Good afternoon StromCloud!
Lucky for us, Justin Herbert and the Chargers have a chance to rest up and get healthy this week. While it would be nice to have a bye closing to the middle of the season, the current state of the Chargers makes the early bye a blessing, as it gets premiere bookends Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt one week closer to recovering from their injuries, and additional time for Justin to get his ankle right.
It’s not all rest, though… Jim Harbaugh made a point to call this week “Opportunity Week” instead of the “Bye Week,” and had his players in for a Wednesday practice last week before releasing them for a long weekend off.
With that, we don’t have as much to cover today for the Chargers, but we wanted to get an open thread up for you all to chat about this Sundays games. Have a great bye week, everyone!
Glass half full perspective:
2-2 record:
2-0 start, including a win over the Raiders
Loss #1 was to the Steelers on the road. The team was tied 10-10 in the 3rd quarter when Herbert got hurt and left the game. That was against a great defense.
Loss #2 was to the Chiefs at home, in a one score loss, 10-17. The game was close enough that had the refs spotted the ball correctly on the Palmer play or had Harbaugh successfully challenged that, they easily could have won. And that was with 4 1st round draft pick starters missing the game (Slater, Alt, Bosa, James) and Herbert at less than 100%.
KC and PIT are both very likely playoff teams. The fact that the Chargers hung close with both at less than 100% in games 3 and 4 of the Harbaugh era suggests they can play any team close.
The bye comes at a great time with regard to getting some of the injured players healthier and also enabling the coaching staff to make some adjustments based on what worked and what didn’t work so far.
I have to believe the passing game will improve going forward.
Harbaugh admitted he needs to be better at game management, so hopefully that will improve.
Personnel:
Johnston looks better and worthy of being a top 2-3 WR.
Rookies Alt and McConkey have looked great.
Defensive acquisitions Fulton, Ford, Tart, and Molden have played great and been difference makers.
The Chargers defense has been outstanding:
#1 in points allowed per game
#5 in yards allowed per game
#2 in first downs allowed per game
Tied for #4 (4th fewest) defensive penalties per game
#2 in percentage of opponent drives ending in an offensive score
#7 in percentage of opponent drives ending in a turnover
#2 in percentage of opponent drives that reach the red zone ending in an offensive TD
No doubt this is skewed a bit by Carolina being one of the 4 games in this sample, but this has been very impressive, especially in the first 4 games under this coaching staff, and a lot of new players in the defensive rotations.
Issues — things I don’t understand:
What happened to McFadden? The coaching staff went with Mustipher instead against KC, and he was terrible… he has the 3rd lowest PFF grade on the offense (37.1) and 2nd worst PFF pass blocking grade (21.5). McFadden really isn’t better than that? Was Leatherwood really worse than this?
Why are they continuing to use Matlock at FB? He has an even lower PFF offense grade than Mustipher (35.2). He is terrible in this role. Why not just sign a traditional FB? Roman has been an OC for 10 seasons prior to 2024, and in 9 of those seasons, he had a FB with 400+ snaps. Matlock is on pace for ~350. Surely this can’t continue.
Hopefully there is no next time with both tackles out but if there is I am confident the coaching staff as it learns the players better will select the best combination to handle the strength of the opposing team’s defense.
As for Matlock, I have no problem with the experiment but he needs to show improvement as time goes on and I don’t think any of us are seeing it. How long does the coaching staff give him before they find another solution? What do you think of Gus being the fullback until an actual fullback can be acquired?
https://www.si.com/nfl/chargers/chargers-learn-raiders-broncos-week-5
And fuck the Broncos.
Get healthy, Chargers!