Giants @ Chargers Game Day Thread / Post Game Discussion (Wk 14)

[CivilBolt]

Slater is so golden, that even the rare QB hit he allows turns out to be the best offensive play of the season, not just for the Chargers, but in the entire league. He should allow hits more often.

I heard from Youtube “Director” that he is on Covid List and will be out this Thursday… that’s a big blow if true

[Xenos]

I was wrong

2 safeties and Guyton split them

Here’s the breakdown:

https://theathletic.com/3012702/2021/12/13/something-special-justin-herberts-mvp-moment-leads-chargers-past-giants/

The Chargers set up in shotgun formation with three receivers to the right — Jared Cook in the slot, Guyton to Cook’s right and rookie Josh Palmer on the outside — and Mike Williamsisolated to the left. Herbert took the snap and dropped back. Pressure came off the edge to his left, as linebacker Lorenzo Carter got past left tackle Rashawn Slater.

Guyton had an option route on the play. If the Giants were playing a single-high safety, Guyton was supposed to take his deep route to the left corner toward the pylon. If the Giants were playing two high safeties, Guyton was supposed to carry his route down the middle of the field, splitting those two safeties.

Herbert and Guyton saw the same look as the play began. The Giants were playing a two-high safety shell. Guyton knifed down the middle in between Xavier McKinney and Logan Ryan.

“I knew I had to split them,” Guyton said.

Herbert saw the play unfolding just as the Chargers had planned while watching film during the week. He just needed to buy enough time.

With Carter bearing down, Herbert escaped to his right. As he reached the hashmarks, he slowed down, stepped up and launched a bomb downfield. Carter unloaded on Herbert milliseconds after he released the ball. Herbert said after the game he did not see Carter coming.

It soared through the air. And soared. And soared. The throw went 63.8 yards, according to Next Gen Stats, and fell over Guyton’s shoulder and into his waiting arms for a touchdown.

“It just drops right in,” Guyton said. “It’s really easy to make those catches when it’s a perfect pass.”

[Xenos]

Popper’s final thoughts on yesterday’s game:

https://theathletic.com/3014704/2021/12/13/chargers-final-thoughts-15-notes-stats-and-quotes-from-win-over-giants/

8. With his sack-fumble late in the third quarter Sunday, edge rusher Joey Bosa is up to 8 1/2 sacks on the season. He has set a career high with five forced fumbles. He is four sacks away from tying his career high and has a sack in five of his past six games. His only game without a sack over that span was against the Bengals last week, when he left the game in the first quarter to be evaluated for a head injury and played only nine snaps. Staley had earned a reputation for getting the most out of his premium players, and he is doing it again with Bosa despite a relatively slow start.

9. Chargers defensive line coach Giff Smith actually called a stunt on Bosa’s sack-fumble. Bosa was supposed to loop inside of Justin Jones on the interior. But it was fourth-and-9, a clear passing situation, and Bosa saw no tight end or running back help to his side. He was one-on-one with right tackle Nate Solder. So Bosa called off — or “iced” — the stunt so he could take on Solder. He won easily around the edge and attacked the ball in Mike Glennon’s hands. “He called a game for both sides and I was like, ‘No way,’” Bosa said Monday. “For a second, I honestly thought the play was whistled dead because he was just standing there and didn’t even see me. And I was like, ‘Wait, he doesn’t see me?’ I was like, ‘All right, I’ll take it.’ And then I just took the ball.”

10. For the first time this season, the Chargers did not play a single defensive play in their dime — or 6 DB — package against the Giants. They were missing James, and the limited personnel in the secondary played a role in that. The Chargers typically use their dime package in third-and-long situations. In this game, they showed a variation of their nickel — or five DB — package in third-and-longs early in the game when it was still close instead of going to dime. In this nickel package, the Chargers had Jerry Tillery as the lone defensive lineman, Bosa, Uchenna Nwosu and Kenneth Murray at edge rusher, Drue Tranquill and Kyzir White at inside linebacker lined up in the A gaps between the center and guards, Kemon Hall at slot corner, Michael Davis and Tevaughn Campbell at outside corner, Trey Marshall at deep-field safety and Nasir Adderley playing box safety.

