The Rams

[MakoShark]

Based on home forum advantage the line is opening up with West Coast Yubaking as a 4 point favorite.

I'll take the points.

I think RamFans post was a good one and Yuba is out in left field again. The Chargers will have their hands full just containing Mason. He's a good between the tackles runner with good vision to find the cutback lanes. We are weak up the middle right now. If we can get a lead maybe we can exploit the rookie a LT now that our pass rushers are back. If they establish a run game though, we're in trouble. On offense I think their game plan will be very similar to ours and we can't let that happen.

Our Oline has been a weak spot all year and this front 7 is playing well right now. We have got to get back to what we did well last year. The Charger offense of the last few games has not been in sync and has not been proficient in moving the chains or scoring. Too many 3 and outs. Too many 3rd and longs. We will most likely have a rookie playing center and that means Porkchops plays the whole game. If they make us 1 dimensional, protecting Rivers is going to be tough. The run game has got to be good enough to keep them honest and we can't shoot ourselves in the foot like we have done of late.

[SFW]

I'll take the points.

I think RamFans post was a good one and Yuba is out in left field again. The Chargers will have their hands full just containing Mason. He's a good between the tackles runner with good vision to find the cutback lanes. We are weak up the middle right now. If we can get a lead maybe we can exploit the rookie a LT now that our pass rushers are back. If they establish a run game though, we're in trouble. On offense I think their game plan will be very similar to ours and we can't let that happen.

Our Oline has been a weak spot all year and this front 7 is playing well right now. We have got to get back to what we did well last year. The Charger offense of the last few games has not been in sync and has not been proficient in moving the chains or scoring. Too many 3 and outs. Too many 3rd and longs. We will most likely have a rookie playing center and that means Porkchops plays the whole game. If they make us 1 dimensional, protecting Rivers is going to be tough. The run game has got to be good enough to keep them honest and we can't shoot ourselves in the foot like we have done of late.

I obviously haven't kept up with the Rams but looking at their scores over the last six games they seem to be really inconsistent. Their stats might be much improved from early in the season but their end game outcome seems to be all over the place each week.

They were blown out by San Fran, then beat Seattle in a close game, then blown out by KC, then beat San Fran in close game, then blown out by Arizona then beat Denver easily. I know box scores does not tell the whole story but based on scores they seem to be really inconsistent on a week to week basis. And if that trend continues they are due to be blown out by SD this week (fingers crossed).

[Yubaking]

I'll take the points.

I think RamFans post was a good one and Yuba is out in left field again. The Chargers will have their hands full just containing Mason. He's a good between the tackles runner with good vision to find the cutback lanes. We are weak up the middle right now. If we can get a lead maybe we can exploit the rookie a LT now that our pass rushers are back. If they establish a run game though, we're in trouble. On offense I think their game plan will be very similar to ours and we can't let that happen.

Our Oline has been a weak spot all year and this front 7 is playing well right now. We have got to get back to what we did well last year. The Charger offense of the last few games has not been in sync and has not been proficient in moving the chains or scoring. Too many 3 and outs. Too many 3rd and longs. We will most likely have a rookie playing center and that means Porkchops plays the whole game. If they make us 1 dimensional, protecting Rivers is going to be tough. The run game has got to be good enough to keep them honest and we can't shoot ourselves in the foot like we have done of late.

Mako, have some faith. Yes, if we do not have Carrethers or Lissemore, then they we might have an issue stopping their ground game. But if we have the rotation we had in the last game in full force, I don't see the Rams running a whole lot better than the Raiders did. And I would take Carr over Hill/Davis any day.

Even in the hot streak that the Rams poster has discussed, they really struggle to score TDs if their opponent does not give them a turnover and a short field or does not give up a big 50+ yard pass play or special teams play. Look at their scoring drives this year. They average about one good TD drive per game. Unless we give them points, where are their points coming from?

And their defense begs us to throw short which is what so many posters on this board have wanted Reich to get back to doing with more regularity anyway. Their defense almost forces Reich to get it right with his play calling. The things the Rams stop well are not the things we emphasize. I like our high completion QB using short, high percentage passes against their high completion percentage surrendering defense. This should result in long sustained drives for us or at least in us flipping field position where their offense is too inconsistent to get the job done.

Manning blew it by throwing two picks and he lost two of his primary receivers. Yes, if we play like crap and lose our personnel, we can lose this game, but the Rams are 4-6 and have given up 30+ points 6 times, including in 2 of the last 4 games (maybe that is them being "hot"). And it should tell us something that they are 0-6 when their opponent scores 30. The have scored fewer than 20 points 6 times in 10 games.

An average performance by our guys beats a good performance by them. We only lose if we play like crap. Why are you assuming that we will?

[Mister Hoarse]

They will dominate us in the trences. We have to have a plan and execute as well as we did earlier in the season, because this sketches out as a smash mouth game.
I expect Pagano to have a few cazrds up his sleeve, but I'm concerned Reich is in over his head.
To be fair, Pagano has the easier task in this game.

[Rams24/7]

In studying the Rams, I take away several things. First, you are correct about the run defense being improved. Unfortunately, the Chargers do not win games running the ball as we are right at the bottom in yards per carry. A defense does not have to be good for us to have negative runs. We pretty much take care of that all by ourselves. We are not going to pound anyone into the ground via a smash mouth attack. The take away: the Rams improved run defense really does not matter all that much.

I know the Chargers are a pass first offense that operates at a higher level, as any team does, when their run game gets going. The reason I brought up our improved run D that has allowed 56 yards the past 2 games is because a lot of fans were mentioning how RM is going run wild because our rush defense has average stats. I can't reiterate enough how much that run D has improved the past 5 games though. Not to say RM and Oliver can't have success, but the way our run D is playing it looks to be a match up in the Rams favor come Sunday.

