Coaching Thread

[jamrock]

Agreed. Thats what im saying. His awareness or whats happening around him and his ability to move in the pocket. I think over the last couple seasons he has been one of the least sacked QBs in the league and a lot of it has to do with his ability to evade the pass rush...step up into the pocket and get the ball out.

The emergence of Gordon as a pass catcher has helped. Ekeler as well but he was good at it from the jump. Gordon became a real option

[Fleet]

The emergence of Gordon as a pass catcher has helped. Ekeler as well but he was good at it from the jump. Gordon became a real option

Yep. Adding Henry to the mix will only help. I think Scott will emerge this year as well. Good little player imo.

[Xenos]

Agreed. Thats what im saying. His awareness or whats happening around him and his ability to move in the pocket. I think over the last couple seasons he has been one of the least sacked QBs in the league and a lot of it has to do with his ability to evade the pass rush...step up into the pocket and get the ball out.

Even before 2017 and 2018, Rivers has always been one of the best in terms of pocket movement. He rivals Brady, Brees, and Peyton in that regards. It's why interior protection is much more important for someone like him than protection at the tackle position.

Old article from 2015:
https://www.si.com/mmqb/2015/08/19/n...diego-chargers

Philip Rivers Plays Quarterback in Its Purest Form

Andy Benoit

---

production

[Panamamike]

Agreed. Thats what im saying. His awareness or whats happening around him and his ability to move in the pocket. I think over the last couple seasons he has been one of the least sacked QBs in the league and a lot of it has to do with his ability to evade the pass rush...step up into the pocket and get the ball out.

He has also,lead the league in throw always the last 2 seasons. Don't turn it over and live to fight another possession.

[Steve]

I was shocked we tried to run dime against the Pats 21/22 personnel. FB was just smashing our tiny LBs. You cant go into a game like the Pats and not be able to play smashmouth ball with them. They controlled the lines. We were dominated.

Lynn has given this team fight and belief in themselves. That right there has almost made him worth the price of admission.

Hank Bauer used to say his teams believed they would win every game. I cant say that about this team prior to Lynn. In fact i always sort of expected Lynn to have that role. Much more that than game planning. His first season i think he was really forcing the run. You could tell his fingerprint was on the offense. Then we saw Rivers come off the field...yelling at Lynn to his face. Right after that Rivers went on a tear. And i believe it was a small adjustment. He started dropping back an extra step. I think he went from 5 to 6. Or maybe it was 3 to 5. I dont recall but that came out and Rivers talked about it. I think that was when Lynn sort of let Rivers run with it.

The thing with an old school RB type as our coach is i know he values the lines. The trenches. I think this team is so good when our OL is dealing. We really hit the wall late in the year. Coupled with Gordon being hurt. Just spiraled.

That gameplan against the Ravens in the playoffs was amazing. Addae at MLB had his best game of the year. I really think the coaching will be fine if we can control the trenches.

Win the trench battle we wont be worried about the coaches. We will be able to run. Set up the playaction. And give our WRs time to run their routes.

This was the key to losing to the Pats. I think when our guys stepped on the field, they were not expecting to win. They were clearly not in the game like they should have been. The week before, I got the vibe that they were ready from the 1st snap.

We didn't do a good job against the Pats heavy personnel, but it wasn't just having the S play bad, everyone was awful. And it wasn't just our run D, it was the pass D too.

All that being said, the D is going to have days like that. To some degree, we need to get the OL fixed. Against both the Ravens and NE, if we had been able to move the ball at all, we would have put them in a bad situation with field position. NE only scored those first few TD because of FP. As bad as our D played, they were still able to keep NE from doing everything they wanted. This isn't saying that is OK, they need to play better. But this is acknowledging the fact that our O didn't help the D out. Going forward, we need the O to be more consistent and put up more points, especially early. We were ranked 3rd in OVOA stat from football outsiders, but you can throw stats around all day, you miss the fact that our O was very streaky and not that good in general down the stretch.

Our OL is the big problem. I love the RB situation. Rivers is fine. WR could use some work, but Allen is a great #1 WR. Williams needs to expand his route tree, and do better getting off the press. But we have to give Rivers the time to get the ball off vs the blitz. Better blitz pickup also helps get the RB back into the routes. Notice that Eckler and Gordon didn't do much as receivers late in the year? They were spending a lot of time on blitz pickups.

[Panamamike]

This was the key to losing to the Pats. I think when our guys stepped on the field, they were not expecting to win. They were clearly not in the game like they should have been. The week before, I got the vibe that they were ready from the 1st snap.

We didn't do a good job against the Pats heavy personnel, but it wasn't just having the S play bad, everyone was awful. And it wasn't just our run D, it was the pass D too.

All that being said, the D is going to have days like that. To some degree, we need to get the OL fixed. Against both the Ravens and NE, if we had been able to move the ball at all, we would have put them in a bad situation with field position. NE only scored those first few TD because of FP. As bad as our D played, they were still able to keep NE from doing everything they wanted. This isn't saying that is OK, they need to play better. But this is acknowledging the fact that our O didn't help the D out. Going forward, we need the O to be more consistent and put up more points, especially early. We were ranked 3rd in OVOA stat from football outsiders, but you can throw stats around all day, you miss the fact that our O was very streaky and not that good in general down the stretch.

Our OL is the big problem. I love the RB situation. Rivers is fine. WR could use some work, but Allen is a great #1 WR. Williams needs to expand his route tree, and do better getting off the press. But we have to give Rivers the time to get the ball off vs the blitz. Better blitz pickup also helps get the RB back into the routes. Notice that Eckler and Gordon didn't do much as receivers late in the year? They were spending a lot of time on blitz pickups.

a huge problem vs the pats was covering the slot and RBs out of the backfiled. I hope White helps a lot with the latter. the rb White had 8 receptions the first two drives and constantly moved the chains on third downs.

