Crazy three weeks for us, but it had a depressing ending. According to five thirty eight we have a mediocre 30.8% chance at the playoffs, likely because of our insane remaining schedule. As of last week, our last opponents had the highest average winning percentage. Course as I've said time and time again, the better the team we play, the better we play. Only wish that was enough to beat the Pats. 

We started off with a game against the suddenly dangerous Rams. Soooomehow, their defense which managed to get zero sacks in the first five weeks (a NFL record) turned into 2000 Ravens reincarnate and held the Broncos to 7 points while Manning threw 50+ passes. Fortunately for us, they didn't quite have that godly form, but they still manage to turn Keenan Allen into Ryan Mathews rookie edition. I felt insanely vulnerable despite a 27-17 lead, under five minutes remaining, and a incomprehensible lack of hurry up. I would soon be proven right. An inexplicable pass play on 3rd and short meant not only a loss of five, but a stopped clock. Shaun freaking Hill managed to get to our six, but then he remembered he was still Shaun Hill and let Marcus Gilchrist pick him off ahaha. 

Next came the almighty Ravens, holders of the horror-inducing 4th and 29 and 4th and 2 plays to beat us. Checking in the game in early in the first quarter had us down 0-10 and me having flashbacks to the Miami game. Fortunately, the Ravens secondary is literally swiss cheese and a 30-20 lead wasn't enough to save them from another clutch clutch clutch Rivers game winning drive (yes Ravens fans holding a receiver's shoulder is still DPI). That 34-33 win had me happier than I've been about a Chargers game in a looooong while.

Sunday Night Football for the Pats game. The atmosphere was plenty enough to get me hyped and the Chargers out to a 14-3 lead, but not enough for the offense to figure out how to score past one Malcom Floyd catch. Letting Edelman go for 69 yards was the nail in coffin, although I'm pretty sure we would've lost 16-14 considering the rate our offense was performing at. Each week one unit's gotta let us down, I just never expected it to be the Rivers led side of the ball.

We're still in the pole position for the sixth seed, but we don't play the marshmallow schedule that some wildcard contenders have (cough cough Ravens). I feel we need to win out to get in, but I feel really bad abut the last two (I believe in our ability to not get swept by the Broncos). 

 Bye week means Chargerless week means depressing week. Fortunately, that was followed by a win over the raiders. Unfortunately, it was one of the ugliest games I've ever seen.
David Carr started with a blown snap to give Philip Rivers a free 22 yard touchdown pass on the third of the game. Then came the defensive "struggle" (aka the Phil Rivers forgot how to coordinate any routes and the Raiders offense is garbage). We were trying to ease Ryan Mathews in after yet another crack in his glass body and wouldn't give him any carries. This meant we couldn't move the ball worth shit. Our drives started "15 yard gain to Gates, then do nothing for the next three plays and punt". Annnnd that let Mike Scifres do his work. Nine punts, FIVE inside the 20, and THREE INSIDE THE FIVE. He had this absolute freaking miracle bounce out at the two and that helped our defense look reasonable after that unspeakable 0-37. *Shivers. On a depressing note, Nick Novak's automatic streak ended before the half on a 48-yard attempt. 32 straight makes, franchise record, all over. Even weirder, he goes and makes a 52-yarder later in the game. Maybe we're making it too easy for him.

Being that we're a precarious 6-4 now as opposed to the 5-1 royalty, I have to pull against every other AFC team in the wildcard race now. This meant that the Titans royally blowing their 24-13 lead against the similarly 6-4 Steelers was quite the annoyance (thought your former Chargership might make you wanna help us out Whisenhunt). Also the collapse of the Seahawks has been no help either. Losing 24-27 at Kansas City keeps us one game back in the divisional race. Hopefully Oakland recovers from their defeat and somehow wins their first game against them tonight.  

Basically our three game collapse has cost us quite the bit. And in even worse news, we find out that Philip Rivers sudden drop in play wasn't caused by too-many-children-syndrome but a severe rib injury he's been nursing. If the rest of our team was worth their salt, we could get away with resting him in this relatively easy portion of the schedule. If a seven point win over an 0-10 team is any indication however, this isn't happening. We're playing the suddenly-revitalized Rams this Sunday, who somehow managed to hold the Broncos to 7 and win by two possessions. With any luck they'll revert to about-to-move-to-LA Rams and roll over for us.

Lot of cursing and caps in this post, but it was the only way to come somewhat close to adequately expressing how monstrously bad the Chargers have been. I had expected the Chargers to lose by no more than one possession to Denver, if they lost at all, but failure to recover a game-changing fumble and a poor deep throw by Rivers sealed the 21-35 defeat. Richard Marshall has been absolutely awful. I would venture to say that he singlehandedly lost the Kansas City game, and damn close to that with the Denver game. He was beaten by the most basic moves in the most crucial of situations (inside 2 minutes 2nd quarter). Thank god Telesco is the quick acting genius he is and released him.
We were down Verrett and Flowers, which is Gordon Ramsay approved recipe for disaster against the Broncos, but that game was incredibly winnable.

