BOLT ANALYSIS: WEEK 7 -- UH OH

Oh Boy…here we go again. The Chargers played a game on Sunday in which they were favored in New York against the hated Jets. They had proclaimed themselves as healthy as they have been all year. They were coming off of a bye with a 4-1 record and were playing a shaky foe that was struggling. Norv had actually talked some smack to pump up the guys. Despite these encouraging signs….folks, what we saw on the field yesterday was alarming. In the immortal words of that sage, Dennis Green, what this team brought to the table leads us to an early season declaration of “they are who we thought they were”…or more accurately…”they are who we hoped they weren’t”.

The second half of yesterday’s game should really give us little hope that we have a contending team. The lack of spirit, the lack of execution, the lack of any fire is very troubling. We had hoped that new veterans such as Takeo Spikes would help with this fire. We had hoped that high draft choices such as Cason and Larry English would continue to improve and get better. More than anything, perhaps, we had expected our quarterback and star receiver to continue playing at a high level. I can safely report after that game that across the board…we are in trouble. But first, lets talk about the game.

It started pretty joyfully…right? A fumble recovery for a touchdown and an interception by Weddle had the Jets frustrated and Sanchez moping on the bench. A very nice drive ending in a good TD by Gates had us up 14-3 and looking strong. Another good drive and some decent defending had is up by 11 at the half and confidence was high. We were moving the ball, we were active on defense, things were positive. Then, the Jets did what decent teams do. They changed their game plan…they made adjustments….they played with passion. The Chargers did what they do…come out flat and act shocked when the other team takes away the plays they thought they could run.  The Jets began to get into a nice cadence with runs and passes, converting third downs and staying on the field. These drives were helped by a ridiculous number of penalties. At least 4 of the Chargers dreadful 13 penalties were bogus. Two were called on Jammer where he had made good defensive plays, and two were false starts that were instead called on our defense. Bullshit…but that does not account for the other 9 that were called on us. In addition, the Jets knew they had a secret weapon (not so secret but the Chargers seemed to think so). Plaxico Burress is a 6 foot 5 beast who has the impressive claim to fame of shooting himself in the leg at a party and going to jail. Nice. Well, Antoine Cason seemed to believe that Burress was going to pull a gun on him any moment…staying nowhere near him on coverage in the red zone despite the fact that every Joe Blow in the stadium knew who was going to get the ball. Awful.

Despite all this ragged and ugly play, the Bolts were still in position to win this game (or at least make it hard on the Jets). With the ball in field goal range on a 3^rd and 4, Rivers threw a pass a little behind Jackson that bounced into the hands of (who else) Darrelle Revis. Game changer. A field goal there (or if Jackson holds on to the ball maybe more) and we are in a good spot. However, this interception and a second even more sickening interception…and the Jets were up 27-21. However, we still had a chance…1:40 left on the clock. Hey, we are pretty good at the two minute drill right? All you need to do is call 3 plays in the huddle and run them in quick succession….when in doubt, spike the ball and buy some time. OK, I really hope all of you studied that 1:40. That was the SD Chargers in clear relief. A team with no clue what it is doing when the chips are down. The time wasted on that drive was unreal. It is as if the coaching staff and Rivers had no idea what to do…as if this whole “clock” thing was just too much to understand. It really goes beyond embarrassing folks…this is more like a culture. Something ingrained. We have no ability to improvise and get out of our gameplan.

There were so many things wrong about this game, but I will just focus on two that unfortunately we had taken as strengths of our team: Rivers and the inability of our receivers to get open. Rivers has been really special over the past couple of years. He is bad this year. Period. Leads the League in interceptions, missing on all type of throws, bad timing. He looks bad. I have read that he may be hurt..that he may have an injured chest and that is impacting his motion. Who knows? I just know that things do not seem to be improving. Add to that the fact that our receivers seem to be running half-assed routes and not getting separation and you have a weak offense Now, Revis is a special player. He took VJ out of this game completely. But our guys seem to be sleepwalking, hoping someone else makes a play.

So, can I leave you all with something positive? Just this: We are still in first place. The Raiders’ new leader Carson Palmer threw 3 of 6 interceptions and McFadden got hurt. Suddenly the Raiders look poor and the Chiefs and Broncos are not very good. We have a chance next Monday night to take control of the AFC West with a win over the Chiefs. It is a tough place to play but we will probably be favored again. What do you think? Are the Bolts who you think they are? Are we better than we look? Will Halloween night indeed be scary? Stay tuned.