Cowboys @ Chargers Game Day Thread / Post Game Discussion

[Critty]

The Chargers defense is mostly completely healthy and yet gave up 100+ rushing yards to Washington last week and now 200+ rushing yards to Dallas this week.

And we have teams like Ravens, Browns and Patriots all coming up and they love to run the ball…

Staley plays a light box so he can defend the pass and prevent big plays. He forces the other team to drive with short passes and running the ball.

Team is currently the 7th best scoring defense.
Allowing 18pts a game.

They allowed only 7pts the entire 2nd half vs Wash And allowed only 6pts the entire 2nd half vs Dallas.

The offense is currently 26th best.
Scoring 18.5pts per game.

The problems are on the offensive side.
They have 4 turnovers already.

Chargers have had 10 redzone chances.
TD on 3 of 10 for 30% success

Opponent 5 redzone chances.
TD on 3 of 5 for 60% success.

If Chargers can continue to give themselves twice as many redzone chances as the opponent as a trend and then start to cash in closer to 50% and also limit opponent to about 50%, then they will be able to get a nice winning streak going.

[jamrock]

McCarthy said because of the problem with the clock he didn't know how much time he had left. Had he known he would have run another play or two.

LOL, I was sitting in the stadium watching the clock go down and not understanding why he didnt call a TO and run another play. Turns out he didnt need to but there was no clock issue. That's a CYA answer

[powderblueboy]

Thought it was more.

Storm got a lot of help in the 2nd half, so that 17 - 18% pressures allowed hardly tells the complete story.
And then you're mostly throwing on first downs and looking for positive yards with quick checkdowns.

His performance the 1rst week i thought was greatly overstated: he did not regress, he got consistent help.
Consistently chip the end & then one play don't chip, when the end is expecting it....Storm will look good one on one there.

One marginal player on the Oline should not sidetrack the offense so completely.
Lombardi had a bad week.

Can he bounce back?

[powderblueboy]

Viz is shaky. He nearly missed the kick that tied it at 17

He nearly made the miss with pressure from the right side.

[AKFlyFisher]

My quick thoughts:
1. The red zone continues to be a problem for this team.
2. I do believe that the referees influenced the outcome of this game. I think there was a PI in the end zone not called on Mike Williams -- though that was probably Herbert's worst throw. I listened to Popper, and I disagree about the holding on the Parham touchdown. I also think the Cook touchdown was one that is never called. Also, the Aboushi call may have been the most ridiculous of the bunch.
3. Dallas fans crack me up. I see Dallas fans asserting that this game should have been a blowout for Dallas. I guess I don't remember them having 14 points taken off the board from them. I will say this, whoever was calling plays for Dallas -- was it Kellen Moore?? -- should have been running it every single play. I have no idea what he was thinking. I truly believe they should have put up 300+ yards on the ground yesterday.
3. Herbert has been bit by some bad luck and by being in a new offense. The two interceptions yesterday were the right read, but either the receiver didn't run the route right based on the read, or the receiver fell. Despite that, Herbert has been impressing me, a lot. He has worked on his game, and it is mind blowing what he is doing out there. Is he making mistakes? Sure. Is he not always reading the defense right? Sure. But I think, throw the interceptions out the window, he is looking far superior now than he did last season with his accuracy, his touch, and his approach. He just needs time. For example, does anyone see Tua or Burrow throwing this easily for 300 yards right now? I don't.
4. The biggest concern for me is the lack of refinement. Everything is sloppy. The execution is just awful. I watch a lot of Premier League, so bear with me here, but you often hear about how your lines are connected when playing offense and defense. I saw no strong connection yesterday from the defense; they were not playing as a unit. It felt extremely disjointed. In my opinion, it starts with the line and lack of leverage there, and then it all sort of faltered. I don't want to get too worried, but K9 is not playing well right now, and I don't care what the stats say. I am surprised Tranquill is not getting more snaps and time.
5. I said this to start the season: given a new offense and the lack of talent -- as Telesco has done an abysmal job really pooling talent at the sort of blue collar positions -- this was a two year project. I would not be thinking playoffs this season. Best case is this team develops and gives me the feeling that Tampa Bay team did during the Alstott years; where at the end of the season you knew the team was going to be a problem the next season. That is what I want. I want to see the young players develop, Herbert to find his rhythm and become a master of this offense, and then another off-season to fix the lines some more to really win next season.

