BOLT ANALYSIS: WEEK 1 -- NOT SO SPECIAL

Had I woken up this morning blissfully ignorant of last night’s thud and looked at the box score, here is what I would have seen:



First Downs…Chargers 18, Kansas City 9


Total Yards….Chargers 389, Kansas City 197


Passing Yards..Chargers 280, Kansas City 62


Time of Possession…Chargers 37:30, Kansas City 22:30.




Yep…there it is in black and white…the continuation of Charger dominance over the AFC West and another pummeling of the Chiefs. Except, it wasn’t. That resounding thud we all heard last night? What was it…the ratcheting down of expectations? The bursting of the bubble? The swelling of that familiar pain in your gut? Well, the mantra of the BOLT ANALYSIS has always been to take the good with the bad and not overreact with either too much glee or too much glum. Yet, the final review shows that the Chargers have simply found another incredibly difficult way to lose.






Losing to the KC Chiefs on Monday night is bad. Really bad. On offense, the Chiefs made one play. Literally….one big play. A massive brain freeze of our defense that allowed a 56 yard touchdown run. Other than that, our defense dominated the game. So many three and outs for the Chiefs that they could have left Punter Dustin Colquitt’s name on the screen all night long. We covered well…..rushed the QB adequately….and stopped the running game with the exception of that one play. Matt Cassell is a bad quarterback. He was tentative…made bad throws even when he had time…and just looked uncomfortable all night. Add that to a morbidly conservative play calling night, and the Chiefs do not look like a team that will win many games. KC’s playbook makes Norv look like a gunslinger. Yet, when you are up 21-7…in the rain…in front of your home fans…”managing” the game makes a lot of sense. And, KC’s defense did just enough, stopped just enough 3rd downs….rushed Rivers just enough…and stopped the running game just enough. For the Chiefs to hail this as the beginning of some type of resurgence is laughable, but as the first paragraph of this ANALYSIS suggests…stats are meaningless and wins are all that matter.






Which brings me to the offense. You had to figure that the “new look” Chargers would have some jitters. Playing in the rain on the road did not help. Not having security blanket receiver V Jackson might also have been a factor as our receivers made some bad drops. But, the first couple of drives sure looked good. Long, sustained drives…with plenty of third down conversions and a nice mix of runs and passes. New kid Mathews started off good…looking strong and confident. TD to Gates and it seemed like we were on our way. Then, it all kind of fell apart. The big run tied the game…OK, one mistake. Then, the fumble by Mathews after his best run of the night was a killer. Giving a team a 12 yard drive is just something you cannot do. Despite all of LT’s struggles and pouting the last two years…the guy just never fumbled and we were spoiled by that. Did all of you see the change in Mathews running after that? Totally different…much more protective of the ball and conservative. Not necessary a good thing in that he seemed to lose his burst a bit. I think he is going to be a good one…not going to string the guy up for one fumble after a 15 yard run. But, it was a killer indeed. And then, of course the 94 yard punt return. Just like that….a Chiefs team that had done next to nothing had three touchdowns and a big lead.






In typical Charger fashion, they made it interesting. Lots of defensive stops gave Rivers and company the ball many times with chances. The field position battle was rough though….each drive needed to be long and it took a massive mistake by the Chiefs defense to get us back in the game on the Naanee touchdown. Getting the ball twice in the fourth quarter was right up Rivers’ alley. We had every chance. But Rivers showed us why he is such an infuriating quarterback. Some of his throws on these two drives were amazing. Finding time….finding the right guy…and perfectly placing the ball. Others were just head scratchers. The throws from the 6 yard line to end the game just left me open mouthed. The guy can look world class…and then just absolutely terrible from one play to the next. The 3rd down and goal play was the whole game in a nutshell. Rivers scrambled, stepped up in the pocket, found time. Then rather than walk it in (he was clear for 6 yards to the end zone), he shot puts it 10 yards over Floyd’s head. Did it slip? Did he panic? What happened? Even if he slides down at the 1 yard line…they are right there with a timeout. Looked to me like there was no way the Chiefs were stopping Tolbert from there. A bad decision by Phillip and a bad throw. The 4th down throw was equally bad and his receiver slipped in the mud. Now, the Chiefs made a decision to stop Gates, in the second half and they did….double and triple teaming him. But that means somebody should have been open. We had time. We could not execute.






But Rivers did his best…and frankly, he probably did enough to beat the sad sack Chiefs. I feel he was just pressing too much, getting happy feet and overthrowing a wet ball. Without Jackson and with Gates taken out….he just does not have confidence in these guys yet. I think it will come. The real culprit for this loss was the single-most pathetic Special Teams game I can remember. KC has two rookie punt returners….these two rookies made each punt and kickoff look like a track meet. The coverage was so bad on the Touchdown there was not a white jersey in the screen for the entire run. Each kickoff led to 30+ yard runbacks. Only Scifres saved a second punt return for a TD. This was beyond bad. Couple this with horrible coverage on two perfect punts from Scifres that should have been downed inside the 2 yard line. Nobody there to cover one of them (guys just trotting downfield) and on the next one our guy knocks it into his teammate. Both times they start on the 20 instead of the 1. With that Chiefs offense…that is a huge deal. If we cannot find a way to make a tackle on Special teams…forget about how good the offense or defense can be. Will not matter. Was Kassim Osgood really that good? Maybe so.






OK…so what is next? We are 0-1. A loss to one of the worst teams in the League. There are 15 more games…it is not tragic. And, yes, we have been here before, starting the last two seasons 2-3. But, we need to win against teams like this. I am scared to think about what a good passing team will do to us. We can only line up against one team at a time…but you need to collect your wins against inferior teams. There were some good points…our offensive line was decent. Fill in Dombrowski was more than decent…he looked good. I think the offense will figure it out…I really do. But, will that be enough? Not if we keep punting and kicking off and then stepping off the field.