My God the Chargers look good - Page 14

anatta · #**131** 11-16-2006, 02:19 AM

Chargers on NFL replay right now. End of 1st quarter. Second half is sick.

Jeff W · #**132** 11-17-2006, 06:27 AM

I am glad we didn't revert to Martyball in the Cincy game. We continued passing when we were ahead by 1 point. The old Marty would have ran the ball straight up the middle on every down. Looks like Cam Cameron has the reigns of the offense now. We're on pace for 528 points this year--28 short of Minnesota's record in 1998.

Rivers has wildly exceeded my expectations. He has been nothing short of brilliant this season. He has also been remarkably consistent:

He's never thrown more than 1 pick in a game, his lowest yards/attempt in a game is 6.2 and his lowest completion% in a game is 58.1.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/6763/gamelog

This weekend is our toughest game of the season. We're 2.5 point underdogs.

anatta · #**133** 11-17-2006, 05:21 PM

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I am glad we didn't revert to Martyball in the Cincy game. We continued passing when we were ahead by 1 point. The old Marty would have ran the ball straight up the middle on every down. Looks like Cam Cameron has the reigns of the offense now. We're on pace for 528 points this year--28 short of Minnesota's record in 1998.

Rivers has wildly exceeded my expectations. He has been nothing short of brilliant this season. He has also been remarkably consistent:

He's never thrown more than 1 pick in a game, his lowest yards/attempt in a game is 6.2 and his lowest completion% in a game is 58.1.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/6763/gamelog

This weekend is our toughest game of the season. We're 2.5 point underdogs.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've been thinking that the Chargers might approach this game with a rather free and easy spirit, in other words, the pressure is on the Broncos. Like you say, the Chargers are dogs, they are on the road, not expected to win, and the offense is feeling really good about themselves, Raiders at home next week, Merriman is still out. Not the end of the world if they lose, everything to gain if they win.

Granted its a big game for first place on national TV, but I think Rivers will be loose. He looked a little tight against KC, his other big road division test. But KC pressured him as the O-line was banged up. Line is coming together nicely, and Broncos more of coverage team. Rivers and the rest of the offense has grown since then, too.

Martyball could derail this, which would be disappointing.

Gosh my Bolts Brief mail bag is full. Keep those letters and cards coming! Here's one from Artdogg. He writes,

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anatta, will SD teased to +8 come through 80% of the time this week? thanks

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I have been thinking about this and my conclusion is "probably no". Just by the nature of the wager, its clearly close. My rationale: Offensively, the Broncos have some big play wideouts like CINN. Castillo is questionable. Without him or Merriman, there was little pass rush and Palmer had a record day. Plumber capable of big plays, mobile when he needs to be. Although you can rattle him, to do so, you got to create turnovers or at least pressure him hard. And while the Bolts D should hold up versus the vaunted Bronco running attack, interceptions and pressure might be hard to come by.

Anytime you have a defense that is capable of giving up huge points, the potential for a blow-out is there. Whether the potential is 20%, I'm not sure, which is why I say, "probably" no on the wager. From Jeff W. post, you might be able to get it to 8.5.

Thanks!

anatta · #**134** 11-18-2006, 01:41 PM

One thing I forgot to say is that Coach Schottenheimer deserves some credit for the comeback last Sunday. He does have the ability to fire up a team. McCree said "we play hard for Coach Marty". And whether he was forced by front office to give up play calling, the fact is, he's the coach and they are scoring points like no other team. And he owns the Raiders! Go Marty, Go Bolts!!

capone0 · #**135** 11-20-2006, 12:00 PM

Another impressive comeback for SD. I think they might be the strongest team or maybe at worst the 2nd strongest team in the conference. And they are missing Merriman and a bunch of other defensive players. Nobody can stop their O right now especially LT.

kyro · #**136** 11-20-2006, 12:20 PM

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Another impressive comeback for SD. I think they might be the strongest team or maybe at worst the 2nd strongest team in the conference. And they are missing Merriman and a bunch of other defensive players. Nobody can stop their O right now especially LT.

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Now that they're beating good teams, they are the best team in the conference, in my opinion.

Kneel B4 Zod · #**137** 11-20-2006, 12:22 PM

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Another impressive comeback for SD. I think they might be the strongest team or maybe at worst the 2nd strongest team in the conference. And they are missing Merriman and a bunch of other defensive players. Nobody can stop their O right now especially LT.

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I agree they are impressive, but I think it's a bit misleading to say "and they are doing all this without Merriman/etc". The defense has been just awful lately, and wasn't great before.

Starting 5 weeks ago vs KC, they have given up 30, 24, 25, 41, and 27 points, playing some pretty meh offenses.

Like the Colts, they team has serious defensive holes they need to fix. Maybe they will with the injured players, but history shows that it's extremely difficult to win the SB by just scoring a ton of points and having a weak defense.

also, the offense is running at an unsustainable level right now. The last 4 weeks they are averaging 39 PPG, which would put them on pace for 616 over 16 games. The NFL record is 556. So either the offense is going to slow down, or we're looking at the best offense of all time.

capone0 · #**138** 11-20-2006, 12:32 PM

Defensively they do need a lot of work. But winning is winning. They are winning without their best defensive player. The team is still missing a bunch of other good defensive players on their D which put them near the top of the league at the beginning of the season. Then again they played cupcakes at the beginning of the season.

Denver was leading the league in points allowed and got run over last night. They got run over by the Colts as well.

bottomset · #**139** 11-20-2006, 02:30 PM

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Defensively they do need a lot of work. But winning is winning. They are winning without their best defensive player. The team is still missing a bunch of other good defensive players on their D which put them near the top of the league at the beginning of the season. Then again they played cupcakes at the beginning of the season.

Denver was leading the league in points allowed and got run over last night. They got run over by the Colts as well.

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that is because Denver is at best the 10th best defense, and Indy and SD are 1/2 in offense

SD was before injuries/Merriman suspension slightly above ave defense(overachieving a little), without they are Indy-esque defense, fully healthy prob right around average

they are a better SBcaliber team than Indy is, especially if Indy doesn't get homefield(though Indy having a NFC loss really helps that cause)

anatta · #**140** 11-20-2006, 05:27 PM

I loved the way Rivers responded to the bad throw early in the 3rd which put Chargers down 24-7. No loss of confidence. Schottenheimer said in the post-game that his mental makeup reminds him of Joe Montana, whom he coached at KC in the early 90's. The ability to immediately forget the past, and remain focused on what needs to be done. Tiltless in leading 2 unprecedented comebacks.

The defense doesn't worry me. Igor, Phillips, Merriman, Castillo all out or hurt last 5 games. Look at it this way, what does a defense need to do? 1. Stop the run. When everybody is healthy, very hard to run on them the last three years (Jamal, Igor, Castillo, Merriman). 2. Rush the passer. Phillips has really stepped up, despite being hurt. Merriman on the other edge, with Castillo in front of him. Mad dogs. 3. Pass coverage. This has been weak. They do seem to step up when it counts. A lot of the problem stems from lack of pass rush, which will not be a problem in two weeks, trust me. Cromartie played better, at least. Sometimes Jammer sucks, sometimes he's okay.

More praise for Coach Schottenheimer. He said that Cameron is calling the plays and he has input, but not veto authority. Its all on Cam, which tells me that Marty realised the game has passed him by (better 15 years late than never). The players respect him and he respects the players, so they play hard.