San Diego Chargers: Are the Bolts Finally Starting To Show Their Potential?
Back in San Diego, the Chargers took advantage of a bad team and even got to sit their starting quarterback, Philip Rivers, before this 41-10 beat down was over.
Rivers had a solid day as did tight end Antonio Gates who the Cardinals' apparently had never heard of, or maybe they didn't know what number he was, because Gates ran wide open most of the day, finishing with seven catches for 144 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Also getting on the board for his first career NFL touchdown was rookie running back Ryan Mathews who returned to the field from a sprained ankle that kept him out of last week's game against Seattle.
The Chargers eased Mathews back into the fold, still finishing with 55 yards on nine carries and a touchdown. But he was overshadowed by a solid day from Mike Tolbert who had 100 rushing yards exactly on 16 carries and a touchdown of his own.
While you can say Gates had the biggest game, I would argue that the game ball would go to linebacker Shaun Phillips who not only had an interception return for a touchdown, but he had four sacks on the game as well.
Are the Chargers starting to show their potential, or are they just a fair weather team? That's yet to be seen, but here are a few observations and thoughts on their offense going forward.
Philip Rivers
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After throwing for 455 yards last week against Seattle, Philip Rivers learned that he didn't have to do it all himself.
He settled into Sunday's game early and looked comfortable in the pocket and throwing the ball, finishing with 241 yards and two touchdowns against the Cardinals.
Looking at his numbers, I saw something that stood out to me between their two wins at home and their two losses on the road.
In losses to Kansas City and Seattle, Rivers was averaging 46 pass attempts. He had 39 against the Chiefs and 53 against Seattle, completing an average of 25.5 of those 46 attempts.
In the two wins against Jacksonville and Arizona, Rivers averaged 24.5 pass attempts, completing an average of 18.5 of those 24.5 attempts.
Is it just being comfortable back home and allowing the game come to him instead of forcing things on the road, or is it a matter of trusting his running backs?
Whatever it is, he attempts 21.5 fewer passes at home than he does on the road.
Antonio Gates
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Antonio Gates is well on his way to shattering career highs in just about every receiving category.
Let's take his best season to date which came back in 2005-06. Gates finished with 89 catches for 1,101 yards, 10 touchdowns, and averaged 73.4 yards per game. While it wasn't his highest touchdown total (13), it was his first 1,000 yard season.
This season, through four games, Gates has 24 catches, 386 yards, six touchdowns, and is averaging 96.5 yards per game.
While he may not be able to keep up that pace throughout the season, I expect his career high in touchdown catches to be shattered before he hits the 12th game of the season.
Mike Tolbert
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With the ankle injury to rookie running back Ryan Mathews, Mike Tolbert has come in and been an above average replacement.
Tolbert turned in his best performance this season with 100 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown, averaging 6.3 yards per carry.
While San Diego is slowly bringing Mathews back into the fold, Tolbert will get his share of carries. He needs to be that kind of a factor if only to take the pressure off of Philip Rivers as well as Mathews.
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Ryan Mathews
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Through Ryan Mathews' first two games, I saw a lot of tweets from Charger fans bashing him for not being able to hold on to the ball. Even one who said he wasn't physically or mentally ready for the NFL.
As ludicrous as that sounds, I laughed most of them off.
Then, yesterday, running back Darren Sproles fumbles for the second time in two games and I don't see those same people bashing Sproles. Ok, I can handle double standards.
I don't think I've seen this much criticism of a player, through only his second full game on the field, in a long time.
Ryan is going to be just fine and showed flashes of his capability against Arizona on Sunday, ripping off a 20 yard run at one point and finishing the day averaging 6.1 yards per carry.
If he can do that on nine carries yesterday, what kind of numbers do you think he can put up carrying the ball 20 or more times?
A Little Home Cooking
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The San Diego Chargers seem to like their home cooking, but apparently don't like being a visitor in someone else's home.
On the road, the Chargers are averaging 17 points per game but they're averaging over 450 yards (453.5) per game. But they've turned the ball over six times including five against Seattle.
At Qualcomm Stadium, where the Chargers call home, the team is averaging 39.5 points and 448 yards per game.
So while the yards per game difference isn't anything at all, the points per game is a vast difference between being on the road and being at home.
This trend can't continue especially playing on the road against the likes of Indianapolis and Denver among others.
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