BOLT ANALYSIS: KICK OFF

And here we are. On the cusp of the 2012-2013 season.  Wednesday night, the Cowboys and the Giants opened things up for the good ‘ol NFL. Did not see all of the game, but I did see a pretty darn good looking Cowboys team beat up on the defending champs. The Cowboys have led a similar life to the Chargers. They have underachieved, relied on a hot and cold QB, struggled to get teams off the field, had moments of brilliance and, ultimately, they have choked when it counted. A very similar story to our Boyz. So, it was nice to see that team play a complete game and win one to start the season. There were a lot of questions about their O-line, their secondary, and about the play of Tony Romo. All those questions were answered, at least for one game.

And in other news yesterday...RG3 makes a splash, the Broncos and Peyton look fast and solid, the Jets destroy the Bills (without Tebow), the Patriots look as solid as ever, just plugging in pieces and everything seems to work, the Browns cannot buy a win. Ah Week 1 in the NFL....it is a blunderbuss of emotions, hopes and expectations. As the ANALYSIS always says however, you must take things on an even keel. Don’t get too up or too down. Teams that shoot out of the gate are often found wanting in the stretch. The difference between 1-0 and 0-1 is just not a whole heck of a lot. So, where will the Chargers fit into this madness? We will find out tonight.....but , we should probably talk about it first.

If the last preseason game was any indication of how this season will go, we are in DEEP trouble folks. For those of you unlucky enough to watch it, it was hideous. A 35-3 beatdown at the hands of the 49ers that was embarrassing from start to finish. Our first team offense had two series against their backups (they rested all 11 starters). These series’ ended in a fumble by Gates and an interception by Rivers. Their offense effortlessly blew apart our D the entire evening. We honestly looked surprised that they were playing hard. Penalties, turnovers, missed blocks, dropped passes. Horrible.  Regardless of the outcome, perhaps more unnerving is the fact that we just looked spiritless. ALREADY? These are guys trying to make a football team and they look like they would rather be playing X-Box. Uh oh.  But, as you know, the preseason does not count. It is a good thing.

It is up to the ANALYSIS to try to have a take on this thing. What kind of team will we be?  Who will show up against the Raiders tonight? Let’s start with who won’t show up: 

•             Jared Gaither, our $24 million left tackle, has played one practice. One. He still has “back spasms” yet he has had at least 3 MRIs and seen at least 3 specialists. Whenever the Chargers camp is quiet and coy...the situation is bad. This has all the makings of an epic mistake of a signing. The guy has been cut twice...there was some history there. He will not play tonight and it looks impossible that he will play any time soon. Instead, an undrafted rookie out of UCLA will start at the most important protective position on the team. Wait, is that the UCLA that gave up over 50 points to both Oregon and UCLA and scored, uh, almost nothing in those games. Yep...that is the team. How does this stuff happen? How does a professional team end up with nobody to play a position of this importance? AJ...what the heck? This is not just the impact of having an inexperienced guy out there (and I wish you all the luck in the world Mike Harris). The other huge impact is that they need to dumb down the playbook, keep running backs in pass coverage, and go simplistic on their schemes.

•             Ryan Mathews. He won’t play tonight. He has been working hard to get back from his broken clavicle. Suffered on his ONE carry of the preseason. He wants to play, but I doubt he will...leaving Ronnie Brown as our featured running back. We shall see how that goes. At least he has a lot of experience.

•             Vincent Brown. As described in an earlier ANALYSIS, he broke his ankle in the preseason and will not be seen until Week 8 at the earliest.

So, who will show up and play well? Followers, I have no clue on offense. Our offense has been horrible. Rivers has looked out of sync and did not get to play much in preseason games. Although Gates has looked good, I have real concerns about Robert Meacham and Malcom Floyd...they have not been open and have not been on the same page as Philip. Eddie Royal has hardly played, and our running game has been dismal. Our offensive line has not played together in a game situation at all and we feature very little depth on the line.

Things have been brighter on defense...at least up until the 49er game. The defensive line and linebackers have looked solid, pass rush has been OK, tackling has been OK. Our secondary has been spotty...Weddle and Cason have been good....the others have not played much. Special teams has looked good...Kaeding seems back in form and we seem to have good coverage.

So what does all that mean? Will we put it all together and get after the Raiders on Monday? Folks, back in the day, a younger, cockier ANALYSIS used to make predictions. Predictions on how many wins the Bolts would have, predictions on playoff teams, predictions on just about everything. An older, wiser, and better looking ANALYSIS does not do that anymore. So many seasons of failed expectations. Seasons where everything looked good coming out of the gate have devolved into 8-8 finishes. Seasons (like last year) started 4-1 and failed miserably. We have been through it before. Keep in mind, this team has not won a playoff game since after the 2008 season. That is quite some time now.

So, no big time predictions coming from here. But, what I will do is predict what will happen tonight. I think tonight’s game will be a sloppy affair. I think both teams will need some time to get into the swing of things. I think both defenses will play well. I think, however, that the difference in the game will be the fact that the Raiders have a consistent runner in Darren McFadden. That type of consistency tends to win the day. Will a Charger loss spell doom for the season? Of course not. Realize we have a lot of new faces on this team, it will take time to gel. And, who knows, just like the fans of the Cowboys, Redskins, Cardinals, Buccaneers, Falcons, and Broncos did today...maybe we wake up tomorrow with that extra burst of energy....that extra spring in our step...

Let’s kick it off.