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Jefferson and Maye coming up huge. Hortiz wasn’t kidding when he talked about upgrading the bottom of the roster.
Game balls to all of you here. Thanks for always making games better. Off to work now (grumble, grumble). Catch up with you this week.
Damn….wild ending to the Indy/NE game.
Late to the party. Had to watch the second half delayed. I can’t believe they won that game. Just an incredible defensive performance down the stretch. Love how they closed that out when the offense is in complete disarray.
Take out the garbage TD at the end of the Ravens game that is one TD on 7 quarters. No one but McConkey who is playing hurt can get open. They need to try something different. I was not down on QJ after the Ravens game. He has improved from last year and anyone can have a bad game but man when you look over the past three games he has been terrible. They need to sit him for awhile and let him get his head back. There is no confidence there and he is hurting the team with his inability to make a play. Reagor who I liked early just adds nothing to the offense. And Palmer is just a guy who can’t beat single coverage. Herbert had time today over and over again. Half those sacks on him if not more were coverage sacks. I am not sure why Roman is not trying to run more after first down. They have just become predictable and totally ineffective. They are not beating the Chiefs or Broncos with this offense.
There’s a guy with legit speed who should get more touches. His initials are DD. Maybe he won’t light the stat sheets on fire but right now defenses aren’t showing much if any respect for deep balls. Past time to spread them out with at least the threat. An occasional jet sweep isn’t doing that.
@buck-melanoma He is only a deep threat if he can ever catch a deep pass. To your point, he needs to be targeted to catch one.
A relevant question is, can he get open deep? I don’t know the answer, but we do know he has not been targeted deep.
They have certainly set him up to fake something short and try to go deep, given his average ADOT on the season of 1.1.
As you said, won’t know for certain until it’s attempted. And there should be other ways to get the ball into his hands and utilize that speed. Same for QJ, though I recognize he’s earned his way onto most everyone’s shit list now, including mine.
I was at the game – QJ did not look like he belonged on the field. He was missing blocks (one of which led to a screen being blown up behind the LOS – it was one of the worst efforts at blocking I’ve seen).
Can’t catch, can’t run routes, can’t block. The dude can’t play WR right now.
He looked lacking in confidence on the TV. I really think they should sit him for a game and let him get a chance to get it together. I am not sure continuing to play him is helping. May be making it worse. I know it is a different position but sitting Bryce Young for a bit after he looked totally lost when the Chargers played them has done wonders for his confidence.
Without seeing the snap count, I did notice that Davis was in on far more snaps than I expected. It looked like they were setting something up with him. I actually saw him run routs (looked like he was just running a go).
But agree that the Chargers need to figure out how to get the ball into their playmakers hands in space. Good coaching would figure that out.
Screen passes and short crossers to him ought to work. I agree. Even if he is not a good deep ball option.
A good OC can use scheme to get guys open. Not every play requires a sick route or incredible speed to get open. Go watch a KC, Rams or Vikings game. There are plays where there is nobody within 5 yards of the receiver. Have we seen that once this year except on a busted coverage? The 2nd half offense has been hot garbage all season. You are playing a mediocre team with a bad defense and you can’t score an offensive TD with Herbert? Fine, you say that Roman’s strength is the rushing attack. Where is it? This is the offense they planned on executing with these players. Edwards was initially signed to be the starter until they took a flyer on Dobbins late in FA, and this is the starting OL they envisioned also, so you cannot say this offense is being executed differently due to injuries. It’s shit. I know Harbaugh believes skill positions are secondary building blocks, but it’s criminal to give Herbert this chicken shit and ask for chicken salad every week. The 5 sacks given up weren’t guys just getting whipped off the snap. Herbert was dropping back and looking to throw, but nobody was open. Why does an offense with “limited” weapons continue to refuse to use any sort of screen game? Isn’t the athleticism of Alt and Slater supposed to be a strength? If this team replaced Lombardi with a better overall offense, there’s no reason we have to watch Roman again next year. There’s a reason he was in the street looking for work. If the Ravens fire your ass, and your replacement has them on a historic offensive pace with pretty much the same players, that’s all you need to know.
I agree with this. My only additional comment is that the defensive coaches are making chicken salad out of the chicken shit roster they were handed. They’re taking late round draft picks and waiver wire signings and turning them into a top-5 NFL defense.
The offensive staff is taking one of the best QB talents, two all-pro level tackles and a WR group that includes 2 1st round picks (Reagor, QJ), 2 2nd round picks (Chark, McConkey), a formerly reliable 3rd round pick (Palmer) and an all-pro returner and turning them into one of the least productive WR groups in the NFL. That is shite coaching.
Let’s be real. QJ and Reagor are busts as first round picks. Chark hasn’t seen the field and Palmer is just ok. The IOL is makeshift with a cellar dweller Panthers castoff center and a mediocre to bad tackle converted to a position he’s never played in his life and it shows. The coaching can be better but let’s not pretend this offense is talent-wise what it was with Allen and a healthy Williams. These are the struggles of a rebuild where you have an entirely different philosophy offensively than your predecessors and cannot convert the talent to meet the system in one offseason. This is going to take time. They still need the following to truly run this offense: RG, C, WR1, TE1 and TE2, and one young dynamic RB who is not injury prone. One to two more years and this team will hum offensively. We want to win now. Harbaugh and co. are building for a sustained Super Bowl run over the next few years.
To compare the O to the D is unfair in part because O is harder to fix and also because what Minter is doing may be unprecedented in NFL history when considering the talent level and injuries he has had to overcome. I am not sure it is unprecedented but I can safely say I have never seen it done before from essentially worst to first in one season. Incredible!
