Film Study

[Charge!]

Happy Bye Week Diehards

at least we are spared from heartbreak today.


This weeks Film Study centers on our 16yr Vet QB Phillip Rivers who is making some head scratching decisions usually reserved for a 1st yr rookie.

Play #1
Dropped INT.
Yes Mathieu dropped what was and easy pick. Yes Rivers got hit as he was throwing. My gripe is Rivers making his decision where to throw pre-snap and not taking what the defense gives him. Rivers never looks at Gordon in flat who would have been 1on1 with LB. Rivers also missed Watt free for easy 5yr gain after his chip block.

Play #2
Bomb INT
Rivers slides well in the pocket to his right. Henry is open for 10yd gain. Ekeler is WIDE open right infront of Rivers. Phil decides to throw the bomb, but the play has developed too long and although the ball flies 50yds in air it is underthrown and the result is INT. I doubt any QB in the league hits Patton in stride near 35yd line on that throw. Bad decision compounded by late throw.

Play #3
The heartbreaker. Game ending INT.
Everybody is covered. So Rivers should have thrown it away. 2nd down 24secs on clock. Live to fight another day. But we know Phil, he is gonna give his all every play. I get that. I get the gunslinger mentality. If thats the way it is, then Henry was the best choice. HH had a small seam and the LB had his back turned. Rivers could have put a high ball in the back on the endzone where HH catches it or nobody does. Instead he throws jump ball to Ekeler which was.....you guessed it.....underthrown.

It seems like Philip Rivers does not trust his team. He doesnt trust his O-line to hold for 3secs. He doesnt trust his TE or RB to make a guy miss. I can sympathize with an aging QB losing arm strength, but their decision making should be top notch. Rivers is showing the opposite and its costing us wins. Easy wins. Yes i count us fans as part of the team. We cheer and support them. They are our team. Without us, they have no paycheck.

I agree with your assessments...... i see similar things...... the OL is soooo bad and inconsistent that Rivers cannot risk getting hit from behind and fumbling the ball so he is deciding where to force the ball before the snap...... which is a big part of problem.......

but another huge part is that the coaches are having our slowest WR's running deep ????...... which makes no sense..... yes we have no fast WR's but Williams is bigger snd faster than our other receivers and by far has best reach and hands...... he is the only WR we have worth throwing deep to....... that is on coaches and play design....... now maybe the coaches wanted those slow guys to just be decoys so that williams, henry, or allen are open short to medium range?

for some wired reason our offense seems to almost always get tackled about the 10ish yard line setting up 1st and goal about 8,9, 10m yards away...... it kills me when our receivers make a big play and then break a tackle at the 15 and get tackled at the 10 making the worst 1st and goal situation possible..... and our coaches treat it like they are not in FG range yet by running the ball a few yards and throwing one or 2 passes to guys clearly outside the end zone who get tackled immediately so we settle for stupid FG attempts........ when we were already in nearly can't miss FG range?? a few yards does not make that kick easier...... so why not throw 3 passes to back of end zone??? on some plays ive notice no chargers receivers were even running into end zone or not running deep into end zone to pull defenders away from goal line???? ....horrible play design......

Think about most of Rivers' career he has had multiple huge targets to throw passes up high to at same time: Gates, Floyd, Jackson...... Rivers perfected the deep back shoulder pass that with those guys was almost unstoppable...... now the only player of that size is Williams...... yet Rivers keeps attempting it too other smaller receivers and little guys like Ekler...... make no sense......

And I agree on many plays this season, Ive seen Ekler, Gordon, Watt, or the TE's wide open for a short to medium gain yet Rivers never looks there...... on the game ending Pick in detroit, Allen was doubled or trip[ple covered, but Williams was wide open and uncovered right over the middle for an easy TD...... yet Rivers had already made up his mind or coach wanted him to force it there????
we had been stupidly forcing ball to allen all game long while Allen was being covered by detroits best shut down CB....... was obviously part of game plan.....

Great teams and coaches take what other teams give them...... Chargers chose to concede the run and the short pass by playing very soft zone off coverage which left brady at least one wide open instantly open target for 5+ yards every play...... only a perfect tackle keeps it at just 5 yards..... that was the game plan..... to give the patriots what they do best????..... no good coach does that...... good coaches take away what you do best and force you to beat them another way..... that is why when you beat NE, you deserve it....you have earned it.....

For 3/4 of Ravens game we rushed all run gaps to stuff the run and keep Jackson in the pocket where he cannot run and is force to beat you with accurate throws...... that shut then down until the 4th quarter when our DC changed from the good plan and went back to his favorite soft zone defense which allowed Jackson to run wild and buy toime for receivers to get wide open for easy throws..... that stupid coaching decision almost gave them the win.......

The reason i brought up those defensive failures is same concept of tackling way what other teams do best and taking what other teams give you..... we need to stop doing the opposite of that.....

