Football is back, everybody! Week 1 is almost in the books; half of the teams have a win, and half have a loss. Unfortunately for us Chargers fans, we fall under the half that has a loss. Like with every game, there are both good things and bad things to come away with. Here is what we learned from their Week 1 matchup against the Miami Dolphins.
Chargers OC Kellen Moore – Noel Sanchez/Charger Report
Kellen Moore’s Offense Looks Good
Many professional analysts and die-hard fans like myself have wondered the same thing: How are Herbert and the offense going to look under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore with him calling plays? Even though it is just one week, I would say we learned our answer. That answer is it looks pretty dang good. This is especially true for the running game. Last year, we averaged less than 90 yards a game which was at the bottom of the league. In week 1, we rushed for a total of 234 yards. Now, that is what I call improvement.
In terms of our passing game, I would say it was good but not great. Herbert was efficient and managed the game well, but he still seemed to lack the explosiveness we saw in his first two years in the league. Herbert is regarded as one of the most accurate deep passers in the league, yet all of his deep passes were off their mark except for one early in the game. The O-line looked great for both pass-protecting and run-blocking. Overall, I’m very impressed with how quickly our offensive unit got up to speed. Now for the sad part of this piece…
Chargers OLB Joey Bosa (97) – Kyusung Gong/Associated Press
Defense Crumbles
Before we get to how bad the defense did, let’s look at some good. Derwin James was amazing and all over the field. In a game where our defensive line couldn’t put any pressure, he was our best pass rusher with a few QB pressures. Along with a tackle for loss and a couple of pass deflections, he was by far our best player on defense. Now for the ugliness, we learned from our defense.
Let’s start with the pass rush since I already mentioned it. In my preview article, I said that Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack could have themselves a day. Especially if Terron Armstead didn’t play, which he didn’t. Even with that advantage, Bosa and Mack combined for a shocking zero sacks. They barely put any pressure on Tua as he danced circles around them. As I said, our best pass rusher was Derwin James. When you have big names like Bosa and Mack, who are both getting paid in the top five for edge rushers, that shouldn’t be the case.
The last thing to discuss is the secondary. They did have ten pass deflections, which, on the surface, is very good. However, there’s no point in forcing all those incompletions if you’re going to give up such big plays. They couldn’t stop the nosebleed that was Tyreek Hill. He went off to get 11 catches for 215 yards and two touchdowns. When Tua targeted Hill, he was 11 of 15. When targeting all other receivers, he was 17 of 30 for a 56% completion. Even so, when he did complete to other receivers, it was almost always for a big gain. The Dolphins receivers averaged almost 17 yards per catch. That’s not how you win on defense.
Chargers HC Brandon Staley – Kyusung Gong / Associated Press
Brand Staley Out-Coached Yet Again
In his first year, Staley was praised for being aggressive and making the right decisions. Then, in the last game of his first season, many of those decisions went wrong, and many people called him into question. Last year, his second season, it seemed like he made bad coaching decisions every game. Whether it was timeouts, going for 4th downs, calling plays, time management, or mid-game adjustments, he never seemed to be as confident as he was at the beginning of his head coaching career. It seems that is continuing into this year.
As I said in my preview article, this was going to be a high-scoring game. There were more points scored than even I thought there would be. In back-and-forth games like this, the better coach usually knows how to win the game. That turned out the be the case as Mike McDaniels, head coach of the Dolphins, out-coached Staley. The Chargers defense started off well, keeping the receivers in check. Then McDaniels made adjustments to use Staley’s game plan against him. This is when we learned Staley wasn’t the better of the two coaches.
Let me explain. Staley used the same game plan from last year: Cover the middle of the field where Tua feels comfortable. It worked out perfectly last and seemed to repeat itself this game. Then McDaniels had Hill staying on the outside. Even with Derwin James covering high, Staley had James towards the middle, and that left the corners one-on-one against Hill. It didn’t matter who was on him (JC Jackson, Mike Davis, Asante Samuel, or Jasir Taylor); Hill was able to get open on the outside. While McDaniels was able to make adjustments mid-game, Staley was not. That is what keeps him from being a good coach so far.
What We Learned
This will be short. I can sum up what we learned in this game in one simple sentence: Our defense lost the game. Our offensive performance would have won in almost every other game this week, but our defense couldn’t hold up. Like Jeff Miller said in his article for the Los Angeles Times, our defense let us all down. I sure hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. #foreshadowing.