But Rams improved run D is important. Whether or not you are a run first offense having some kind of balance is key to sustaining drives and avoid being predictable. Look at our last 2 opponents we held them to 56 yards rushing combined, forcing them to become one-dimensional.

The Rams yield a league high 68.6% completion percentage against them, but do not yield very many 20+ yard passes. Since everyone seems to realize that the Rams have good pass rushers, why don't the Rams take away the short yardage passes they know have to be coming versus their pass rush? The take away: they do not stop the short passes because they can't. (The only other alternative is that their coaches are just stupid and I will give them the benefit of the doubt.)

Unfortunately for the Rams, short passes are what the Chargers do best. So, it seems like a bad matchup for the Rams. If the Chargers do not shoot themselves in the foot, they should be able to move the ball pretty much at will as long as they use the pass to set up the run. Mathews' getting back into game shape will help the Chargers ground game as he has only played 2.5 of 10 games this year. The short passing game will negate the pass rush for the most part.

You're missing my point. I know we have a high completion %. I know the Chargers are very good in their short passing game. That's my point. We LET teams operate a short passing game because we play tight coverage with our back 7 and we tackle well. I don't know if you paid any attention to our game last week or know much about the Broncos, but their offense is also based off of short, timing passes. We were fine with that. Why? Because we allowed almost NO YAC forcing the Broncos into multiple 3rd and 4th down situations. They were 4/12 on 3rd and 0/3 on 4th. Sure Manning got his yards, but the key was our ability to limit YAC and force the ball out quickly. Its hard to consistently drive 80 yards when you're moving the ball in 3 and 4 yard chunks forcing you to convert multiple 3rd downs.

On offense, I see the Rams really struggling. If they do not get a big play TD or a turnover in their opponent's territory, they really struggle to go on long, sustained TD marches. They do get a good number of FGs. While the Chargers have not gotten many turnovers on defense, they have also been on the low side of 20+ yard plays surrendered and they do not yield many points. Also, their offense is among the best at not turning the ball over and their punter is very good at pinning opponents deep in their end and forcing teams to drive a long way to get any points at all. Their offense is good at flipping field position even when they do not score.

Really? Where did you read that? We struggle to go on long, sustained TD marches? We get a good number of FGs. We have scored 18 TDs on offense and have converted 15 FGs. You think we need a big play to drive 60+ yards?

Here are ALL our TD drives this year:

Wk 2 @ TB: 10-80 yds
Wk 3 vs DAL: 15-80, 5-65, 11-80
Wk 4 BYE
Wk 5 @ PHI: 11-84, 5-79, 10-62, 6-75
Wk 6 vs SF: 11-80, 4-55
Wk 7 vs SEA: 6-31, 9-74, 8-80
Wk 8 @ KC: 6-65
Wk 9 @ SF: 3-36
Wk 10 @ AZ: 7-62, 5-80
Wk 11 vs DEN: 1-63

Bolded are the scoring drives of 65+ yards. We have 7 TDs drive of 80+. 15 of our 18 TD drives this year are 60+ yards. Of those 15 drives, 6 are 10+ plays. Of those 15 60+ yard scoring drives we average our TD drives average 8 plays and 74 yards. Is that struggling to go on long, sustained TD drives?

I do not see the Rams, who are not a strong team on offense, having a great deal of success against the Chargers on defense. As long as the Chargers do not make big mistakes on defense, I do not see the Rams reaching 20 points and I do not think that will be enough against the Chargers, who are not likely to kill three of their drives with 10 yard penalties as they did against the Raiders last week. Also, if the Chargers are not controlling the game with their defense, the Chargers may choose to go for it on 4th down and 1 in Rams territory, contrary to how they approached the game versus the Raiders (which was a 4th drive that could have easily been continued).

So what can be said about the Chargers being 29th in the NFL in 3rd down conversions allowed on defense? They allow a 45.4% conversion rate on 3rd downs and have allowed 4 of their last 5 opponents to convert greater than 50% of their 3rd downs. I'll admit the Rams don't have the most dynamic offense, but we are far from bad.

Is there a key area where the Chargers are clear-cut better than the Rams on defense? How about you Red Zone % on defense? Good for 30th in the league at 68%. Whereas my Rams sit at 7th at 50%. A lot of SD fan bash our 19 sacks, yet we've gotten 18 in our last 5 games, while your Chargers sit at 17.

[Coachmarkos]

I think it's going to be one of those games where the team who actually plays better, wins. Regardless of who does what well, and has done so to this point.

[Heatmiser]

This thread is about to be awesome. Let me get my popcorn for the Yubaking West Coast vs Yubaking Midwest. My money is on West Coast Yubaking.

Might be the same person. It has happened before. If one of them has a boyfriend named Brad, it's a lead pipe cinch.

TG

[Rams24/7]

I think it's going to be one of those games where the team who actually plays better, wins. Regardless of who does what well, and has done so to this point.

Oh I agree. At the end of the day is always about who shows up. Any given Sunday anything can happen. I'm just trying to erase some misconceptions some Chargers fans on this site about my Rams

[richpjr]

I think it's cute when a fan from another team shows up trying to convince us why we have no hope.

[SFW]

I think it's cute when a fan from another team shows up trying to convince us why we have no hope.

We already have enough of our own "fans" here trying to convince us that we have no hope.

[TTK]

This thread is about to be awesome. Let me get my popcorn for the Yubaking West Coast vs Yubaking Midwest. My money is on West Coast Yubaking.

Wow, you weren't kidding. Let's go!

[Stinky Wizzleteats+]

Like when did we ever need help to have no hope?

This is The Chargers, hello!?