Chargers Lose To Lowly Rams

The Chargers are taking a familiar path with this NFL season...a path that most teams and most sane people, would agree is not the easiest path for a team to take in the NFL.  The Chargers lost their 4th straight road game to another lowly team...it's been the Chiefs, Seahawks, Raiders and Rams that have all beaten the Chargers at their home stadium.  Most NFL pundits would agree that all four of those teams reside in the bottom half of an NFL "Power Poll" but they better make some room because here comes the Chargers ready to stake claim to being one of the NFL's dredges.

The game against the Rams has shown how the Chargers can be beaten, and very easily, mind you.  For most of the game the Rams went to single coverage on the Charger receivers and blitzed Phillip Rivers all game long.  The Charger receivers struggled to get open on mostly man-to-man coverage.  When Antonio Gates went out of the game with a toe injury, the Rams could further focus on getting to Rivers and less concern on coverage.  The Charger offensive line was besieged all game long.  The Rams nearly doubled their season sack total in this one game in which Rivers was sacked 7 times.

The Charger defense showed why it is not as good as the stats seem to imply.  With the Chargers down by 3, all the Charger defense had to do is stop the Rams from getting a first down with 3 minutes to go.  The Rams, with the lead the entire game, had resorted to exclusively running the ball on all plays in the fourth quarter...yet, the Charger defense couldn't stop the Rams and the Rams simply had to take a knee for the remainder of the game after the 2 minute warning sounded.

Charger special teams continues to be horrendous.  The coverage was better...barely, but then Nate Kaeding slipped and had a field goal try blocked...which, if made, would have been crucial.

Charger fans can simply sit back and shake their heads and list all the areas at  where the Chargers lack right now.  The Charger's offensive and defensive lines are clearly overmatched by most opponents.  For such an explosive offense, the Chargers are often behind in many games...from the beginning and always need to rally.  The Charger defense relies on other team's mistakes rather then being a presence and forcing the team into making mistakes.  And the special teams have been, quite possibly, the worst special teams unit to ever play...and there are historical stats that back this claim already.

The Chargers "soft" part of the schedule has all but concluded....the Chargers play the New England Patriots this weekend who are coming off a big win against Baltimore.  I don't think anyone would doubt that the Patriots would destroy the Chargers on most Sundays, but maybe because they are flying out west and the Chargers might play with some fire, the Chargers could sneak out an upset ... but it will not add any validity that the Chargers are a good team...they will just get lucky at the right time....

Now if the Chargers get blown out, like they should, no one will even think twice about it.