BOLT ANALYSIS: WEEK 14 -- CHANCES TAKEN TOO LATE

Well, this rainy day in So Cal has me in a reflective mood. I sat there yesterday, with Direct TV blasting eight football games at me on a single screen, and I was not happy. Hours of potential football nirvana just felt empty and lame. The Chargers had not even played yet, but the feeling was there. A feeling that this season, as so many others have been before it, was over. And it is folks….over that is. Going into the day, statistics programs has us at 1.7% to make the playoffs. I have to believe the number is still right about there after Tebow’s most recent parting of the waters. I have been professing the end for awhile…and focusing on the war and not the battle…but when it comes to you with a level of finality, it is still sad. Watching the Chargers demolish the Bills while the Raiders got killed and (for awhile) the Broncos were losing….true fans felt that little bloom of hope. I must say that when Tebow pulled his latest rabbit out of the hat….although the hope died again…that really was the best thing for us in the  long term.

This was the type of game we thought we would see a lot of this year. A high octane offense….a solid defense…and plenty of points. The fact that Buffalo came in on a 5 game losing streak helped, because that team is demoralized and sad. They really did not put up anything resembling a fight. If not for a pathetic Rivers fumble into the endzone, this game is 37-3. The first two Charger drives in the first half were textbook…great balance of plays…conversions…good catches…tough running. And, most importantly, touchdowns on third down. Gates, Mathews, and others with some nice plays…then a field goal late and a 16-0 halftime score. But, the Bolts started crumbling a bit in the third quarter…the Bills had scored twice and had the Chargers stopped on a third down. The beleaguered Charger fan could only say…how did we get from 16-0 to life and death?  But, the Boyz pulled one out of the hat..a nice fake punt to extend a drive and lead to another score…and the Bills were done. After that it was just an exercise in getting to the end of the game. A pick 6 by Gregory put the Bills to sleep.

Not much to criticize here…Rivers looked great (except that Phumble)…Mathews ran for 114 yards….Gates and the rest of the receiving corps solid…offensive line stout. How about mountain of a man Jared Gaither?  Wow has he looked good filling in at left tackle. And defensively, nothing too special but just always seemed to be there. Three INTs did not hurt also. Weddle seems to be earning his money now…surely.

So, folks, what to do now?  The ANALYSIS is not built to lavish praise on a team that could not bring it when the chips were down.  I can say that it is fun to win…it is fun to score Touchdowns and it is fun to watch players excel.  Rather than focusing on the ins and outs of the game, I would rather focus on a few observations. Either next week…or the week after…or the final week….we will be eliminated from the playoffs mathematically. Regardless of what we do…the Broncos only need to win one more and it sure seems that they will. We lost control several weeks ago when Philip phumbled the snap….and we completely lost control when we played the game that will surely be the one Norv suffers for (against Denver). So, followers, I will dedicate the rest of this post to a few things I have noticed as we start thinking about next season:

Ryan Mathews – He seems to be getting it. He really is the key to our offense just as much as Philip is. A confident running attack will make our receiving corps all that much better and take pressure off. Three games in a row now of more than 100 yards. And he is only 57 yards away from 1,000 yards on the year. Add to that the fact that his yards per carry are better than LT in EVERY YEAR EXCEPT ONE during LTs time here. That is significant. He is not scoring much, but that is OK. I think he has been working hard on hitting the hole with authority and not fumbling. He seems to be really improving in both those areas. Where he is still struggling is once he gets past the line. It is almost like he forgets that he has sick speed and agility. He should have had two long scores yesterday just by mixing in a little vision. Instead, he ran right at the defender, almost like he was just happy to have made a nice play. I think Ryan is going to be good. I just don’t think he is very smart and he does not have natural vision. He needs to focus on one thing at a time…first it was hitting the hole and being patient, then it was holding onto the ball, now it is what he does once he gets free. I think it will come together for him…I really hope it does.

Coaching: Here is my problem with the last two games. Take away the fact we played two of the worst teams in the League (although Jax came back to beat Tampa so who knows). My problem is we only start taking chances when there is no more hope. The difference between the play calls, the inspiration, and the risks taken if you compare the last two weeks with the game against Denver is really noticeable. I chalk this up to a coaching staff that is so paralyzed by trying not to lose, they do lose. Once we slipped to 4-7 and there really was not much hope…suddenly we start mixing things in. A fake punt? Do you think this would have been dialed up against Denver when “we still had a chance in the standings”? No way. I remember saying that Philip always plays his best when he is allowed to be a gunslinger. Norv has tried to manage games for him for too long and it has cost him his job (I hope).

 VJ/Gates/Floyd: Perhaps there is something to getting these three guys on the field at the same time. As long as we can accept that none of these guys is Superman anymore…but just three really good players who create matchup problems…we can win games. We need to sign VJ…and it is going to cost us….but his presence along with these other guys leads to results. We have to keep these guys healthy, which is no easy feat, but I think we can get some swagger to this offense if we do.

All right folks, please do not despair. The ANALYSIS will continue its weekly role for you all. We will simply change focus. Three more games, and we will be there for you. Let’s just hope we see additional encouraging signs and keep our focus on better days ahead. Days where we can win 37-10 and it actually means something.