Are the Chargers back? (1 Viewer)

[timschochet]

I am a Steeler fan, pretty excited about the season so far. Even the last loss didn't really hurt us; we're not going to compete for home field or the bye anyhow, and I think we will win the division, and secure #3.

But now along comes San Diego. Forgotten about after that terrible start, suddenly they look like the domiant team they were last year. I'm impressed. Are they for real? I think the Chambers trade was brilliant, and Rivers might explode in the 2nd half.

Will they win their division, and will they surprise someone in the playoffs? Could they become the Steelers of 05, (forgotten about, then go on a great run?) Im very intrigued.

 

[The Leprechaun Hunter]

Stop. Seriously.

 

[buster c]

Norv still the coach, right?

riiiiiiiiight

 

[David Yudkin]

Let's how they do against (in a row):

Indianapolis

at Jacksonville

Baltimore

at Kansas City

at Tennessee

 

[eom]

Indianapolis - loss

at Jacksonville - win

Baltimore - win

at Kansas City - win

at Tennessee - ...hmmmm.........I'll wait and find out.

 

[timschochet]

Indianapolis - lossat Jacksonville - winBaltimore - winat Kansas City - winat Tennessee - ...hmmmm.........I'll wait and find out.

I could see them beating Indy. Historically, Indy has trouble against the 3-4. Indy will be coming off a huge game against NE, and SD will be primed to prove they once again matter. I have a feeling SD wins that game.

 

[eom]

and historically, sd gets lit up through the air.

if your secondary blows you probably don't want a part of indy.

also, indy will be coming off a huge loss to the mighty pats and will have extra motivation.

 

[timschochet]

and historically, sd gets lit up through the air.if your secondary blows you probably don't want a part of indy.also, indy will be coming off a huge loss to the mighty pats and will have extra motivation.

You're making the assumption Indy loses to NE. I believe Indy will beat NE at home, then lose to SD on the road.

 

[eom]

you also believe the redskins will beat the pats and when you die you'll rule your own planet, so I'll take your beliefs w/a grain of salt.

 

[SteveInChicago]

and historically, sd gets lit up through the air.if your secondary blows you probably don't want a part of indy.also, indy will be coming off a huge loss to the mighty pats and will have extra motivation.

Or maybe they'll look to end Indy's bid for an undefeated season for the 2nd time in 3 years.

 

[BoltBacker]

This is all more than a little premature. If the team is distracted by what's going on in SD with their friends/family and lose their "home game" to HOU then we'll see people bumping polls that suggested that the Chargers "are the worst team in the league".

I just hope they beat HOU right now. I'll be interested to see if Chambers stretches the field. HOU has been surrendering 4.7y/r on the ground so I'm hoping for a big game by Tomlinson/Turner. Concerned about the state of the SD OL however.

Owen Daniels could have a huge game on the other side of the ball. If they can stop him and don't lose the TO/ST battle badly I think they win this game.

 

[Assani Fisher]

timschochet, you've become my favorite SP poster! I only wish jwvdcw wasn't banned so he could partake in all the fun with you!

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

This is all more than a little premature.

Yes. It was premature to write them off after a few bad games, and it's premature now to say they're back.But in fantasy football, for better or for worse, we have to try to make calls prematurely all the time.I do think the running game looks like it's back. I'm still not sure what happened to the OL early in the season, but it looks like they've fixed it. That makes a huge difference.I think the passing game will be fine as well, although it's hard to say that it's already fixed.The defense, I'm not so sure about. The crappy tackling against the Packers and Chiefs still really concerns me. And the pass rush has been inconsistent.

 

[BoltBacker]

I do think the running game looks like it's back. I'm still not sure what happened to the OL early in the season, but it looks like they've fixed it. That makes a huge difference.I think the passing game will be fine as well, although it's hard to say that it's already fixed.The defense, I'm not so sure about. The crappy tackling against the Packers and Chiefs still really concerns me. And the pass rush has been inconsistent.

I'm still not as sold on the OL yet, especially with Hardwick out and Goff less than 100%. They certainly looked much better vs DEN/OAK but we should keep in mind they weren't in many passing downs vs DEN and OAK was playing with Burgess dinged up. Seems to me OAK's success vs the pass revolves in large part to their good young CB's keeping the WR's covered down field but SD relies so little on their WR's I think SD is just a bad matchup for them.IMO the SD pass rush isn't as problematic as the inability to defend the short pass. Doesn't matter how good the pass rush is if your opponents can just turn a 5-10 slant into a TD week after week. I haven't seen them defend the middle of the field very well this year compared to last. Last year I was always worried about Jammer on the edge in isolation and this year I'm much more concerned about anything over the middle. Those ILB's don't seem to have much ball awareness vs the pass. When you compound that with the poor tackling that you mentioned you get really bad defeats to teams like KC that are nice rebuild jobs but shouldn't be able to go into SD and beat you. That game could really come back to haunt them. The GB defeat felt awful at the time but as it turns out GB isn't that bad a team and is a pretty good matchup vs SD so that loss doesn't stick in my craw nearly as much as the KC game does.Again, I think shutting down Owens is the key this week. If HOU is able to outlet the ball consistently to Owens and move the chains to keep the SD rushing game off the field the Texans could very well surprise here. Kind of hard to guess how much of a distraction the fires will be on the SD players. Certainly won't be a true "home field" advantage no matter what happens.

 

[timschochet]

you also believe the redskins will beat the pats and when you die you'll rule your own planet, so I'll take your beliefs w/a grain of salt.

Actually, EOM, I never said the Redskins would win, or even suggested it. I said it would be a tight game.If I did rule my own planet, I wouldn't allow any messsages that always ended in the words "hahahahahahaha Patriots by 30!"