The Chargers: Just What The Jets Needed

The Chargers fall in glorious fashion against the NY Jets this past Sunday and prove that they are a team that will be barely mediocre, as usual and as many suspected.

There should have been no excuses to losing to the Jets yesterday.  The Jets offense has been mostly pathetic against even poor defenses.  The Jets defense, still formidable, has allowed big games from high powered offensive teams that the Chargers are suppose to resemble.  But the Chargers are what they are and what the Chargers are, is a team that is good enough to beat lousy teams but is a lousy team itself.

The number of offsides the Charger defense had yesterday has laughable...but before we go too much further, the officiating in that game was all slanted towards the Jets to the point of silliness as well.  Two pass interference calls that went against Jammer were both bullshit as Jammer had perfect coverage and didn't even touch the receiver in the one instance.  And there were at least two offsides where the Jets had clearly moved early, yet the Chargers were flagged with neutral zone infractions.

The Chargers were up 21-10 at half and couldn't score a point in the second half.  Rivers looked completely awful and continues to be among the leagues top intercepted quarterback.

The Jets offense, with a lot of assistance from Charger defensive penalties, looked very capable.  NY fans, coming into the game, were crying for Plaxico Burress to finally show up...while thanks to the play of Chargers Antoine Cason, Plax had 3 touchdowns and Mark Sanchez looked awesome...when he is clearly not.

No, my hopes for the Chargers this season weren't high and this only confirmed my thoughts on this team...posers.  I've been tough on the media for labeling the Chargers as they have, but no longer, because the Chargers are who everyone thinks they are...non-factors.

Chargers Sharp Against Dolphins

The San Diego Chargers had little problems with the winless Miami Dolphins, something the Chargers couldn't say last week when they met up with another lowly team, the Kansas City Chiefs.  But this Sunday the Chargers looked like they are one of the best of the bad teams...the Chargers seemed to have little problem with the Dolphins on either side of the ball.  Even though the Dolphins were within 10 points in the second half, the Chargers made sure to keep a 2 score differential lead and the Dolphins were unable to take the lead from the Chargers.

Rivers looked better than he has from his first three games, imo, and this was his first game of the 2011 season without throwing an interception.  The Chargers did exactly what they needed to do...win and not lose to a team that they should have beaten, like last year's losses to the Seahawks, Rams and Bengals.  The problem, though, is that the Chargers really haven't done anything to elevate themselves to be considered a "good" team.  I have them where I think the Chargers have been placed for the past 3-4 years...and that is a team that can beat most bad teams on most Sunday's...and that's about it.

Bigger news was made prior to this game on the injury front with big implications as the season progresses.  The first was that Bob Sanders is done.  Sanders was a gamble that if paid off could have been a team changer...he is a smart, tough safety that the Chargers defense desperately needed...now, the Chargers revert back to needing a tough, smart safety.  The second injury report was from Antonio Gates.  Gates was going to a specialist to see if anything can be done to repair his foot.  Since his original injury in 2008 I had the sinking feeling that Gates' days may be numbered and the news isn't good as of now.  Hopefully, most Charger fans are keeping their fingers crossed, that the rest Gates gets now will help him be a factor later in the season where the past few years he has been sidelined with this nagging toe/foot/hip injury.

Up next for the Chargers are division rivals the Denver Broncos as the Chargers will travel to Denver to face the Broncos...then have a bye week then back-to-back road games to play the Jets and Chiefs before coming back home to take on the Packers...