Final: Chargers 30, New England 10

To quote my cousin Chris, “Who were those imposters in the Chargers uniforms Sunday night?”  But an even better question is this:  Who were the imposters in the Chargers uniforms for the first 5-games of the season? 

Sunday night the San Diego Chargers found the solution to a lot of their problems against the New England Patriots, beating them soundly by a score of 30-10.  And for the first time in a long time, the number of things they did right far out-weighs the number of things they did wrong.  Let’s break it down:

Things they did right-

• Benching Matt Wilhelm for Tim Dobbins (Wilhelm still looked bad in the little playing time he got).
• Activating Andrew Waters in place of Derrick Smith.
• Calling a deep pass to Vincent Jackson on the first play of the game.
• Consistently throwing deep against New England’s short and sorry cornerbacks.
• Blitzing hard and fast in the first three quarters.
• Putting Quentin Jammer on Moss, effectively shutting him down.
• Giving the ball to Jacob Hester.  Seriously… more on that later.

Things they did wrong-

• Giving up a TD in the 4th quarter.  Call it garbage time if you will, but the Chargers once again played a soft defense on a short field.
• 3/10 in third-down conversions- you don’t win championships converting just 30% of your third-downs.
• Turning their backs on the original “throw-back” powder blue uniforms.  Nothing will ever be good enough to replace them.
• Playing better in big games…and playing poorly in the rest.

It’s tough finding things wrong with the Chargers performance on Sunday night.  They dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, Jamal Williams looked healthy, and Jammer couldn’t have played better, especially considering the interception that was stripped by a bad call.  In fact, aside from the Hester fumble they played a mistake-free game.

So how is Hester’s one carry for a fumble a mistake but not something to complain about?  Simply because the guy can’t be expected to be ready to play in prime-time against the defending AFC champs if you never give him the ball.  I have faith that Hester can play, but he needs some playing time.  In college, Hester fumbled 1-time in 4-years, on his second college carry.  With his first NFL fumble out of the way, which happened on his second NFL carry, I think we’re safe to give him a few more touches.  LT isn’t getting any healthier by playing in the 4th quarter.  Sproles and Tolbert are also banged up.  Let’s give the ball to Hester at least a few times a game just to see what he can do. 

On to Buffalo!

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Click here for my previous post, Preview:  Chargers vs. Patriots