The Miami game was cancer, ebola, and coronary heart disease wrapped in a 0-37 abomination. After an opening drive deep into Dolphin territory we failed a fourth and one and it was all over. We absolutely fucking imploded, Philip Rivers reverted to 2010-2011 Rivers throwing three god awful interceptions, we got gashed up the middle for gain of eight every play before making Ryan Tannehill look like playoff god Joe Montana. No one but Eric Weddle and Chris Davis decided to show up defensively. Come fucking on, can you at LEAST PUT UP 3 POINTS? How do you GET SHUTOUT by the same Dolphins that managed to ROYALLY GIFT Aaron Rodgers a game-winning drive. The same Dolphins that had a quarterback controversy faster than THE FUCKING 1-7 JETS. The same Dolphins that has a coaching staff SO FUCKING INCOMPETENT that they managed to have a HIGH SCHOOL BULLYING SCANDAL IN A NFL LOCKER ROOM. IT'S UNTHINKABLE. We might be the only team in NFL history bad enough to pitch a shutout and get shutout in the same season.

Thank god we have a bye week so we figure out how the hell we went from 5-1 to defeats of 3, 14, and then fucking 37. If we don't clean out the 0-8 Raiders, 3-5 Rams before going into Baltimore and New England, this team will be beyond hopeless. Rivers MVP hopes are pipe-dream material, but at least going into Sunday Night Football 8-4 is a solid spot for a playoff berth. ZERO POINTS TO THE DOLPHINS?!?!?!?!? HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN?

Damn you Derek Carr. Heart attacks had a significant spike in 1813 Vale St cause of you. The Chargers went to Oakland on October 12 and everyone expected easy win. The Raiders were 0-4 and possibly the worst team in the league, while our beloved Chargers had jumped all the way to No.1 on NFL.com's latest power rankings. Despite the generally closer nature of divisional matchups, no one could expect the the performance that Raiders' rookie quarterback Carr was about to unleash.

On the third play from scrimmage, Brandon Flowers (top rated cornerback by PFF, best acquisition this offseason) was outsprinted and gave up a 77-yard bomb to Carr and the Raiders. No worries. Blown coverages like on that play should be a once in a very long while type of thing, and Rivers could be expected to cover this mistake on offense. The offense did respond with two quick touchdown drives to take a 14-7 lead. However, we gave up two atrocious Carr touchdowns of our own, surrendering a 14-21 deficit, and destroying any illusions of having an elite defense. After another tying Rivers touchdown pass, Carr was able to throw one of his own rolling out to the right, taking a 28-21 Oakland lead with 10 minutes remaining. The Oakland defense had been marshmallow all day, and it seemed no different on the next Charger drive until deep in red zone. There, San Diego was stopped and settled for a Novak field goal (which, by the way tied the franchise record for consecutively made field goals at 29). This was the heart problems really got going. After being pushovers all day, how could this defense be expected to get the ball back with reasonable time left? With Eric Weddle is how. Behind an excellent third down blitz by the best free safety, we got our much-needed three and out. Rivers led a predictable touchdown drive, but with plenty of time left for Carr to work his magic. It seemed even more bleak after a game-sealing fumble recovery was negated by a unnecessary roughness penalty, but after the Raiders worked their way to midfield, Carr took a chance on double coverage deep. 5-9 corner Verrett, who many had worried would be out-"athleticed" by bigger receivers, outjumped and outmuscled the 6-3 Brice Butler for a non-penalty negated game sealing pick. Two knees, and 31-28 Chargers victory. It was ugly as it gets (4 TD passes given up to Carr, who had thrown that many over 4 games) but it's the type of game the Chargers would've lost last year (like 17-27 to Oakland).

The Chiefs game that followed is going to be one that slipped away. So many missed tackles, it was just painful to watch. It didn't help that Liuget was called for a nonexistent facemask on the game winning drive and Cairo Santos has some semblance of competence in his rookie year (haha Lions). There were plenty of missed opportunities on the Chargers last two drives; Oliver was absolutely tearing shit up and the Chargers decided to pass on both 2nd and 3rd and goal, leading to two field goals.

The Chargers are suddenly in a precarious position playing at Denver tonight. We're absolutely ravaged by injuries (Flowers and Brown are also out and Verrett is questionable) and we had a short week traveling against a hot Broncos team. Normally, I would have no qualms picking the Chargers against a widely regarded to be superior Bronco team, due to their habit of playing big against more talented opponents. However, losing and falling to 5-3 would make playoffs all the more iffy and the factors seemed to have converged to make that happen. I'm going to go with my heart here and pick the Chargers 31-24, but there would be absolutely zero surprise at a loss (covering all my bases).

