Team Grades: Chargers Ground Jets, Rivers Continues To Flourish
By Dave Thomas
Just how good are the 4-1 San Diego Chargers?
Other than the home-opening win over Seattle in week two of the season, the Bolts have been feasting on the likes of Buffalo, Jacksonville and now the New York Jets over these last three Sundays. Okay, even with that level of competition, the Chargers look pretty darn good.
Struggling Jets QB Geno Smith was the latest to feel the bite of the San Diego defense Sunday afternoon, as Smith and the Jets got whitewashed 31-0 before more than 63,000 fans in Southern California.
Oliver Bolts To Big Day On The Ground
As anyone who follows the Chargers knows, the running game has been missing in action for much of the season.
With injuries to starters Ryan Mathews and Danny Woodhead, the work load behind QB Philip Rivers has turned to handing off the ball to Donald Brown and Branden Oliver. On Sunday, that quickly turned to simply handing off to Oliver.
On what was a rather vicious hit (15-yard penalty to boot), Brown would eventually leave the game with a concussion. That being the case, Oliver took center stage as the featured running back, certainly not disappointing when all was said and done.
Oliver, who looks much like former Charger Darren Sproles in wearing the number 43 and having a similar body type, finished the day with 114 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown. With Brown's availability for next Sunday's game at Oakland in question, the Raiders will likely get a huge dose of one Branden Oliver.
On defense, Smith replacement Michael Vick and New York's offense in general were nothing short of anemic.
Smith, who took to the bench to start the second half, finished with a mere 27 yards of passing, though head coach Rex Ryan is reportedly saying he will start the second-year QB over the veteran Vick in next Sunday's home meeting with Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.
On this day, San Diego was equally effective against Vick, keeping the former Falcon and Eagle from getting his latest team into the end zone.
Yes, these San Diego Chargers certainly do seem for real.
Team Grades:
Offense (A-)
Even though the Jets came in with a stellar defense against the run (second in the league at around 151 yards a game), San Diego had little problem amassing 162 yards net rushing on the day (not an outrageously high number), a total that seems off the charts after the last few weeks of struggling to even reach 100 yards as a team. Rivers, who threw for 288 yards and three TD's (one interception), continued to spread the ball around. Favorite target Antonio Gates caught four balls, a pair of which went for touchdowns. The one down side on the day offensively was having Rivers get sacked three times. To compound the problem potentially going into next weekend's visit to Oakland, third-string center Doug Legursky left on a cart in the second half with an undisclosed injury.
Defense (A+)
While Geno Smith had tossed a number of interceptions coming into the game today, he had put together nearly 1,000 yards in passing (922 yards total) to date. On this day, however, Smith threw for all of 27 yards before getting the hook for Vick to start the third quarter. New York's run game was not much better, as the Jets finished with all of 91 yards net rushing on the day. San Diego got a number of solid performances on the day, with Donald Butler and Sean Lissemore each recording a sack. When they were not bottling up New York's ground game, the Chargers were keeping Smith and Vick on the run for much of the day. With tougher tests coming in two weeks against both Alex Smith (Chiefs) and Peyton Manning (Broncos), San Diego's 'D' will need to continue its strong efforts to keep the Chargers in front.
For more Chargers news and updates, visit Chargers Central.
Dave Thomas has been covering the sports world since his first job as a sports editor for a weekly newspaper in Pennsylvania back in 1989. He has covered a Super Bowl, college bowl games, MLB, NBA and more. His work can be found on Examiner.com.
