other shortcomings, especially if the running game doesn’t get on track as expected.

Every yard through the air is going to be a struggle from here on out.

Last week, the Rams intercepted a Rivers’ pass intended for Allen and returned it 99 yards for a touchdown. Rivers made a poor decision to throw into tight coverage, and Allen slipped and failed to come back to the ball. It took mistakes by both of them to produce such a negative result.

Perhaps that play was a turning point for Rivers and Allen. They connected six times for 104 yards and what turned out to be a winning touchdown against the Rams, but it could be that the final stat line just masked a much bigger problem.

“After the touchdown I gave him a high five and told him I was still mad at him,” Rivers joked after the game via Jim Alexander of the Los Angeles Register. “We laughed about it.”

Immediately after a win, the two can laugh about it. During the rest week, the two need to make sure they figure out the problems so they don’t happen again.

“’We’re coming back to you at some point in time’,” McCoy said he told Allen on the sideline Sunday via Chargers.com. “That’s exactly what we did, and he got in the end zone for us.”

The Chargers have to hope that Allen and Rivers can build on their performance after the pick-six. Last week’s game was probably both Allen’s worst and best game of the season all wrapped into one.

It should come as no surprise that the passing offense is living and dying by Allen’s production since he’s the most targeted receiver in the offense, but that’s been particularly the case since Week 7. Defenses that can disrupt Rivers and force him to go elsewhere with the ball have a very good chance to be successful against the Chargers.

Addicted to Allen

When the Chargers were doing their best, Allen was generally a smaller part of the offense. When the Chargers went 5-1 to start the season, Allen averaged seven targets per games. Since then, he’s averaging 9.6 targets per game.

Data via Pro-Football-Reference & Pro Football Focus

The difference may be explained by the assumption that more pass attempts for Allen came in losses because the Chargers were playing from behind. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here.

In five of the Chargers' seven wins, Rivers targeted Allen on 25 percent or fewer of his passes, including last week’s performance in St. Louis. It was only over 25 percent in a win against the Raiders two weeks ago and the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 4—teams with a combined record of 2-20.

Data via Pro-Football-Reference & Pro Football Focus

It would be reasonable to assume that Allen was getting more targets as a reaction to having a poor running game without Mathews; it just didn’t manifest itself against teams like the Jaguars, Raiders and New York Jets. With Mathews back in the fold, Allen is slowly starting to look like the 2013 version.

It makes sense because Allen is actually a smaller part of the passing offense than he was last year when Rivers targeted him 37.5 percent of the time compared to just 24.8 percent this season. If Rivers and Allen can stay on the same page and the running game returns, expect Allen’s targets to go down but his share of Rivers’ targets and his production to go up.

Unless otherwise noted, all statistics via Pro-Football-Reference or Pro Football Focus (subscription required).