The running game

[Maniaque 6]

Do you think you can win games when you get 19 yards on the ground ?
Gordon, Ekeler, Taylor and Allen average against the Raiders is 1.18 yard(s).
It was only the Raiders !
Somebody realise that is the number 1 problem ?

[Kingcrimson]

I don’t like when people say “it’s only the...” no. It doesn’t work like that.

If that was the case, everyone betting would be rich. 32nd rush defense? Let me put my money into this RB going off.

[Caslon]

I thnk Lynn purposely game planned less running against the Vikings.
Check out Top Cat's topic about Lynn possibly telling Rivers to call less audibles at the line of scrimmage. Maybe this game he had Rivers throwing it more than usual to see if he got the message to follow the play as called. If that's the case, time will tell if it improves the Chargers overall offense. Whatever, the O-line stunk more than usual running the ball.

[Charge!]

Do you think you can win games when you get 19 yards on the ground ?
Gordon, Ekeler, Taylor and Allen average against the Raiders is 1.18 yard(s).
It was only the Raiders !
Somebody realise that is the number 1 problem ?

Its not about the running game or passing game..... The bottom line is that with a fairly weak schedule, this Chargers OL/DL were dominated in most games ..... averaging less than 20 points per game, Chargers aren't going to win many games .... and we did not..... Lynn coached as if he believed our defense could hold teams to well below 20 points..... which kept all of our opponents in the game and any mistake we would make would lose us the game....

Even bad DL's like the raiders had dominated our OL twice if your OL is being dominated every week, you are not going to be able to run or throw effectively.... period....if your OL is good enough you can dominate passing the ball most plays or running the ball most plays.....you can mix it up or not..... Ravens have a great OL and force their will on you..... they run even when you expect them to run.... that forces defenses to only have single coverage so that opens up the passing game for even not great passers like Jackson.....

[Steve]

As far as the DL goes, I am OK with the rebuilding job we are doing. The results are not there yet, but the players we have flash some ability. Bosa and Ingram are fine. Still one of the best DE duos in the NFL. But their impact is minimized if teams can afford to keep mixing in run and pass, and do a lot of quick passing. We need to force more long down and distance chances, and get more interior pass rush to help them.

The interior DL is not that great, but Jones and Tillery are playing better. Broughton flashed some ability to penetrate as well as stack and shed. They all need work, but with Giff Smith as our DL coach, I think we are in decent shape. We need them to play better but I think they are on the way.

The OL we need a mix of both some new players as well as getting the existing players to develop, We simply cannot bring in a whole OL in a single year. A few years ago, you could. But you can hardly find any players who are ready to start coming out, so you have to rely on guys who can get the couple thousand reps in OTA's and TC to be ready to start. There are just not that many guys around.

FA is a dead end. There are a few decent players who teams massively overpay for. The marginal ones still get paid a bunch, and are not much, if any upgrade over the guys we are trying to replace. We can and should bring in a bunch of guys, but be warned that it is going to probably be a slowish process. That is why I think we need to use both approaches, to develop and outright replace, since it kinda sorta doubles the chances of finding better players.

I don't see any choice but to add at least 2 OL via the draft. Maybe 3 if we can trade down and are lucky in the 2nd round with a extra player there

[ChargersPowderBlue]

Its not about the running game or passing game..... The bottom line is that with a fairly weak schedule, this Chargers OL/DL were dominated in most games ..... averaging less than 20 points per game, Chargers aren't going to win many games .... and we did not..... Lynn coached as if he believed our defense could hold teams to well below 20 points..... which kept all of our opponents in the game and any mistake we would make would lose us the game....

Even bad DL's like the raiders had dominated our OL twice if your OL is being dominated every week, you are not going to be able to run or throw effectively.... period....if your OL is good enough you can dominate passing the ball most plays or running the ball most plays.....you can mix it up or not..... Ravens have a great OL and force their will on you..... they run even when you expect them to run.... that forces defenses to only have single coverage so that opens up the passing game for even not great passers like Jackson.....

There's also the fact that the team doesn't have wider receivers other than KA and MW to come up big for them. It doesn't help that the two guys who do, don't have the speed for defenses to account for. The one guy who did, Benjamin, is a non factor. Having 3-4 WRs to get things going would help mitigate OL issues, especially the short passing game. The intermediate routes get taken away because we don't have a receiver to take off the top of defenses. The wideouts outside of KA and MW aren't to good at getting separation. Then there's the fact that you need to 2-3 TEs to get things going in the passing game too. Henry alone isn't enough. Not having enough receivers, whether wideout or at tight end, has been a problem that hurt the team along with offensive line. The ironic thing is Rivers was known for making receivers.

The interior DL is not that great, but Jones and Tillery are playing better. Broughton flashed some ability to penetrate as well as stack and shed. They all need work, but with Giff Smith as our DL coach, I think we are in decent shape. We need them to play better but I think they are on the way.

The interior DL is nowhere near great. It's not even good. We've needed more passing rushing at the DT spot, if that isn't clear already. Tillery alone is not enough to fix this issue. While the team is waiting and hoping for Jones and Tillery to breakout, veterans like Square and Mebane are not the answer as far as that goes. These two need to go. They don't provide pass rushing, this is what Lynn and Bradley don't understand. Broughton is not seeing playing time because of those two older guys.