BOLT ANALYSIS: WE ARE NOT THAT TEAM

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were THAT team? You know, the one that spoils the party. The one that you don’t look forward to playing. The one that brutalizes you from kickoff to kneel down. The one that makes plays when the chips are down. It is a foregone conclusion, unfortunately, with our Bolts, that they are not THAT team. They will play down to expectations. They will allow themselves to drop to the level of their competition. It is a cliché (but isn’t most of the sports world), but this is a team without a dagger. Just when they are poised for the kill shot, they stand their opponent back up, dust them off, and send them on their way. A frustrating story, followers, but a story we have read many, many times before.

Last night’s primetime showdown against the Saints had all the makings of a Charger loss. Golden-boy Brees going for the consecutive games with a TD record...the Saints trying to win their first of the year at home, the Brees and Sproles against their former team angle. Even though the Saints were 0-4, they were favored at home and most everyone was picking them to prevail. This should outrage the Chargers, and it should outrage you as fans. But, gee, whatever, we don’t really expect to win, do we?  By the way we played...no, we do not.

This is a game we should have won. Period. I really don’t care much about how good Brees is, and his bevy of talented receivers.....that team is not very good overall. They have no running game, their defense is terrible, and they don’t tackle very well. The Chargers moved the ball well in the first half with a balanced attack and some big plays. Finally, Meacham found his way out of the witness protection program and made a couple nice TD catches. Finally, Mathews was given the ball and showed us (once again) that he has the potential to be very, very good. Finally, our defense seemed to be getting to Brees a bit, flustering him, getting him out of stride. Even though the halftime lead was only 17-14, you had to feel optimistic looking ahead.  When Jammer intercepted Brees early in the 3^rd and Mathews went flying into the end zone a few plays later, it seemed that we had unsheathed the dagger and were ready to plunge it in.  We got that chance later in the period, when rookie Melvin Ingram flew at Brees and forced another bad throw, this one right to Denorrio Williams, who returned it to the end zone...31-14 Bolts...dagger plunged into the throat of Drew and the Saints. But no. In typical Charger fashion, Ingram lowered his head and hit with his helmet. Drawing a 15 yard penalty and giving the Saints a spark. Five plays later it was 24-21. Momentum gone. Dagger broken. Such a frustrating way that the game turned. If Ingram had simply used his hands to push Drew...lifted his head 4 inches...or hit 2 inches lower....most likely it would have been game over.

But I don’t want to talk about that. That is too easy a cop out. What is exceptional not a bad-luck call or play but how a team steps up when something bad happens. The good teams shake off Ingram’s mistake, and come flying again. They make a new good play. This team? Well, this team rolls over and dies.  After that point, the wheels came off. The defense had no push, the linebackers starting get rolled by their running backs, the secondary started tackling like Lily’s gymnastics class. The offense went away from what was working (Mathews) and started taking unnecessary shots downfield. Norv started coaching scared, the players started playing scared. The referees started calling phantom penalties. The same, old, tired song folks. It is nothing new.

Even with all the pratfalls, and a horrible interception by Rivers, they were still only down a touchdown with more than 2 minutes to go. But, suddenly the Saints terrible pass rush started looking like the 1986 Bears...demolishing Rivers and hurrying him on every play. Add in some awful calls on the Chargers (Gates’ pass interference call was an utter joke) and there you have it...another bad comeback attempt. We used to be a good two minute offense. Now, I have zero belief that we will win when the chips are down. That pessimism aside, let’s look at three primary reasons for the loss:

1. Decision making in the red-zone. We had a first and goal at the 3 yard line. Mathews was rolling. Yet Norv calls two pass plays. Both of them could have been caught...but the point is...you are steamrolling them...why go away from it? This was a sure TD that ended up 3 points. Also, Philip took two miserable sacks with his team in good field goal range. Both of them were instances where he had time and his extreme lack of mobility led him to not even be able to throw the ball away. Don’t think this is a small deal. This ended up in a punt and a long field goal try which missed. So, three trips into the scoring area...and a total of only 3 points. Cannot do that. I blame Philip and I blame Norv.

2. Third downs. There it is again. We cannot get teams off the field. When their excellent tight end Graham went down, we had a huge chance. Lance Moore was already not playing. That left Marques Colston as their one true playmaker. Well, Colston so completely took apart Jammer, Cason, and Gilchrist...it was a joke. He caught 3 TDs...and made them all look silly. What happened to the pass rush in the second half? More importantly, how bad is our secondary? (Hint: really bad).

3. Offensive Line. Look, we racked up a ton of yards...lots of first downs...and converted some nice plays. But our line got gassed and was awful in the second half. Gaither was excellent early but visibly tired late and got hurt right at the end. Cris Collingsworth called him out on that last play, saying he could not move, and the ANALYSIS was yelling at the television screen...warning of pending doom. Sure enough, a sack ended the game as Gaither moved as fast as a sack of pea gravel to make a block. How is it that the coaching staff does not see this? How is it that Gaither does not call himself out? They had a stoppage. Come on man, you are not helping your team. They had two cracks at the end zone there at least. Guess what? You think this might end up in a little time off for the big man? I hope not, but.......

Look, we can nitpick all we like. And we can blame the refs if we like. But the truth is this team has no killer instinct. It has not had one in years. This game was there for the taking. We were the 3-1 team, they were 0-4 for a reason. Yet we played like we are lucky to be there.

OK, OK. I’m back from the brink. In the scheme of things, this loss is not that big of a deal. We are still up a game in the West. It is a loss to a NFC team, which does not hurt as much come the tiebreakers and whatnot at the end of the year. We have one more game before our bye week..and it is a whopper. We go home to face the Denver Mannings next week on Monday Night Football. The Denver game is probably three times as important as our stinging loss last night. We win that game, and we have control of the West at 3-0 in the Division and 4-0 in the AFC. But, as you know followers, those are excuses and that is Norvspeak. You get 16 games, guys.  You need to bring it. Just once, I would like to be the team that reaches out, grabs Golden Drew by the throat, and squeezes, watching the life (and the ghost of Johnny Unitas) ebb out of his body.   Sorry for the graphics, but it is almost Halloween. Don’t you wish we could be THAT team? Someday?