(Dis)comfort Food

Welcome back, Charger fans. Another season is here and another season of the man pictured at right doing his best (and succeeding, this week) to let opposing offenses back into the ball game. But you knew it was coming, right? Go ahead and admit that after the Chargers took a 5-point lead with just a little over 2 minutes left, you knew that Defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell would play that blasted, ever-loving prevent defense instead of using the Chargers’ defensive strength in getting after the quarterback.

You just knew that instead of putting the hammer down on Panther QB, Jake Delhomme, Cottrell’s scheme would be to allow the Panthers to march right down field and roll the bones on one or two shots into the end zone from around the 10 yard line and hope to G#d for a tipped pass or a poorly thrown ball because putting pressure on the quarterback sure as hell wasn’t going to come into play. You knew, ‘cause everyone in our crew knew and we couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Sho’nuff, Delhomme goes 8 of 11 for 68 yards in the final drive including the game-winner, a 14 yard touchdown pass to Dante Rosario as time expired. Bonus points for clock management, Ted.

Final score: Carolina 26, Chargers 24.

Lest you think we’re just going to beat-up on poor old Ted, there was plenty of blame to go around. The Chargers slept-walked through the first 3 quarters before coming to life in the 4th. This is the risk-reward of not playing a lot of your starters in the pre-season. They stay healthy but look sluggish and ill-prepared for the speed of a game that counts coming out of the blocks.

This was mostly evident on defense where the run defense was, in a word, pathetic. The supposedly patch-work Carolina offensive line physically dominated the supposedly brutish Charger D as the Panthers gained over 150 yards on the ground. Also, the pass defense still can’t seem to defend the quick slant to the wide-outs. Charger defensive backs gambled too much on interceptions and on at least 3 plays we saw, paid the price in giving up big plays to Carolina’s receivers. Put down the press clippings claiming what a wonderful set of corners the Chargers have, boys, and starting executing some sound coverage techniques.

QB Philip Rivers looked out-of-sync in the first half but came on strong in the 2nd, particularly in the 4th when he threw 2 touchdown passes. One thing we noticed that we really liked: His pocket presence and ability to sense pressure and slide to one side or another to avoid pressure was a quantum improvement over just last season.

A lot of work to be done and a lot of stuff to be cleaned-up before the trip to Denver next week.

"Niedermeyer, Dead! ... Hoge, Schlereth, Dead!"

The national sports media’s obsession with Charger QB Philip Rivers and more precisely, his propensity to run smack at opponents and opponents’ fans, has reached epically ridiculous proportions as evidenced in attached piece here from AOL Fanhouse which documents ESPN’s Merril Hoge and Mark Schlereth drawing Ryan Leaf comparisons to Rivers.

And this morning on ESPN Radio, Scott Van Pelt, was commenting on Rivers’ jaw-jacking with Colt fans at the end of the game on Sunday and opined: “Do you know how many other starting NFL quarterbacks would have done that? None.” Hey, Scott: do you know how many starting NFL quarterbacks are still playing football right now? 4. We like that stat better.

Lo Neal, the Charger’s starting fullback (and many other Chargers) have come to River’s defense saying, “(Rivers)… is a great teammate, a good husband, a good father and a good Christian”. We will also add that Rivers is 27-8 in his first 35 starts. Did we miss anything?

Look, do we wish that perhaps Rivers didn’t run his mouth as much? Sure, if only so we didn’t have to hear all the whining ad nauseum on T.V. and radio. We’ve been critical of Rivers in this very blog but this is, for lack of a better term, a “family matter”…. we can make objective critiques and criticisms of Rivers’ game but when we see “outsiders” piling on, we’re going to lash out.

We’ve mentioned before the increasingly unwatchable nature of ESPN, especially its NFL coverage because of the overbearing nature of some of the rhetoric. Perhaps, ironically, we find the NFL’s house organ, the NFL Network to provide the most rational commentary and analysis. “Total Access” host Rich Eisen is solid, Jamie Dukes' “Put Up Your Dukes” is highly entertaining and we always love us some Prime Time.

Update: Rumors are swirling that Philip Rivers may have a partially torn ACL in his right knee as well as the sprained MCL. Get ready to strap it on, Billy! We’ll take back all those horrible things we said about you a couple weeks back.