Mmmm Chargers. I didn't expect this level of play. This level of consistency. This level of actually beating teams that they're supposed to beat. And not only are they doing that, it's happening in a relatively convincing fashion. In wins against Buffalo, Jacksonville, and New York (three mediocre to god awful teams with a combined 4 wins, a total which the Chargers can claim by themselves), the Chargers won by an average margin of 20.66 points, or an extremely comfortable three touchdown margin. Last year, Mike McCoy era hadn't given me any idea that the Chargers up and down play would be changing (as mentioned in the previous post), but this year seems to have turned over a new leaf.

Starting with the Bills. In week 3, the Chargers traveled to New York to play the 2-0 and seemingly vastly improved Buffalo squad. It turned out with with some pressure up the middle (courtesy of Reyes, Liuget, and Freeney), EJ Manuel still can't hit the broadside of a barn, and the Bills are still the Bills. Despite a continuing trend of an anemic sub 3 yards a carry (you really don't need to be running draws on first and second, and sometimes third down Reich), old man Felipe Rios (MVP buds. Best passer rating in the NFL right now, and absolutely carrying this offense) pulled us through with his two touchdown passses. Rush defense was also a treat. Holding the Spiller-Jackson combination to 87 yards is something most DCs can only dream of.

Onto Jacksonville (ha-ha Belichick). After getting embarrassed in the first half against the Colts, the Jaguars threw in rookie sensation Blake Bortles, who managed to generate 17 points. Jacksonville, who came into the game winless (and still is), was then hyped to begin their turnaround on the arm of Bortles and the field of Qualcomm. It was not to be. After taking an early 14-10 lead, the Jaguars scored no more, with both Weddle and Flowers notching picks (firsts of the season for San Diego). The running game was pathetic again with 42 yards on 20 carries, but that turned out to be irrelevant with Rivers chipping in another MVP performance (74.3% completion rate, 3 TDs, no turnovers) against the swiss cheese Jaguars secondary.

Last and most certainly least were the Jets. Jets fans can't watch a game nowadays without hearing about the quarterback controversy between Vick and the underperforming sophomore Smith, which finally came to a head last Sunday. After a cataract-inducing 4/12, 27 yard, interception, first half performance Smith was benched in favor of the veteran Vick. It didn't help. Vick was sacked on his second play and started a comedic 1/11. Chargers defense was truly magical in causing all this, for the game allowing 151 yards (about half of what San Diego gained in the first half alone), and only 60 passing yards, and of course zero points. It's probably largely because of the Jets incompetence, but it makes me feel better to think we have an elite defensive unit. The running game finally remembered how to actually be useful and stuff, in the form of rookie Branden Oliver. 19 carries for 114 yards (also 68 in the passing game), 52 of them on a beautiful dash outside the left tackle. Considering the Jets came in with the top ranked rush defense, this came as no less than a shock. Rivers was solid again with yet another three touchdown passes, but I would've liked for him to have been a bit more conservative and not picked up that interception. It would be amazing if he could grab the MVP this season, and picking up turnovers in surefire wins won't help. Nevertheless, there's only so much one can complain about in a 31-0 win, and I think I've exhausted that supply.

We're beating bad teams that we should beat. Hooray! With games against Oakland and Kansas City looming (combined 2 wins), keeping this up would mean descending into Mile High with a comfortable 6-1 record. It would be veeery nice to go into the gauntlet portion of our schedule with a playoff spot firmly with our grasp.

Tyyyyypical Chargers. That's what you get from the first two weeks. Top tier play against top tier competition, and terrible play against mediocre competition (also god forbid they win a Monday night opener. 1-3 in the last 5 seasons. Leave us alone ESPN).

What happened? After terrible execution (dropped pick, random penalties, wasted timeouts) and anemic offense (3 points) for two quarters, the Chargers lept to a 17-6 fourth quarter lead on the road against the Cardinals. And in usual Chargers fashion, they collapsed in a spectacular combination of defensive breakdown (letting CARSON fucking PALMER scramble for a third down conversion and drive twice) and offensive incompetence (Rivers doing his best imitation of the Broncos Super Bowl opener inside field goal range), leading to a 17-18 loss. Depressing. You hold them to 6 points for 3 quarters, and then fold like a paper bag in the 4th. Thanks John Pagano.