Staley said Monday they had this package activated all week. But with James out, the Chargers moved Adderley to James’ role and inserted Hall into Adderley’s role.

11. There was a protection breakdown on Ty Long’s mishit punt in the fourth quarter. Staley said Amen Ogbongbemiga blocked the wrong player. Obongbemiga also had a positive moment on special teams, though, when he flew down on the opening kickoff and dropped returner Pharoh Cooper at the 15-yard line.

12. The Chargers offensive line really set the tone running the ball on the second drive of the game. Ekeler had runs of 14 yards, 9 yards and 9 yards on the drive before punching it into the end zone from 1 yard out. The Chargers averaged 8.4 yards per carry on their first five runs of the possession. Slater and Feiler were dominant on the left side. I thought this forced the Giants to respect the Chargers’ rushing attack over the remainder of the game.

13. Josh Palmer had a career-high 66 yards receiving, and his longest catch of the day, a 36-yarder on the first possession of the second half, was a gorgeous design from offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi. Palmer motioned from left to right and set up on the outside shoulder of right tackle Storm Norton. The offensive line and tight end Stephen Andersondid a great job of selling the split-zone play-action fake, and Palmer leaked out from his spot on an over route. The play is called “Leak” and is a staple in both Kyle Shanahan’s and Sean McVay’s offenses. Palmer got past defensive back Logan Ryan and was wide open.

14. The Chargers took a delay of game penalty on a fourth-and-4 from the Giants’ 5-yard line on their opening possession of the second half. Explaining the decision on Monday, Staley said the motivating reasoning was giving kicker Dustin Hopkins a little extra room on his field goal attempt. He felt more comfortable with a 28-yard kick from the left hash mark versus a 23-yard kick, Staley said. The Chargers kept their offense on the field and attempted to draw the Giants offside. If the Chargers had been successful, Staley said he would have considered going for it. It would have been a half-the-distance-to-the-goal penalty, and the Chargers would have been looking at about 1 1/2 yards to gain for the first.

15. Cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. remains in the concussion protocol, Staley said Monday. “He’s still working through the final parts of it,” Staley said. “He’s day to day.”

[beachcomber]

10. For the first time this season, the Chargers did not play a single defensive play in their dime — or 6 DB — package against the Giants. They were missing James, and the limited personnel in the secondary played a role in that. The Chargers typically use their dime package in third-and-long situations. In this game, they showed a variation of their nickel — or five DB — package in third-and-longs early in the game when it was still close instead of going to dime. In this nickel package, the Chargers had Jerry Tillery as the lone defensive lineman, Bosa, Uchenna Nwosu and Kenneth Murray at edge rusher, Drue Tranquill and Kyzir White at inside linebacker lined up in the A gaps between the center and guards, Kemon Hall at slot corner, Michael Davis and Tevaughn Campbell at outside corner, Trey Marshall at deep-field safety and Nasir Adderley playing box safety.

Staley said Monday they had this package activated all week. But with James out, the Chargers moved Adderley to James’ role and inserted Hall into Adderley’s role.

seemingly effective and more oft than not,

[beachcomber]

We are dead last in net punting and Long is in the bottom third in gross punting. He is also slow in his punts and we have seen far too many blocks and near blocks during his time with us, so I agree that we need to move on from him.

Roberts has solidified the return game for us, but he is long in the tooth for a return man--turns 34 the day of our final regular season game. So, we will likely need someone else next year and I would not mind using either some draft or free agency capital to secure a player with proven return skills. But I would love for Roberts to get a Super Bowl ring before letting him go as a thank you to him for his contribution.

Hopkins has been solid for us, which makes him legendary in terms of recent Charger kickers. I would hang onto him.

https://www.drafttek.com/2022-NFL-Draft-Position-Rankings/Top-College-Punters-2022-NFL-Draft.asp

Araiza is a given, and if Al Davis were still out and about, 'tis prolly a given that he'd spend his first on a punter.

personally am watchful of Michael Turk.... https://www.si.com/college/oklahoma/football/oklahoma-p-michael-turk-thrilled-to-be-a-sooner-after-unorthodox-path-to-norman

1) Michael Turk, Oklahoma

What an incredible journey to the 2022 NFL Draft that Michael Turk has had. He declared for the draft after a spectacular 2019 season where he boomed a 75-yard punt, averaged 46 yards per attempt, and downed over half his attempts inside the 20-yard line. Turk turned heads after an impressive performance on the bench press. Ultimately, he went undrafted following disappointing punting drills.