[Bolt4Knob]

Storm got a lot of help in the 2nd half, so that 17 - 18% pressures allowed hardly tells the complete story.
And then you're mostly throwing on first downs and looking for positive yards with quick checkdowns.

His performance the 1rst week i thought was greatly overstated: he did not regress, he got consistent help.
Consistently chip the end & then one play don't chip, when the end is expecting it....Storm will look good one on one there.

One marginal player on the Oline should not sidetrack the offense so completely.
Lombardi had a bad week.

Can he bounce back?

If the Chargers continue to keep Norton at RT - the coaching staff needs to give him help. I would rather have Herbert with more time to throw and one less receiver than 5 wides and the play blows up in a matter of seconds because the pass rush is too much for Norton.

That was bad coaching and bad play design by Lombardi and the staff - so I agree with you
I also think with the red zone problems - Lombardi needs to look at run/pass ratio and maybe he is too pass happy.

[chargeroo]

LOL, I was sitting in the stadium watching the clock go down and not understanding why he didnt call a TO and run another play. Turns out he didnt need to but there was no clock issue. That's a CYA answer

I believe him - the announcers also said they couldn't see the clock. I take it you were able to see a working clock from where you were but he couldn't see that particular clock from the sidelines. Zac said he could see the clock too and was wondering why they weren't running another play.

[jamrock]

I believe him - the announcers also said they couldn't see the clock. I take it you were able to see a working clock from where you were but he couldn't see that particular clock from the sidelines. Zac said he could see the clock too and was wondering why they weren't running another play.

Who is Zac?

[powderblueboy]

Staley plays a light box so he can defend the pass and prevent big plays. He forces the other team to drive with short passes and running the ball.

Team is currently the 7th best scoring defense.
Allowing 18pts a game.

They allowed only 7pts the entire 2nd half vs Wash And allowed only 6pts the entire 2nd half vs Dallas.

The offense is currently 26th best.
Scoring 18.5pts per game.

The problems are on the offensive side.
They have 4 turnovers already.

Chargers have had 10 redzone chances.
TD on 3 of 10 for 30% success

Opponent 5 redzone chances.
TD on 3 of 50 for 60% success.

If Chargers can continue to give themselves twice as many redzone chances as the opponent as a trend and then start to cash in closer to 50% and also limit opponent to about 50%, then they will be able to get a nice winning streak going.

I agree...the offensive side has more talent.

They struggled to score their lone 2nd half td when gifted the ball on the 3 yard line against Washington.
Their best running back is not best suited in the redzone....that is one of the problems.

For those who think you can just put some rookie free agent back there, think again.
Maybe they should go with more Roundtree down there.

[like54ninjas]

Staley plays a light box so he can defend the pass and prevent big plays. He forces the other team to drive with short passes and running the ball.

Team is currently the 7th best scoring defense.
Allowing 18pts a game.

They allowed only 7pts the entire 2nd half vs Wash And allowed only 6pts the entire 2nd half vs Dallas.

The offense is currently 26th best.
Scoring 18.5pts per game.

The problems are on the offensive side.
They have 4 turnovers already.

Chargers have had 10 redzone chances.
TD on 3 of 10 for 30% success

Opponent 5 redzone chances.
TD on 3 of 50 for 60% success.

If Chargers can continue to give themselves twice as many redzone chances as the opponent as a trend and then start to cash in closer to 50% and also limit opponent to about 50%, then they will be able to get a nice winning streak going.

Excellent breakdown. Good shit!

”Sauce” is a top 3-5 CB prospect.

[chargeroo]

Does anyone think our special teams are much better than last years? They kept some players just for ST but they still are not very good. We almost had a punt blocked and the missed FG was a close one too. Wrong coordinators?

[powderblueboy]

Who is Zac?

I always have to correct myself on that.

Dak wasn't exactly threading the needle out there......i wasn't really impressed with him in his current state
His ankle reduces his running threat, and his arm strength is diminished.
They didn't have him throw a hail Mary from the 50 because he couldn't get it there.
He made one nice throw, and that was it...mostly pitch and catch on the other throws.

That's another thing that was disappointing in this loss: they lost to a greatly diminished Dallas squad.