[Topcat]

This is it exactly. He has had so many easy passes dropped, way more than any recent year, easy TD's, easy 1st downs. He does not trust anyone on the O and he has mentally checked out I think. Sad to see.

Fouts, I think you're correct Rivers has mentally checked out...but my take is that he has mentally checked out from game managing with short passes in crunch time. This explains why he keeps going to the deep ball so many times, even throwing into coverage. I really do believe this is a form of addiction--the thrill and endorphin rush he gets from the rare TD bomb is something he frequently tries to duplicate. But unfortunately, the combination of his diminishing arm strength, good defensive coverage of receivers and just ill-advised passes, all contribute to epic fail finishes. It's just sad, because a lot of these games were winnable, if Rivers had been a bit more patient and just dinked with the short pass and taken what opposing D's gave us.

[jubei]

NE dinks a team to death and they move the ball at will an awful lot. that's how you take care of a porous oline, not sending deep your WRs with ankle anchors. KA is AWESOME off the line, but not a speedster to take the top off a d...his bread and butter is the short to medium passes where he creates space with his route running. they need to go back to that with KA if they want to have an effective passing game.

[FoutsFan]

Fouts, I think you're correct Rivers has mentally checked out...but my take is that he has mentally checked out from game managing with short passes in crunch time. This explains why he keeps going to the deep ball so many times, even throwing into coverage. I really do believe this is a form of addiction--the thrill and endorphin rush he gets from the rare TD bomb is something he frequently tries to duplicate. But unfortunately, the combination of his diminishing arm strength, good defensive coverage of receivers and just ill-advised passes, all contribute to epic fail finishes. It's just sad, because a lot of these games were winnable, if Rivers had been a bit more patient and just dinked with the short pass and taken what opposing D's gave us.

True but when throwing a bomb like Rivers has started doing by forcing it and not taking his shots like he used to do, it does keep players from jumping the routes due to the receivers running slow, lazy routes which has been happening way to often as well. I think he is forcing some passes due to being mentally checked out but he is also throwing long because those passes do not get jumped and if they do get intercepted often its like a punt so in his mind its not as bad as throwing a pick on a ten yard out that gets jumped and run back for a TD.

[Topcat]

True but when throwing a bomb like Rivers has started doing by forcing it and not taking his shots like he used to do, it does keep players from jumping the routes due to the receivers running slow, lazy routes which has been happening way to often as well. I think he is forcing some passes due to being mentally checked out but he is also throwing long because those passes do not get jumped and if they do get intercepted often its like a punt so in his mind its not as bad as throwing a pick on a ten yard out that gets jumped and run back for a TD.

I suppose that's possible, but considering a pick as a punt, if true, is not a winning mentality...

[FoutsFan]

I suppose that's possible, but considering a pick as a punt, if true, is not a winning mentality...

No, it’s not. But someone in Rivers state of mind and who has mentally checked out it makes as much sense as anything else. People are critical of Rivers (and they should be) they are critical of the O line which is among the worst in the league but seem to give the receivers a pass. They have dropped a lot of easy TDs and first downs. It has really been bad this year. They run, or I should say stroll through the routes which leads to a lot of picks and people say it’s the QBs fault. This is very frustrating and adds to why Rivers is checking out and just slinging it.

[Topcat]

No, it’s not. But someone in Rivers state of mind and who has mentally checked out it makes as much sense as anything else. People are critical of Rivers (and they should be) they are critical of the O line which is among the worst in the league but seem to give the receivers a pass. They have dropped a lot of easy TDs and first downs. It has really been bad this year. They run, or I should say stroll through the routes which leads to a lot of picks and people say it’s the QBs fault. This is very frustrating and adds to why Rivers is checking out and just slinging it.

I hadn't thought of that angle...that the receivers are slacking, and that it might be affecting Rivers...I'm guessing it's a combination of factors...

[FoutsFan]

I hadn't thought of that angle...that the receivers are slacking, and that it might be affecting Rivers...I'm guessing it's a combination of factors...

It is a lot of different factors for sure. Rivers has his share of blame but often people will say that because I or others are pointing out other areas of deficiency we are defending Rivers but that in not the case. Just pointing out that it is not a zero sum game. When receivers run lazy routes that leads to interceptions as much as bad throws do. When Rivers goes to the line like you have said he reads the defense and knows where he is going with the ball. But if they are not getting open because of reading the defense wrong and not being on the same page, or running a lazy route or the defense disguised the coverage and now the seeming first option is shut down that can lead to a lot of frustration and cause Rivers to be even more of a riverboat gambler when passing. But it is everything, bad line, lazy route running and poor QB decisions.

