Random thoughts on the Chargers game

[VivaEfrenHerrera]

Just a classic NFL road loss, when you look at it in totality.

- Motivated opponent plays at the top of their game
- Another poster called it a "throwback performance by Gates", which totally nails it.
- Unfavorable conditions for speed/energy-based defense.
- Terrible ball luck
- Poor timing on penalties
- Super bad timing on the one turnover
- Typical 60/40 officiating advantage for the home team

The defense dug themselves an early TOP hole and the offense, even if they kept pace on the scoreboard, wasn't able to even the account. Special Teams didn't help either with the really untimely fumble by Percy. All that adds up to why good teams lose on the road in the NFL.

Most annoying part for me (other than Rivers' pissy mug) was the frustrating inability to get off the field on 3rd-and long. Brings back baaaaad memories...

 

[Reaneypark]

Freeney ate Okung's lunch and repeatedly kicked him in the balls for good measure.

 

[kearly]

Wasn't terribly happy with the play calling today. As brilliant as Bevell was last week, he was equally infuriating this week. Calling a Lynch run up the gut on third and a mile was stupid; even if they weren't expecting such a play, there's no way even Lynch takes it the distance needed for the first down. And that punt on 4th and two was a gut-wrencher. Absolutely should have gone for it there. I said so at the time. There was about eight minutes left, the offense was hot and cold, but the defense was not only gassed, but they'd already given up a whole lot of points. Turn that drive into points and it's a whole different ballgame. Punt, and you concede the game.

I thought the play calling was just fine. Seattle had 7.2 yards per play to SD's 5.0. The Chargers were ridiculously clutch, and if they hadn't dominated T.O.P. thanks to Seattle's D never getting off the field, I could easily see Seattle scoring 30+ in this one.

As far as the two instances you mention, I also kinda wanted Seattle to go for it on 4th and 2, but with roughly 9 minutes left in the game, three timeouts, and the defense showing some second half life, punting is what most coaches would do from their own 40 yard line. Seattle's defense forced a punt and it actually worked out well for Seattle in that instance.

On 3rd and 19, I think Pete feared a game losing turnover, so he stuck with something safe to live another day. That wasn't a Bevell call, that was a Pete call. And IMO, it was the right call.

 

[akon]

Unlucky bounces were mindboggling today. Four fumbles in the game and they every single one went San Diego's direction. Forcing fumbles is a learned talent; recovering them is the luck of the draw, and that was about as unlucky of a set of bounces as we've seen for a long time. Not saying it was the reason we lost, but it clearly could have gone the other way.

This was reminding me of the 9ers (at least when they play us - I rarely see them otherwise). The ball always seems to bounce their way..... and they actually end up with better field position. Almost like the football gods are smiling their way or something. Well, I'll still take getting the Lombardi

There were actually 5 fumbles.
Ingram demolished Wilson, Seattle recovered.
SD forced Harvin fumble on kickoff return, SD recovered.
Seattle punches ball from Mathews, SD recovered.
Rivers muffed snap, SD recovered.
Mathews muffed handoff, SD recovered.

Wilson did not fumble the ball; he is not credited for a fumble in the game. But even so, the point stands. Very rarely do you see a team get every single fumble of a multiple-fumble game like that. Lucky bounces all. It wasn't the reason for the loss, but it certainly didn't help our cause.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

Wasn't terribly happy with the play calling today. As brilliant as Bevell was last week, he was equally infuriating this week. Calling a Lynch run up the gut on third and a mile was stupid; even if they weren't expecting such a play, there's no way even Lynch takes it the distance needed for the first down. And that punt on 4th and two was a gut-wrencher. Absolutely should have gone for it there. I said so at the time. There was about eight minutes left, the offense was hot and cold, but the defense was not only gassed, but they'd already given up a whole lot of points. Turn that drive into points and it's a whole different ballgame. Punt, and you concede the game.

I thought the play calling was just fine. Seattle had 7.2 yards per play to SD's 5.0. The Chargers were ridiculously clutch, and if they hadn't dominated T.O.P. thanks to Seattle's D never getting off the field, I could easily see Seattle scoring 30+ in this one.