But wait! The big bad, pretty much consensus best team Seahawks came to town. What do we do boys (according to the geniuses at ESPN, get blown out. All 12 "experts" picked the Seahawks)? Sit on the damn football. Doesn't matter that the Seahawks gain 7.2 yards a play when they only can run 40 of them. Doesn't matter that the zebras gifted the Percy Harvin and the Seahawks a touchdown when he fumbles on the next kickoff (and gets stuffed for a loss of 6 on a jet sweep) and their offense holds the ball for less than 18 minutes. Doesn't matter if you have Sherman and the Legion of "Please no Antonio Gates", when you do indeed have Antonio Gates, and he runs circles around them to catch three touchdowns.

Maybe the opening was a bit exaggerated. It's a bit misleading to call Arizona a mediocre team considering they won 11 games last season, and managed to complete the holy quest of beating the Seahawks at Century Link. But the Chargers have shown time and time again they play to the level of their opponent. If they're playing the Raiders, they're going to be god awful. If they're playing the Broncos, they'll sit on the ball for 40 minutes and slant and crossing and up the middle down the field. Last season, San Diego notched a 5-2 record against playoff teams, but were 4-7 against teams watching January's games. They collapse with seemingly assured leads, and dominate seemingly impossible games. Anyone who has followed the team remotely closely should take less than zero surprise at these two weeks results. It really makes watching the shock of the national media all the more entertaining.

The Chargers are in the preseason now, with a mediocre but largely irrelevant 1-2 record. They claim losses against San Francisco and Seattle, and a win against the Cowboys. I honestly couldn't care less about these results, considering the players are more worried about chipping nails than winning in the preseason. The backup's backup's backup's with the lion's share of playing time will likely have more chance of doing discrete mathematics than playing in the NFL come regular season.
So with that being the case, and free agency largely being over (in which the Chargers made more "what the hell" moves than anything other. Donald Brown? Really? We need more people in the backfield less than China needs children.) the first week of this blog will have a more NFL-wide flavor to it. Which of course, according to ESPN, is all about Cleveland's factory-fresh savior, Jonathan Paul Manziel. He had a really fantastic preseason debut capped off by the classy gesture to the opposing bench (read: he was god awful). These national media outlets desperately need these prima donnas to litter their headlines, but as long as this Cleveland team is one part Joe Haden, one part Alex Mack, and one part druggie who can't stop doing marijuana for millions of dollars, it's vacationing to five wins or less this January.

The Cowboys defense may be the most god awful thing anyone watching them this season will have the horror of witnessing. This unit already allowed the third most yards in the league last season, and only managed to get worse over the past 6 months. Not only did they lose Sean "What's healthy?" Lee, this time to a season ending ACL tear, but also dropped Demarcus Ware (otherwise known as their only decent player) to the Broncos (for sake of my Chargers, let him be terrible as well). Jerry Jones, the genius general manager that he is, decided to counter this talent leakage by making zero noteworthy moves in free agency. Good luck selling tickets owner Jerry Jones advertising Henry Melton and George Selvie starting for your defense. Ooooh scary.

Andrew Luck cannot possibly be more overrated than he is now. Everyone has already crowned him as a franchise quarterback, the second coming of Manning, multiple Super Bowl winner, and clutch performer. Ron Jaworski is parading him about as the fifth best signal caller in the league for god's sake. Pleaaase. This guy completed 60.2% of his passes last year. 60.2%! That's about as supremely mediocre as it gets. Compare him to my guy Philip Rivers, a guy Jaworski placed a full tier below Luck. Rivers completed 69.5% of his passes, meaning despite attempting 26 fewer passes than Luck, he completed 1 more. Luck's YPA, already at a pedestrian 7.0 his rookie year, managed to drop to a paltry 6.7. Rivers gained an extra 1.5 yards per attempt, a massive difference that translated to 666 more passing yards on once again, 26 fewer passing attempts. Luck's other numbers are even more mediocre. A mere 4% of his passes were converted for touchdowns, despite having future Hall of Famer Reggie Wayne and lightning bug T.Y. Hilton on either side. His 87.0 passer rating was easily outdone by the 89.2 of the much-maligned Jay Cutler, a quarterback that Jaworski rated a full two tiers below Luck. When comparing Luck to the quarterbacks supposedly in the same tier (really not in the same stratosphere), the discrepancies become almost laughable. Bottom line, Andrew Luck's performances can't catch his premature hype.

Mediocrity seemed to be the theme of this post, but these teams and players are over publicized. They were all built up on past successes, whether it was the 28-point comeback for Luck (which he only needed after he threw 4 interceptions), the heisman two years ago for Manziel, or the three Super Bowls twenty years ago for the Cowboys. But their play has a long road to reaching their hype.

This blog will be mostly my thoughts on my favorite football team, the San Diego Chargers. They're currently wallowing in the offseason, but once the regular season begins, there'll be sure to be many heartfelt (and likely depressing given the Chargers bipolar tendencies) reactions to their happenings.