Lots of good points here. It is interesting to see the flip from running too much in the second half to not enough. There was one sequence in the second half where Gus ran for 9 or 10 yards and then tapped out. I don’t think he got another rushing attempt the rest of the second half. Something fishy there or he is playing hurt. Not sure why they stopped running in the second half as both Gus and Vidal has some decent runs. Once they become one dimensional they become easy to shut down.
I do think the O played well for the few games leading up to and thru the first half of the Bengals game. The stagnation coincides with QJ losing confidence and dropping balls and a bit later the loss of JK. I also think the second half shift by the Bengals to more man coverage exposed a glaring weakness on the team and both the Ravens and Falcons copied what work. And yes Roman needs to counter it.
I think they need to commit to the run earlier and stick with it as long as the game is close, especially in the second half. The 3 passes in a row with this WR talent is a losing strategy.
I remember the first half of the Chiefs game the Chargers O showed some creativity. I expect it again this coming Sunday night at least to start the game. Let’s see if they can sustain it for four quarters. There is always a first time 🙂 I am going to that game. Would be great to see them finally beat the Chiefs in person. 🤞
This wasn’t complementary ball. This was the defense with an assist from ST (I’m not putting that bone headed fake punt call on them). The offense, quite frankly, sucked except for McConkey.
I was at the game (with my friends sideline box seats). Sat 10-15 feet behind the Chargers bench. A few observations:
Defense:
- This defensive staff was doing amazing in-game coaching. Position groups huddled around position coaches. Looking at tablets. Every player within that group was in the discussion. Everyone’s head was in the game. What this team is getting out of late picks and FAs picked off the waiver wire is amazing
- Derwin was fired up and talking to the team all game. True leader
- Bosa/Mack were clearly leading the DL. FWIW, it looked like Bosa was limping a bit when he was walking around.
- I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much joy as the sideline scene after Still’s pick-six. Henley was rubbing Tarhib’s head for luck.
- This was clearly a game won by the defense
Offense:
- The Chargers are getting Greg Roman’s shit passing game without the vaunted Greg Roman running game. It’s literally the worst of both worlds
- I heard a few complaints about Herbert not running. The Falcons were trying to contain him. He clearly was trying to take off a few times (when nobody came open), but was squeezed in the the DL
- QJ is just a mess right now. He bobbled an easy catch as he was going out of bounds, turning a nice gain into an incompletion. He missed a block on a screen that ended up getting blown up by his guy behind the LOS (he’s lucky that didn’t turn into a pick 6. The dude needs to sit or be given gimmick plays (like Davis). QJ cannot play WR in the NFL right now.
- Chark was in on a handful of plays early, then out of the game. No idea why
- McConkey was in/out of the blue tent at least once that I saw. Dude was playing hurt. Sucks that he’s the only WR they can figure out how to get the ball to
- One point I found interesting: Most of the OL got together before the game, knelt in front of the bench and prayed.
I’ve been willing to give Greg Roman the benefit of the doubt. We can make personnel excuses and there actually may be some merit to that argument. However, the defense is playing at a championship level with arguably a worse roster. There is no reason why an offense with a top-5 QB should be this bad. The coaching sucks and it needs to be fixed.
This is fantastic insight dude thank you for taking the time to share it with the community! i’m curious who was complaining about Herbert not running? Was it the players?
There was plenty of that talk at BT when I lurked the GDT post game. Typical of that site.
I thought Herbert looked a bit shaky but no one but McConkey was open. Combine that with inside pressure and containment? Hard to get much going.
I’ve been pretty rough on Roman and see no reason to back off. He’s not adjusting to the roster he has.
Yeah, the Herbert not running takes were irksome because the Falcons clearly were doing a good job of not letting him get outside the Tackles to setup those deep throws or scrambles.
Those complaints then turn into Herbert had a terrible game, ignorant of everything else and unable to focus on the win or the defensive play.
@duck07 it’s the same mouthy know nothings too….one in particular with the “Herbert had a trash game” BS.
I hope this community grows but not at that expense.
Ryan- I heard this on a couple post-game podcasts. To me, it looked like he was trying to run, but the Falcons DL did a good job of compressing the pocket. The word is out now on how to stop the Charger offense. Bracket Lad, contain Herbert in the pocket. Let’s see of Roman has a counter.
For a guy that is no nonsense about things, you would think Harbaugh would be up Roman’s ass for this offensive performance, especially in the second halves. If he is, and this is what we are getting, he can’t be long for this role. If the excuse is, he doesn’t have the personnel, bullshit. They believed this was enough during the draft and FA period You coach and design the offense with what you have. Get QJ some mesh routes and screens, get Davis on a gadget play deep, use Vidal in the passing game. You just can’t sit there and throw your hands up because you don’t have Chase and Jefferson on the team. And where is this vaunted rushing attack? You can’t pin the lack of it on the interior OL or the RB room. This was the OL and RB’s they envisioned in the offseason and they are all healthy except for Dobbins, but it wasn’t much better with him in there. This offense is a rudderless ship. There is literally nothing it does well except give up sacks.
Bingo. No identity, no productive adjustments, no scheming to highlight what you have.
I agree with you about the scheme but I suggest a little realism on the roster. They went into the season that way because they could only clean up some of the mess in one offseason with the disastrous roster and over the cap salaries they inherited. Hard choices had to be made. They are building something but it takes time. This is not a Super Bowl team. I don’t think they moved prior to the trade deadline because they know that and did not want to overpay. They have a plan. It may frustrate us because the D is playing so well it feels like a wasted opportunity but I don’t think it is. They will make the playoffs, could win a playoff game depending on health and opponent. That would be a huge win given where they started 9 months ago.
Finally, Derwin exploded in a game in a way that leaped off the screen:
https://twitter.com/TDU_Chargers/status/1863689669248159769
More like it please, DJ!
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