As far as the two instances you mention, I also kinda wanted Seattle to go for it on 4th and 2, but with roughly 9 minutes left in the game, three timeouts, and the defense showing some second half life, punting is what most coaches would do from their own 40 yard line. Seattle's defense forced a punt and it actually worked out well for Seattle in that instance.

On 3rd and 19, I think Pete feared a game losing turnover, so he stuck with something safe to live another day. That wasn't a Bevell call, that was a Pete call. And IMO, it was the right call.

I can see your point, but I still think both were crap calls, no matter who they were on. On the 4th and two, I didn't have much faith in the defense holding because they hadn't really done so all day. And sure enough. Results were the same as if we'd have gone for it and not made it. Besides, if you trust them to hold San Diego scoreless the next drive, you should probably trust them to limit them to at least a field goal attempt if the 4th down wasn't converted to a 1st.

And the 3rd and 19 call was equally ridiculous. You don't want a game-losing turnover, but you're willing to concede the ball to the other team and punt from deep in your own side of the field? Really not much difference there when you get down to it. At least give yourself a chance with a play that could pick up the yards.

The yards per play is what it is. They were doing short stuff over the middle to exploit our linebackers, and it was working. Their plays weren't designed to go for more than five yards a play, and they were scoring just fine with that plan. Our offense may have scored more yards per play, but we only put the ball into the end zone three times. The rest of the drives were stalled in one way, shape, or form, and that to me is not good play calling.

Also, akon, that's interesting he's credited there. The stat sheet on Yahoo! Sports (I know, not the best or most reliable) I saw did not credit him with a fumble. Not that 1-4 is much better than 0-4 when you're on the losing end of the recoveries and the score.

 

[Kaiser]

The tackling made me want to puke.

 

[Rainger]

Rivers was lights out. Gates was on fire. We cant let a hot QB run that many plays. Hats off to Rivers and the OC. The out played us pure and simple.

 

[hoxrox]

If Gates is any indication, Julius Thomas is probably licking his chops right now. We need interior pass rush next week.

 

[kearly]

Results were the same as if we'd have gone for it and not made it.

Seattle got the ball back without SD scoring. That validates the punt, IMO.

And the 3rd and 19 call was equally ridiculous. You don't want a game-losing turnover, but you're willing to concede the ball to the other team and punt from deep in your own side of the field? Really not much difference there when you get down to it. At least give yourself a chance with a play that could pick up the yards.

On 3rd and 19, the odds of converting are probably less than 10%. And if they turn the ball over going for that 10% success, they are dead on the spot. SD's defense had a lot of momentum and Wilson was not getting the time he needed to connect on a deep completion. That was a factor as well.

There's also field position to consider. The 8 yards of field position Lynch gained would lower the odds SD kicking a FG when they got the ball.

Seattle's live another day mindset worked: It kept them in the game and got them the ball with a chance to win with a TD drive at the end. We've seen Wilson win games like this before. Unfortunately, that last drive ended in disaster with a 4 and out. I tip my cap to the defense for reading Bevell's mind on that final series.

At any rate, Seattle got the ball back again without San Diego scoring in both cases. Playing it safe in obvious "play it safe situations" was not what cost Seattle.

Pete has won us a lot of games before with conservative decisions in these exact kinds of situations. And it's not just Pete, going for the safe yardage on 3rd and 19 or avoiding a suicidal 4th down with plenty of time left on the clock in a one score game is NFL coaching 101.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

Good points, Kip. I thought they had gotten another score after that punt. Still, we didn't score, and that was more to the point.

 

[Yxes1122]

Having a 75% 3rd down conversion rate does not happen often and if that's what it takes to beat us then I feel alright for the future. Rivers was lights out. Some of those windows were tiny.

So hard to judge the offense today because it felt like they were hardly on the field and half the time I was seeing Lockette and Walters instead of our main WRs. Could be less than I realized but just felt like they were on the field a lot.

Dumb penalty aside, Irvin is flashing more power and pass rush ability this season.

