I’d like to personally thank Tom Coughlin. Finally, we found a coach that is as much of a “game manager” and is as conservative as our own sad, beleaguered Norv. Punting once on 4th and 1 in our territory, kicking two field goals late following conservative play calling when they could have stuck the knife in finished it. This game was so similar to many Charger games over the last couple of years where we just could not finish…I found myself almost feeling sorry for the Giants. Look at the time of possession…38 minutes to 22! Jughead Manning completed almost every pass he threw. They ran through us early…and passed through us for many first down conversions. A drive of 10+ minutes that included conversions of 3rd and 6, 3rd and 10, 3rd and 18, and 3rd and 5 as well as two drives of more than 7 minutes. That is a lot of time for our Defense to be on the field. But…a funny thing happened. They could not score. The “bend but don’t break” defense did just that. A missed field goal and over 100 yards in penalties did the rest along with incredibly conservative play calling. Giving Phillip a chance with 2+ minutes late was just inexcusable.
Lets be real, we should have lost. Two bad interceptions by Phillip in the 4th quarter should have done us in. Instead of first and goal at the 4 yard line…that huge holding penalty saved our butts to push them out to the 14. Instead of using Eli…who had not missed all game, Coughlin ran the ball and relied on his defense. Bad move. The only time the Chargers make any sense offensively is when Norv has no options. The two minute drill at the end of the game is the best this team can be because nobody can match up with Jackson, Gates, Floyd, Sproles, etc. Too many weapons. Look at the rest of the day’s play calling…MORBID. Norv (or whomever is responsible) cannot adapt. The run blocking and LT are terrible right now. Anyone would be with these up the middle calls. Every time Sproles is in…it is a screen pass…every time LT is in it is up the middle. It sure seems like every defensive coordinator of other teams must watch tape and say “It cannot be this easy, can it?” All the Chargers have right now is a rocket-armed Quarterback who seems impervious to pressure and the big receivers who cannot be covered. Jackson is scary good. Just scary. Despite the one horrible stretch where Gates dropped two cream puff passes and Floyd another one….that last drive was just a thing of beauty. Why? Because Norv was taken out of the equation. You cannot outthink yourself when you have no options.
On the defensive side…to be fair, the Chargers are playing with as much as they have right now. With both of their inside linebackers out (Burnett and Dobbins) and obviously without Jamal…we did as well against the run as we could have. Pass rush was again below average. We did have some big sacks…make no mistake. But Manning was 25-33! He was standing around most of the day…our downfield coverage was great considering he had so long to wait for someone to get open. I do see some signs of life in our pass rush…maybe one of these days we will play a complete game. But the bottom line is that we did not give up big plays and that gave us a chance.
So…here we are at the halfway point of the season. Somehow we are 5-3. I think we are starting to see who we are. A team that will try to keep games close. A team that simply does not have the horses physically on the lines to dominate games. A team with good enough pass blocking to allow the big guys to make plays, a team that will struggle to run the ball all year. A team that still needs to show it can match up with an elite team. But, perhaps most importantly, I think at the midway point we can say that we have a team that is never out of a game.
Happy for the Chargers to pull that one out...given the chances the Giants gave us, it would have been a drag to lose it.
ReplyDeleteZenyatta is my hero. I am so lucky to have seen her run - especially on Saturday. She is, as they say, much the best.