Agree wrt to the ol8ne and FP.

[Fleet]

This was the key to losing to the Pats. I think when our guys stepped on the field, they were not expecting to win. They were clearly not in the game like they should have been. The week before, I got the vibe that they were ready from the 1st snap.

We didn't do a good job against the Pats heavy personnel, but it wasn't just having the S play bad, everyone was awful. And it wasn't just our run D, it was the pass D too.

All that being said, the D is going to have days like that. To some degree, we need to get the OL fixed. Against both the Ravens and NE, if we had been able to move the ball at all, we would have put them in a bad situation with field position. NE only scored those first few TD because of FP. As bad as our D played, they were still able to keep NE from doing everything they wanted. This isn't saying that is OK, they need to play better. But this is acknowledging the fact that our O didn't help the D out. Going forward, we need the O to be more consistent and put up more points, especially early. We were ranked 3rd in OVOA stat from football outsiders, but you can throw stats around all day, you miss the fact that our O was very streaky and not that good in general down the stretch.

Our OL is the big problem. I love the RB situation. Rivers is fine. WR could use some work, but Allen is a great #1 WR. Williams needs to expand his route tree, and do better getting off the press. But we have to give Rivers the time to get the ball off vs the blitz. Better blitz pickup also helps get the RB back into the routes. Notice that Eckler and Gordon didn't do much as receivers late in the year? They were spending a lot of time on blitz pickups.

Agree on all points. What are your thoughts on a new contract for Gordon? I also think Scott can be a crafty WR for us. Im expecting him to show this year.

[Coachmarkos]

I love Gordon, and I really want him back, but not on a huge contract...and he's going to (probably deservedly so) going to want a big contract.

I like that Lynn is the "leader of men" type of Head Coach...that was what I said I wanted when they hired him, and he has done well so far.

I love both his coordinators, and that he gives them the freedom to call what they want to call.

I don't place a ton of blame on DC Bradley for the Patriots game... we had like no healthy Linebackers... part of the reason they did what they did was because of injuries.

Would like to see the ST's unit improve. I thought they did get better as the season went along, but they need a new punter. (I know they signed one, already)

Definately need to see improvement on the interior of the offensive line... both in the running and passing game.

And of course... need to get stout against the run with DL and MLB types.

[Xenos]

This was the key to losing to the Pats. I think when our guys stepped on the field, they were not expecting to win. They were clearly not in the game like they should have been. The week before, I got the vibe that they were ready from the 1st snap.

We didn't do a good job against the Pats heavy personnel, but it wasn't just having the S play bad, everyone was awful. And it wasn't just our run D, it was the pass D too.

All that being said, the D is going to have days like that. To some degree, we need to get the OL fixed. Against both the Ravens and NE, if we had been able to move the ball at all, we would have put them in a bad situation with field position. NE only scored those first few TD because of FP. As bad as our D played, they were still able to keep NE from doing everything they wanted. This isn't saying that is OK, they need to play better. But this is acknowledging the fact that our O didn't help the D out. Going forward, we need the O to be more consistent and put up more points, especially early. We were ranked 3rd in OVOA stat from football outsiders, but you can throw stats around all day, you miss the fact that our O was very streaky and not that good in general down the stretch.

Our OL is the big problem. I love the RB situation. Rivers is fine. WR could use some work, but Allen is a great #1 WR. Williams needs to expand his route tree, and do better getting off the press. But we have to give Rivers the time to get the ball off vs the blitz. Better blitz pickup also helps get the RB back into the routes. Notice that Eckler and Gordon didn't do much as receivers late in the year? They were spending a lot of time on blitz pickups.

I disagree with this idea. The Pats were just the better team that day and had an extra week to recover and gameplan for us.

[Steve]

As far as Gordon goes, some of it will depend if we can get him to perform like one of the really elite backs this year. he is very good, just off the Kareem Hunt and Gurley type performance. I will be curious to see how Leveon Bell does this season. There will be some who will point to his attitude, but this is as much a thing about how much should RB get paid. The Gurley thing in the playoffs/SB adds in to point against having 1 super high paid back. You HAVE to have depth at RB. I really like our depth, so if we have to let him go I think we can, although I like to think if both sides are reasonable it will work out. I just don't want a ton of salary cap space parked in a single RB.

I thought both Scott and Davis played well enough that in the past, they would both have been given a chance to start. That being said, if we don't cut Benjamin, and is starting to look that way, he did play well when he got the chance. He just didn't get to play much because he was the 4th WR in a 3 man rotation. If Scott or Davis can step it up (and I expect they will if they can get on the field), he could be the odd man out again, for the reasons so many others have pointed out, but he is still a decent 3rd WR who has great speed. Benjamin's history suggests when he gets dinged up, either Scott or Davis will get to play, and Benjamin will start to fade into Charger obscurity. But he played really well in the KC game where we needed him to.

The Chargers were playing nervous and stupid. Call it what you will. The not expecting to win was not right, but it was more than just the extra week, and they only had 1 week to game plan for us. We probably just put too much emotion into the Baltimore game and couldn't get it back for the next week. That being said, we can still get better.

The offense is being held back by the OL play. The WR need to do a better job against press coverage too, but that problem would be minimized if we could run the ball better and give Rivers more time and let the WR win on routes after they release.

The D needs to find a better player(s) at LB, because RB is still the position that kills us. We also need DT to push the pocket and keep the LB/S clean. The DT spot has been holding our overall performance back the last couple of years.

ST needs to do better, and yes it starts with a punter. Especially if we can get one who could kickoff or split kickoffs.