The Chargers injury report has been worse in previous weeks, but not by much.
Three players will not be available for Sunday's game against the Dolphins: inside linebackers Jatavis Brown and Denzel Perryman and wide receiver Jeremy Butler, who just joined the team last week because too many wideouts were hurt.
Safety Jahleel Addae and wide receiver Travis Benjamin are doubtful so don't expect them to go. Everyone else has a better-than-50-percent chance of playing except perhaps wideout Tyrell Williams, who was limited all week in practice with a knee injury.
It might not matter who is on the field on the offensive side of the ball as long as Philip Rivers is pulling the trigger. How about this stat: The Chargers have scored a touchdown on their opening drive in six of their nine games this season.
That is awfully impressive, and it puts pressure on the opposing team early. One of the main reasons for the early offense is coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, who showed his mastery of starting games with the Bolts when he was here in 2013 and didn't miss a beat when he returned this season.
What's interesting is they don't go about things the same way twice. Every week the game plan changes, right coach?
“We go through and talk about the plays but it changes,” says Whisenhunt. “There’s no script for what we’re doing, I think it’s just a feel for what we’ve done during the week in practice and we’ve been executing.”
This Sunday against Miami one would assume the Bolts would offer up a large dose of running back Melvin Gordon on their first possession. Gordon is coming off back-to-back 100-yard games and ran for 196 yards in last week’s win over the Titans. The Dolphins defense is ranked 30th out of 32 NFL teams against the run.
