Wild Card Weekend!Follow

Didn't surprise me at all. The Chargers beat them pretty soundly 4 weeks earlier. The Titans had numerous injuries going into the game. The game went pretty much exactly as I expected (and about perfectly really). They started out slow (playoff jitters, memories of last year), but were IMO in a much better spot going into a wildcard round their first week in the playoffs. Against a team that they could effectively shut down for the first half of the game (and completely shut down for the second half) it gave them the perfect opportunity to work out the post season kinks, get past them and cruise into the next round.

When the score was only 6-0 at halftime I knew San Diego was going to win. Almost didn't have to even watch the second half. This season, the Chargers do much better if they are trailing by a small amount going into the half. It gives them incentive and they play harder. If they're leading at the half, they tend to go into relaxed mode, play for time and end up loosing the game (and they're sluggish going into the next game. A cycle I saw occur about 3 times mid season).

They ended this game on a massive upswing. Which means they'll go into Indy next week with all cylinders going. That bodes well for them IMO.

That was their second touchdown, and really was just the nail in the coffin that sealed the game up for sure. The first touchdown was a pass to Vincent Jackson in the 3rd quarter.



Huh? He passed for 262 yards. He had two receivers catch for over 100 yards. And while 19 out of 30 isn't stellar, it's not "crappy" either. He actually looked pretty darn strong out there.


What you have to realize about San Diego is that they tend to go slow in the first half. That's because they have the best running back in the league and everyone knows it. Thus, every single team plans on stopping LT, making running in the first quarter or two *very* difficult. But you can't abandon the run, or you get bottled up on offense. The coaches of San Diego deliberately return to run plays in the first half that they know wont likely get yards because they know that it'll eventually wear the defense down and open the game up for the offense.

Admittedly, usually they're able to still get some first downs while doing this, which they failed at pretty miserably in the first half. But a lot of that was jitters. The first three possessions of the game, they somehow managed to get a penalty on first down and ended up looking at 15-20 yards to get a first down. That's hard to do when your strategy involves utilizing run plays you know wont get more then a yard this early in the game.



IMO, the game against Indy is in the Charger's hands. If they play well, they'll win. Hands down. If they choke (which is not ridiculously unlikely), they'll lose horribly. It all comes down to which team shows up this Sunday. The simple fact is that despite Indy being the returning Superbowl Champs, the Chargers juyst plain have more talent on their team. They did last year to, but choked. They've got *more* talent this year. Their defense is much much better, and has pretty ridiculous amounts of depth (meaning they don't weaken as the game goes on), and the offense has several more threats and greater experience as well. IMO, Gates being out is a wash. He's a great player and all, but tends to be a crutch for Rivers. One that doesn't pan out much since he's always double covered. I'll point out that it was after Gates left the game that the passing game started to click. I suspect that's because Rivers isn't going to Gates on his first read, meaning he's actually got the time to look at the rest of the receivers before passing the ball. I think it also has something to do with the defense planning their whole strategy around how to cover Gates, and with him not being there they were kinda wondering what to do...


Don't get me wrong. The Chargers have an amazing ability to lose big games. But if they come in strong, they should beat Indy. And in my experience watching this team, that has a lot to do with how they ended the last game. If they ended on a slow note (even if they had a massive lead and sat out the last quarter or so), they do poorly. If they end on a high note (which they did last week), they come out of the gate hard and do really well. I think you'll be surprised.


OH. And I missed the most important point. You do know that the Chargers beat the Colts earlier this season, right? And that was during the mid-season when they were down a couple key players on defense and Rivers was in the middle of a pretty horrible slump. They beat Indy while having a down day during a down part of their season. Frankly, unless they choke, they'll likely walk all over Indy.

Edited, Jan 9th 2008 6:48pm by gbaji

my bad on the jackson TD, i did forget about that one. he shouldve had another one to chambers who was wide open and had to wait 20 minutes for the ball to get to him, which caused the defenders to catch up.




exactly. dont forget that that was the week after the colts played the pats, and opposing teams usually have a pretty bad game the week after they play the pats

That's right, somehow I had forgotten that San Diego had two special teams touchdowns that first game. That game in San Diego where they won by two points despite six picks from Manning.

Colts by thirty.