It’s miserable and magical, oh yeah. Swifty truly knows all. I don’t know the context of this GIF, but I love it. Tomorrow night is a must win for sure. We always fear that the Chargers play down to their competition. Logically, FAITHFUL READER, that would mean we would have a worse chance against Mason Rudolph than Ben Roethlisberger. I want to believe that the “same old Bolts” ended with Anthony Lynn but last week makes you wonder. I believe in Staley, for sure. After watching last night’s “All In” I noticed Staley talked at length about being ready for this part of the season. Going from 5-4 to 10-4 sounds great, but what was wrong with 6-3? I think we all think Staley is getting the most out of his guys, but with Norton and Schofield do we just accept that one side of the line just isn’t all that good?
First song, last show at The Garden, by the way. I saw someone post during last week’s disappointing loss that while Staley would wow us all during the postgame press conference, the team still played like shit against the Vikings. They got some pressure on Kirk Cousins, but not when it mattered. Gilman running into Derwin on 4th was awful, but it shouldn’t have come down to that.
The same goes for that final drive. I won’t say that they went into the Gus Bradley picket fence prevent on the 3rd and 20 because they gave up big plays all day. Justin Jefferson made some great catches against a suddenly vulnerable Tevaughn Campbell, who looked great at Philly. I don’t care about the Rookie of the Year award, but Jefferson helping them win was just salt in the wound like Phillips and Henry on Halloween. Yes, I know that New England looks a lot better now. The entire NFL has been pretty mediocre all season, so why should we expect the Chargers to pull away after the 4-1 start?
Yes, Bosa avoided missing the game and Tranquill is back. Davis will also return. The Steelers should have been beatable even at full strength. The Chargers need to play desperate and like their season depends on tomorrow’s game. I think it does. I am fully pushing the panic button with a loss tomorrow. I saw Tom Krasnovic wrote this piece for the U-T. Of course, he can’t write anything but a hatchet job on the Bolts. I know that because San Diegans don’t want to read anything positive about the Chargers. Obviously, the Chargers have played teams at home (New England and Minnesota) who had guys out. I just mentioned that the 4-1 start seems years ago. I don’t think about Kansas City or any other division rival until December. We haven’t earned that right. But Krasnovic is right that they started as shaky as ever and are currently in first. I’d rather have that after Sunday night than the Raiders. But the season starts now. The Chargers are relatively healthy and need to step things up. I know Staley preaches that the team will be situationally smart and play their best at the end of games and the season itself.
The offense sputtered after winning the game against Philly. Are the Eagles bad? They beat the Broncos last week. Lombardi gets lots of hate, but I don’t think Steichen was good. Last season, it just seemed like Herbert slinged it all over the field because he had to. Now, everyone is pissed that Lomardi is taking away Herbert’s greatest asset, his ability to throw long. I think the drops are a bigger story. Maybe I’m just buying into the Popper narrative, but I think that teams are trying to take away the long ball and that they still want to take their shots. Brett Favre took a while to adjust to the West Coast offense in Green Bay, also. He liked to throw it all over the field as well.
Again, if they can’t beat Pittsburgh tomorrow no matter who the Steelers have then I will officially freak out. They could win and then turn around and lose to Denver and also be in deep shit. But let’s start with a win tomorrow. The last time we face this team we lost to Duck. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
See you out there.
JIC,
RLW
PS Let’s try to keep foot on gas if we get up by 4. We don’t need every game to be a one-score one.
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