[Topcat]

It is a lot of different factors for sure. Rivers has his share of blame but often people will say that because I or others are pointing out other areas of deficiency we are defending Rivers but that in not the case. Just pointing out that it is not a zero sum game. When receivers run lazy routes that leads to interceptions as much as bad throws do. When Rivers goes to the line like you have said he reads the defense and knows where he is going with the ball. But if they are not getting open because of reading the defense wrong and not being on the same page, or running a lazy route or the defense disguised the coverage and now the seeming first option is shut down that can lead to a lot of frustration and cause Rivers to be even more of a riverboat gambler when passing. But it is everything, bad line, lazy route running and poor QB decisions.

Here's another one for you: When Rivers calls an audible just a few second before snapping the rock, NOW that's putting a lot of pressure on your receivers to suddenly have to mentally process through several different routes and adjust to running another one. All in just a second or two. And, all this after getting one call in the huddle, then having to, almost on the fly, suddenly switch to another route. And if there's crowd noise, a lot of these audibles may not be getting communicated fully. Maybe after calling an audible, Rivers takes the snap, sees that one or more receivers are not running the audibled route correctly, and just says, aw, heck, I'll just chuck it long and hope for a P.I. penalty...

[FoutsFan]

Here's another one for you: When Rivers calls an audible just a few second before snapping the rock, NOW that's putting a lot of pressure on your receivers to suddenly have to mentally process through several different routes and adjust to running another one. All in just a second or two. And, all this after getting one call in the huddle, then having to, almost on the fly, suddenly switch to another route. And if there's crowd noise, a lot of these audibles may not be getting communicated fully. Maybe after calling an audible, Rivers takes the snap, sees that one or more receivers are not running the audibled route correctly, and just says, aw, heck, I'll just chuck it long and hope for a P.I. penalty...

When you run the clock down to 1 second it puts a lot of pressure on the O line as well because the D can tee off and they do not have to worry about being drawn off sides. The receivers should know what the audible is. They should know it just by looking at the D alignment. Allen is on the same page as Rivers, HH as well. Gordon seems to be confused sometimes though.

[powderblueboy]

Same old story...TWO open men short, instead, Rivers heaves the rock long for a near pick....this is getting old...PLEASE, Lynn, will 'ya put in Tyrod and Stick already...???

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Those guys in the flat are less open than you think Topcat. By the time the ball gets to them, they have a defender in their face.

Rivers is still focused here on the primary target. Its still not clear if he's going to be open & Rivers still needs a split second to evaluate. Unfortunately, Frank Clarke just blew past Pipkens and won't give Rivers that split second (he hit Rivers during the releas). Mike Williams turned out to get a step and it could have been a big play.

Having said that, the tight end was probably the best option. But that would force Rivers to give up on the primary target before the play fully developed. You want Rivers to give up so soon and outlet it to a seldom used target in Green? That's something Alex Smith does repeatedly. I understand he'll be available next year if hte Chargers want that type of qb.

[Boltjolt]

Happy Bye Week Diehards

at least we are spared from heartbreak today.


This weeks Film Study centers on our 16yr Vet QB Phillip Rivers who is making some head scratching decisions usually reserved for a 1st yr rookie.

Play #1
Dropped INT.
Yes Mathieu dropped what was and easy pick. Yes Rivers got hit as he was throwing. My gripe is Rivers making his decision where to throw pre-snap and not taking what the defense gives him. Rivers never looks at Gordon in flat who would have been 1on1 with LB. Rivers also missed Watt free for easy 5yr gain after his chip block.

Play #2
Bomb INT
Rivers slides well in the pocket to his right. Henry is open for 10yd gain. Ekeler is WIDE open right infront of Rivers. Phil decides to throw the bomb, but the play has developed too long and although the ball flies 50yds in air it is underthrown and the result is INT. I doubt any QB in the league hits Patton in stride near 35yd line on that throw. Bad decision compounded by late throw.

Play #3
The heartbreaker. Game ending INT.
Everybody is covered. So Rivers should have thrown it away. 2nd down 24secs on clock. Live to fight another day. But we know Phil, he is gonna give his all every play. I get that. I get the gunslinger mentality. If thats the way it is, then Henry was the best choice. HH had a small seam and the LB had his back turned. Rivers could have put a high ball in the back on the endzone where HH catches it or nobody does. Instead he throws jump ball to Ekeler which was.....you guessed it.....underthrown.

It seems like Philip Rivers does not trust his team. He doesnt trust his O-line to hold for 3secs. He doesnt trust his TE or RB to make a guy miss. I can sympathize with an aging QB losing arm strength, but their decision making should be top notch. Rivers is showing the opposite and its costing us wins. Easy wins. Yes i count us fans as part of the team. We cheer and support them. They are our team. Without us, they have no paycheck.

False. You think having a non sold out 27000 seat stadium is paying the wages of a team nearly up to the salary cap? Dean will make money if nobody shows up to watch them in LA with TV contracts alone.

We are not a part of the team. We dont hit anybody, have gear on, block, catch run or anything. All we do is cheer and then complain while drinking beer from the couch during the game.

He made a bad decision i agree but you have no idea what he is thinking pre snap or what his mind set is for a gameplan.