The Chargers are in critical football condition at a critical football juncture.
Good They re 3 1 in first place in the AFC West a half game in front of the idle Broncos.
Bad Their roster is beaten like 53 eggs. They re playing people who either haven t participated in a real NFL exercise or are too new to grasp coach Mysterious Mike McCoy s system.
Pretty Good Their schedule. Remember that beast everyone was looking at in August It s the NFL so it s still not a day sipping mojitos on the Hotel Del veranda but in just four weeks it s been broken like a wild steed.
The hay may not be in the barn but now s the time to make it if they hope to play in January. They re limping. They may or may not get some players back some certainly won t return Sunday when the New York Jets fly in although not like a bat out of hell.
But grab the pitchforks and start bailing guys because this is your inning now. The wild NFL reaper has cleared the acreage nearly from here to December. The only obstacle seems to be training room.
The next eight weeks of their schedule Jets at Oakland Kansas City at Denver at Miami bye Raiders again and St. Louis. Among them only Denver (2 1) has a winning record.
Almost certainly the Chargers fate will be confirmed by the end of November. For them having to rely on contenders collapsing again and sneaking into the postseason as they did last year probably has a much chance of working as a McCoy gig at the Improv.
Especially when they are half of their whole.
In their 33 14 win over Jacksonville last Sunday they were down to their third center. Their starting right guard has been out. Two of their three top running backs were missing. Their first round rookie corner was excused. Starting left corner Damaged a knee. A starting outside and inside linebacker sat as did a backup outside backer who would have started. Two tight ends were spectators.
Injuries are a part of football we all know that and to McCoy s credit not once has he groaned about them. We re not making excuses he was saying Monday.
They could be without all their troops and beat the Jaguars. And maybe just maybe they can claw past the Jets who aren t good. But the Chargers certainly don t always play well against Rex Ryan coached teams and New York is arriving with the top run defense in The League No. 4 overall.
Rex s time as a head coach may have past but he still can defend. And he knows the Chargers run like a bale of turtles.
San Diego s backs (starter Ryan Mathews went out for at least a month when he damaged his knee week one in Arizona) have rushed 117 times for 278 yards or 256 fewer on 18 more carries than Cowboys tailback DeMarco Murray the league leader. They average 2.4 yards per rush by far the worst.
No comments:
Post a Comment