Okung looked less than himself again.

Overall just didn't feel like our day from the beginning. Wilson's huge sack on the first drive. Consistently failing to fall on a fumble, Percy's flukey fumble, Wilson getting tripped up 2 yards from a first, screens consistently getting chunk yardage, Earl cramping up... All out of character things and all things that are fixable.

God was it frustrating tho...

At least Frisco lost.

 

[Largent80]

Our linebackers were playing like they stepped in dog doo, that's all I can say. They were atrocious and earned themselves a tough week at practice.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

One thing I saw, and maybe others saw differently, but aside from that egregious--and it was egregious--personal foul penalty for the hit out of bounds, Irvin had a decent game. He got a couple of pressures and probably should have been credited for half of Bennett's sack, as he was there first, and got a good piece of Rivers. We remember his game for a stupid penalty that he should never have even considered taking, but he was having a decent game up until that point.

 

[RolandDeschain]

I thought the play calling was just fine.

A grand total of 13 plays involving Lynch and Harvin combined, including runs, passes, and pass attempts is fine by you? I'm not trolling, I swear - I'm honestly curious. I don't think that's fine at all, especially when you consider that several of those 13 were unplanned dump-off passes to Lynch.

We basically ignored our two best weapons on offense.

Edit: We deserve it, guys; time to take our medicine, bitter though the taste may be:

 

[DavidSeven]

As a fan, of course I would've liked to see a 4th/2 try, but there is absolutely no way you can justify it at that field position with 9 minutes left in the game. None. I've seen this team punt to Brady with even less time left than that and win. Also, that's a Pete call, not a Bevell call. If they had gone for it and failed there, they'd be getting killed for it now.

 

[DavidSeven]

Also, I can't fathom people putting this on offensive play calling. The team was ridiculously efficient in their limited opps. Lynch didn't get the ball because we didn't have the ball enough and some penalties/blown up plays took the run game out of the mix.

This game was won on Rivers' ability to covert 3rd down on our defense. He's made an elite career on that, and I tip my cap to him. Would've loved to play him in typical SD conditions, but oh well, it is what it is.

 

[RolandDeschain]

As a fan, of course I would've liked to see a 4th/2 try, but there is absolutely no way you can justify it at that field position with 9 minutes left in the game.

Yeah, you absolutely can. It was eight minutes remaining, not nine, and our defense was getting smoked all day. I know hindsight is perfect, but I was flabbergasted that we decided to punt before we even punted the actual ball, personally. Depending on our defense at that point was clearly the wrong move, and I'd still think that even if we had won this game.

 

[DavidSeven]

As a fan, of course I would've liked to see a 4th/2 try, but there is absolutely no way you can justify it at that field position with 9 minutes left in the game.

Yeah, you absolutely can. It was eight minutes remaining, not nine, and our defense was getting smoked all day. I know hindsight is perfect, but I was flabbergasted that we decided to punt before we even punted the actual ball, personally. Depending on our defense at that point was clearly the wrong move, and I'd still think that even if we had won this game.

It was not "clearly" the wrong move because we got the ball back. It worked perfectly. A blown up jet sweep essentially ended the day for us. Otherwise, we would've had a chance.

8 minutes is a lifetime in football. You can't go for it there. Failing to convert there would've been a nail in the coffin.

 

[RolandDeschain]

...I strongly disagree with you on this, let's just leave it at that.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

Also, I can't fathom people putting this on offensive play calling. The team was ridiculously efficient in their limited opps. Lynch didn't get the ball because we didn't have the ball enough and some penalties/blown up plays took the run game out of the mix.

This game was won on Rivers' ability to covert 3rd down on our defense. He's made an elite career on that, and I tip my cap to him. Would've loved to play him in typical SD conditions, but oh well, it is what it is.

Ridiculously efficient in their limited opps? The reason they had limited opportunities was because they failed to do anything with the ball on offense all but three times. Those three times they were ridiculously efficient, but were otherwise 3-9 on third and fourth down with a turnover. Ridiculous, yes. Efficient, far from it.