Turk fought to return to school, citing the global situation as impacting the opportunity to be selected to the NFL. He won his case and played for the Sun Devils in the shortened 2020 season. Yet, Just before the start of this season, he entered the transfer portal.

As one of the top punters in the 2022 NFL Draft class, it wasn’t long until Turk found a new home. While Oklahoma has had their offensive troubles, it has allowed their punter to elevate his stock. Turk ranks fourth in the nation for average punt distance (49.13 yards) and has boomed an 85-yard punt this season. Moreover, his career average of 46.9 yards per punt is one of the highest in this class.

https://infernointel.com/asu-nfl-draft/5/

https://withthefirstpick.com/2020/06/06/asu-punter-michael-turk-gets-waiver-return-going-undrafted/

[Xenos]

seemingly effective and more oft than not,

Against certain teams.

[foreigner]

What do you mean almost meltdown? That would mean that they were in threat of losing that game.

Come on... dont tell me you weren't nervous... we are talking about the Chargers here... Masters of creating new ways to lose......

[CivilBolt]

What do you mean almost meltdown? That would mean that they were in threat of losing that game.

If we still have our starters out there when the Giants scored the garbage points then I would be concerned.

[Rugger05]

Come on... dont tell me you weren't nervous... we are talking about the Chargers here... Masters of creating new ways to lose......

This was the first Chargers game in a long while that I was not nervous at any point in the fourth quarter

[foreigner]

Can somebody please post here Nick Canepa's report card from the last game?

[Guest]

He wasn’t leaping straight up vertically yet you’re measuring vertical distance? I dont know if you just like playing lawyer on the internet or you’re stupid at this point. He leapt exactly as far as needed to catch that blazing bullet pass soaring in from 30 yards away. But what, you wanted him to jump higher and then try to catch it at his waist as he’s soaring vertically?

a stupid post repeated many times just makes it dumber.

What is this nonsense that you are posting? You are trying and failing miserably to make up some BS about me thinking that Palmer somehow needed to jump higher. I never said anything even remotely close to that. Your statement is pure BS.

In fact, one of the main points in support of my position is that Palmer does not need to jump very high to make the catch. The video of the play and photos in this thread establish that--conclusively. Palmer's leap does not go higher than Ryan's knee while Ryan is running. I would estimate the height of Palmer's leap as most likely 12-16 inches. So we are talking about a leap that is less than half of his standing still vertical leaping capacity, much less his running vertical leaping capacity (which is greater than his standing still leaping capacity in case anyone is missing that point). And he is not even at maximum stretch when he makes the catch. It is a low degree of difficulty uncontested controlled catch well within his two-handed catch radius.

So where is the difficulty with the catch that you and some others are just making up because the person catching the ball is Palmer?

By elevating the throw, Herbert actually makes the catch easier than it otherwise would have been because the pass is placed where Ryan cannot contest the catch in any meaningful way.

The points I have described above are obvious points, so it is unclear why you and others are missing such simple concepts.

[Heatmiser]

When the Giants hired Joe Judge, it was a real head scratcher for me. I mean other than coaching under Belicheck (as the ST coordinator?) I don’t think anyone ever heard of him. And he has coached like it. But then I was reading an article post game and it had a photo of him and if you look at it, he looks eerily like a very young Bill Parcells. So I wonder if subliminally the idiot GM for the Giants thought they were getting another Parcells? So far he looks more like another Eric Mangini.

TG

[Air Coryell 84]

Does Lomnardi look like he's going to lay an egg? Last week he was blinking his eyes gast when we almost choked. He knows his days are numbered.

[Air Coryell 84]

Joe Lombadri proud of his 31st ranked defense. Meaning only 1 team worse at rushing than our team.

[Bolt-O]

?