Half of the 2019 season has come and gone for the Los Angeles Chargers. It’s safe to say they’re not where they expected to be coming off a 12-4 record. Instead of having another fast start, they find themselves at 3-5. While such slow starts aren’t unusual for the Chargers – even in their better years – fans still have to be nervous. Let’s take a look and see how they got to this point, and at some of the bigger headlines for the team this year.
2019 Los Angeles Chargers Midseason Report
Injuries, Injuries Everywhere
Aside from Hunter Henry and Joey Bosa, the Chargers didn’t have a ton of major injuries in 2018. It’s been the opposite in 2019. The defense lost Derwin James, Adrian Phillips, and Nasir Adderley. Their safety corps are so depleted that they’re playing a rookie cornerback named Roderic Teamer at strong safety, which is going about as well as you’d expect.
The offensive line has also seen a heavy dose of injuries. Russell Okung just returned after missing several games due to a non-football health issue. Meanwhile, Mike Pouncey and Forrest Lamp have both ended up on injured reserve. While having Okung back will be good, the absences of both Okung and Pouncey could be felt when neither of them were in the lineup.
The Rise of Austin Ekeler
Most of us already knew about Austin Ekeler as the resident James White / Darren Sproles type player. But in the wake of Melvin Gordon’s holdout (more on him later), he’s broken out impressively. Through eight games, Ekeler has 750+ scrimmage yards and eight touchdowns. While he’s been far less involved in the running game since Gordon’s holdout ended, he’s still been a big part of the receiving game. He’s actually on pace for 102 catches and over 1,000 receiving yards.
While he may not be as good of a pure runner as some of the other runners on the roster, he’s got sure hands and he’s pretty good after the catch. In terms of his game impact, he was a critical factor in the Week 1 win over the Indianapolis Colts. He also pulled in a beautiful 41-yard touchdown pass from Philip Rivers against the Tennessee Titans in Week 7.
More Kicker Troubles
Even though the Chargers finally seemed to find a good kicker in Michael Badgley last year, they were forced to go without him these past eight games due to injury. At first, they tried letting the punter Ty Long do kicks. While most of the results were fine, he missed two kicks in Week 2 against the Detroit Lions, which ended up being a key part of that loss. Then they brought in Chase McLaughlin, who didn’t cost them any games but still missed a few kicks. The cost of Badgley’s injury hasn’t been as bad as the 2017 season, but they still did lose one game in part because of it.
Rivers Still Holding Things Together
Philip Rivers isn’t having his best season thus far with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions, but this team would still be nowhere without him. He was also a big part of the Week 1 Colts win and put them in a position to win the Week 7 Titans game. And though he threw a game-ending interception against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he still was critical to even giving them a chance in that game.
His only true stinker of a stat line came against the Denver Broncos in Week 5. Some of the other games have just been okay, but the point is that the Chargers wouldn’t even have been in those games if not for Rivers. There’s been some suggestion that the end of his career is imminent like his fellow 2004 draftee Eli Manning, but it feels rather doubtful that it would be happening that soon.
Melvin Gordon… No Longer Good?
Probably the biggest story of the entire year for the Chargers is Melvin Gordon. First, he started a holdout for more money, which lasted through Week 3. Then once he finally returned, he was extremely ineffective. His only strong running play so far this year was a 16-yard touchdown against the Chicago Bears in Week 8. He’s averaged 2.5 yards a carry through four games. And most infamously, he fumbled what would’ve been the game-winning touchdown against the Titans in Week 7.
It’s a bizarre downturn for a running back that’s never been elite, but has mostly been pretty good and appeared to be on the upswing after averaging 5.1 yards a carry in 2018. He always had a good nose for the end zone too. But this year, he’s been almost completely useless. When he came back, it became apparent that he was probably not going to come back in free agency. At this point, the Chargers may not mind that either.
Coaching Staff Change
Just in the past week, the Chargers fired their offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and promoted quarterbacks coach Shane Steichen. Head coach Anthony Lynn said that he felt a change was needed. It’s hard to know what to expect out of this change, but one certainly has to be hopeful that the running game sees some improvement as a result. Or that the offense just scores more points in general, since they haven’t done that as much as last year either. They’ve only crossed 30 points twice this year, and they needed overtime for one of those occasions.
Last Word
The Chargers still are alive in the race, of course. But they’ve got a long road there and that starts with a tough matchup against the Green Bay Packers – followed by a short rest before playing the division rivals the Oakland Raiders. Getting a couple of good players like Derwin James off IR when they’re eligible ought to help, but they just have to hope that it won’t be too little too late at that point. Either way, it looks like this will be another season that will have Chargers fan down to their last nerve.
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