The Times The Chargers Blitzed

[Bolt Dude]

What if he mistimes the snap? He gets an offside or encroachment penalty/

What if, what if.
If pigs had teeth
they could whistle.

[boldarblood]

Per pro football reference under Team Advance Defense stats we were dead last the past season at bltz% at 16% (Rams were 25% for comparison, Baltimore lead at 44%).

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2020/opp.htm

[Charge!]

I want to do this thread to show all the times the team blitzed under Bradley in 2020.

Every 2020 Chargers highlight against other teams, go to certain parts in the video of the highlights I list down.


Chargers vs Bengals week 1

2:49
9:35
10:42

Chiefs vs Chargers week 2

5:11
12:08

Panthers vs Chargers week 3

4:29
10:56

Chargers vs Buccaneers week 4

2:12
4:58
5:56
8:41

Chargers vs Saints week 5

0:23
2:14
7:20
7:34
9:05
12:05
14:41

Jaguars vs Chargers week 7

3:03
5:12
5:33
11:23

Chargers vs Broncos week 8

11:34

Raiders vs Chargers week 9

3:34
10:36

Chargers vs Dolphins week 10

2:22
4:57

Jets vs Chargers week 11

4:13
4:36
7:18
7:28
10:00

Chargers vs Bills week 12

2:01
3:29
9:45

Patriots vs Chargers week 13

0:47
5:07
7:51
9:53

Falcons vs Chargers week 14

4:02
8:04

Chargers vs Raiders week 15

4:54

Broncos vs Chargers week 16

2:25

Chargers vs Chiefs week 17

0:18


The roster had weaknesses in 2020. New players replaced the ones who left, so there will be upgrades to certain areas. Kenneth Murray is a known blitzer and he was getting used to the game in the pros, he'll get better with more experience.

For 2021, we'll see what's different. I want to use this thread to record down every blitz and examine all the instances.

Murray was a great blitzer and box LBer in college with weak coverage skills...... Brilliant Bradley had him in coverage, struggling most of the time.... ignoring what he does best..... only toward the end of season did they start keeping him in the box where he started making plays......

[Steve]

You really think our coverage was good enough to stand up to being in single coverage more than it was?

[FoutsFan]

You really think our coverage was good enough to stand up to being in single coverage more than it was?

On the flip side do you think our coverage was good enough to cover for 4-5 seconds with no pass rush? Last season was the choice of die quickly or die by a thousand cuts. Sometimes the thousand cut death hurts much worse.

[Steve]

On the flip side do you think our coverage was good enough to cover for 4-5 seconds with no pass rush? Last season was the choice of die quickly or die by a thousand cuts. Sometimes the thousand cut death hurts much worse.

True, but with the poor pass rushers we have, the chances of the blitz getting there is pretty low much of the time.

How about all the blown assignments and coverage breakdowns that go hand in hand with defenses that blitz?

How about all the backup players we had that were forced to start early in the year, and don't have techniques and assignments down for all the "extra" things going on in he plays that lead to breakdowns?

You seem to forget that the defense managed to do their part and keep the games close to the end. We were statistically a somewhat weak group, but game in and game out, the scores were kinda close late in the game. You can just as easily say that the offense and/or ST were as big a part of the Chargers losing than what the D did.

[FoutsFan]

True, but with the poor pass rushers we have, the chances of the blitz getting there is pretty low much of the time.

How about all the blown assignments and coverage breakdowns that go hand in hand with defenses that blitz?

How about all the backup players we had that were forced to start early in the year, and don't have techniques and assignments down for all the "extra" things going on in he plays that lead to breakdowns?

You seem to forget that the defense managed to do their part and keep the games close to the end. We were statistically a somewhat weak group, but game in and game out, the scores were kinda close late in the game. You can just as easily say that the offense and/or ST were as big a part of the Chargers losing than what the D did.

All true but time after time when the D needed a stop they could not get it and it usually was not a big 75 yard TD pass that killed us. It was 6-10 yard passes with coverage backed way off leaving the underneath wide open. Death by a thousand cuts.

[Steve]

We didn't give up the 75 yard TD because we didn't leave our 2nd string defenders out on an island to get burned. So you prefer giving up the 75 yard TD? Then we fall behind and pretty much lose for sure.

It's a team game. The offense , D and ST all need to improve. You can just as easily point to any area as not winning a game. We left a lot of points on the field last year on offense. ST didn't contribute in a positive sense to scoring, and often left the D in tough field position.

The big thing people will probably be surprised is that Staley is not a blitzing D. Not at all.

Most of the blitzes he did run, are not to free up a free rusher. I would say we probably ran as many overload blitzes as the Rams did last year (just a handful all season).

Staley is a coverage first coach. Most of the Rams sacks last year were not 1st or 2nd effort sacks. They were playing coverage and forcing the QB to hold the ball. Then long after the QB is going down his progression, the rushers would then get pressure late and get coverage sacks. Lots and lots of coverage sacks.

Most of the blitzes Staley ran with the Rams was just to get the 5th rusher man on man, so that Donald and Leonard were not getting double teamed. But they didn't get many sacks early in the play, even when they blitzed.

[equivocation]

We didn't give up a 75 yard TD because ST never stopped them at their own 25.

Everything sucks whem your players aren't good (although I'd argue we do have some pash rushers...) but being predictable makes everything suck even more.

[Steve]

Plenty of good teams are boring play callers, they make up for it by out executing the other team. "Boring" teams are often "boring" because they cannot execute well enough to do interesting things. 2nd rate players aren't going to be better when they are trying to do more complicated. They generally screw up in more spectacular ways.

Coaches don't call more exotic plays because if their players can't execute simple plays, it is almost certain they can't execute complicated plays. Fans are hoping that they can confuse the other team, but coaches know that most of the time they confuse their own team.

People can talk about how exotic Staley's D is, but his front 7 is just about as boring as Bradley's was. He uses 5 rushers, but he really doesn't disguise anything. He rushes 5 man on man and then expects someone is going to get free and get a coverage sack. Staley almost never overloaded with the Rams, and we haven't seen any of that in preseason so far. He runs some dogs and stunts, but not even much of that with the Rams. He might even be doing more of that with us in the preseason then the Rams did last year.

The big difference is he is a split secondary guy, not a 8 man box guy that Bradley was, and last year, we played a lot more 2 deep secondary, so even that is not as true as it was (in previous seasons).