Week 3 Victory: Upon Further Digestion....

Upon further digestion, I've de-deuced that I'm just a giant crybaby. A WIN......IS A WIN! If I continue to watch the Chargers each week and then gripe over how they win games then I'll be as miserable as a Lion fan c. 2008 (or would it be c. 1929-2009?). Are there things I'd like to see the Chargers do better? Sure.

Like anyone else, I'd love to see red zone efficiency. I don't blame the players so much for the inefficiencies but instead look at the FG attempts as a function of the play calling. We often hear how inside the twenty yard line the field becomes shorter and consequently a more difficult area to score. Well I have news for Norv....when you choose to run a 5 foot nothing, 100 pound nothing in to the line on every 1st down, that Red Zone GETS EVEN SMALLER!!!!! Utilize our receivers height. On first down throw a jump ball to one of the giants and get the touchdown via an alley-oop. Jump Ball. Seriously. Run the picket fence at 'em.

The play calling is really my only complaint. We have tons of injuries and guys are stepping up to the challenge. We can't control the injuries and it'll probably be after the bye week before we see LT and Merriman. But we can control the inventiveness and the overall strategy with which we attack. We can control the health of Phillip by having him take shorter drops and hitting the big fellas with shorter passes. Fifty yard bombs are fun but so are underneath routes that allow receivers to accumulate YAC. Those sorts of plays also control the clock because of their high completion percentage. Of course, what the hell do I know?

2-1 and traveling to Steel Town makes me happier than 1-2. Troy Polamalu's absence shows just how important he is to that Steeler defense and so that gives me hope that we can sneak into the bye week above .500.

One last thing.....I wish I had video of a particular play from the first half of the Charger/Phin game. I think Ronnie Brown or Rickie Williams caught a ball coming out of the backfield and proceeded to run across to Antonio Cromartie's side of the field. Cro' sized him up, 'broke down', lunged for the tackle......and absolutely WHIFFED! Cro' caught nothing but air. Luckily, Kevin Burnett was in hot pursuit and caught the Dolphin from behind a split second later. Antonio Cromartie's tackling efforts are akin to the SNL Mother Lover Video........extraordinarily-crap yourself-funny.

Charger Fan In Donkey Land: Week 3 Dolphins

Here we go again.

Another week with LT injured, and Merriman a non factor due to his groin injury.

We lean on .43 cent and Mr. English to step up for our two injured warriors.

.43 stepped up as expected, but our running game was dismal in not only the first half, but the entire game.

Was pleased to see the D step up after the first drive when they allowed the Dolphins to get down to the one.....which resulted in the Bolts winning the lottery with the fumble out of the back of the end zone. They seemed to stabilize as the former Enterprise Rent a Car Associate Nwagbuo showed up today and filled in reasonably well for Jamal.

We saw the offense opening up as expected with the injuries we have encountered early on. Seeing Malcom Floyd get the 46 yrd catch down the middle followed up on the following possession by the 50+ yrd catch by Vincent Jackson was what we can expect over the next few weeks. Let's not forget about Gates who had his fair share of catches today for a good amount of yrds. Also liked the screen to Naanee, and the fun with .43 tossing the ball back to Rivers for the completion to Gates.

Again today we had to witness the field goals vs. the touchdowns. Can not continue this lack of scoring. On top of that Nate can not be missing any, especially a 41 yarder to end the half and give us the lead.

Next week we will need the Defense to again step up big and we cannot settle for field goals. The Steelers will put up a fight on their home field, but as we have seen over the last two weeks they are not the Super Bowl team of '08 and their defense has shown that they have holes we can exploit with our passing game.

Sunday Night Football is the prime time for us to show our real colors.

Have a great week all, in preparation for our Sunday Night Showdown.

Go BOLTS!

Charger Fan in Donkey Land

Editor's Note:

• I'll choose to refer to Nwagbuo as Photo Unavailable rather than the Former Enterprise Rent A Car associate. Not a dig on the Spartan alum but more on the site administrators that can't seem to round up a head-shot. C'mon now!
  
• A win is a win....but I'm not bespectacled with the rose tinted variety like my compadre, the CFIDL. I'm still digesting...
  

Pre Game Week 3 Versus The Dolphins: SNL's Mother Lover Brings Perspective To This Ridiculous Fan

In the previous post I suggested that watching the Mother Lover video by Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg was an apt descriptor of Charger Fan reactions following the home loss against Ray Lewis' will last week. If you haven't figured it out....I meant that both were funny.

Seriously. That Mother Lover song is hilarious sh*t....and for a moment it made me stop thinking about Norv's terrible play calling and even worse press conferences. While the video is funny so is the collective response of Charger fan. C'mon people......every year starts this way:
--Chargers lose.
--Fans crap themselves.
--Fans begin questioning Norv, AJ and every personnel move down to those final 53 man cuts.

We'd be well served to chill out for a moment...but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the following:

The definition of ridiculously moronic and incredibly dimwitted is
to continue doing the same ridiculously moronic and incredibly dimwitted thing
and to expect a result
that is not
ridiculously moronic and incredibly dimwitted

I'm no Einstein so I can't tell you if it's him that I'm paraphrasing or if it's Edison or some other mad genius (hasn't Norv been described that way?). But the point I'm making is as follows: in order for me to simultaneously remove the noose from my neck, put the pills back in the medicine cabinet, and to trigger the safety on the 12 gauge sawed off, I need to see the coaching staff make some adjustments that account for the early injury losses we've sustained thus far.

On offense our running game and line play is suspect. So let's make sure we control the ball but also keep Franchise Phil safe by utilizing our giant receivers in a short west coast style passing adjustment. If we don't control the ball against Miami we may end up seeing a replay from the Miami/Indy game and by replay I'm not talking about a Miami loss.

On defense we've lost the center piece of the unit. Without Jamal we have to consider a serious overhaul as there's not a player on our roster who can replace him...and let's be honest, we weren't stopping the run even with the big fella in there against the Rai-duhs. What defensive adjustment will Ron Rivera make?

This isn't a must win but look to the future: a loss at home to Miami followed by a trip to Pittsburgh where regular season history has not been kind would be foreboding....1-3 going into the bye week. Yikes! We can say all we want that there's no reason to panic because we've overcome those odds in both the 2007 and 2008 seasons but it would also be foolhardy to compare the 2009 edition to either of those squads. In 2009, both the defense and rushing attacks are less than what they once were.

Besides; contenders win their home games.

Go Chargers!

Editor's Notes:

• Thank you for your input Faithful Eleven; Week 3 survivor pool = Baltimore Ravens!
• Is it to early to begin with advice from the Site Sages and installations of Voodoo. My sense is yes...but if Jessica Alba will start getting us wins I may have to make a concession.
• We do play in the AFC West.....so I suppose you can scrap the above diatribe.