We’re only three games in to the 2015 NFL season. After getting smoked 31-14 in Minneapolis on Sunday, the Chargers sit at 1-2, but as quarterback Philip Rivers said: San Diego teams have started 1-2 before and gone on to win double-digits in games.
However, when looking at the injury issues along the offensive line (and the defensive secondary, where the Chargers are missing three starters) expecting a sudden turnaround is a lot more difficult this year.
Perhaps the slow start to the season would be helped if San Diego would end the slow starts in games. The Bolts have been behind at halftime in all three weeks this year. It's the extension of a problem that now seems systemic.
Let’s go back to 2014 and peruse the last 16 games the Bolts have played to take a look at their first half point totals, and how the game ended:
At Minnesota 7 (L)
At Cincinnati 6 (L)
Vs. Detroit 10 (W)
At Kansas City 7 (L)
At San Francisco 7 (W in OT)
Vs. Denver 3 (L)
Vs. New England 14 (L)
At Baltimore 10 (W)
Vs. St. Louis 6 (W)
Vs. Oakland 10 (W)
At Miami 0 (L)
At Denver 7 (L)
Vs. Kansas City 14 (L)
At Oakland 14 (W)
Vs. New York Jets 21 (W)
Vs. Jacksonville 17 (W)
Count it up and it’s an 8-8 record. Break it down and there’s an interesting trend. San Diego is 6-2 in games where they reach double digits in first-half scoring. That means they’re 2-6 when they don’t reach at least 10 points by the break. The recent trend is especially alarming. The Bolts have failed to score at least 10 points in the first half in five of their last six games.
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So the simplistic question is, what’s causing the slow starts and how do you fix it?
“If we knew it we would try not to do it,” said Rivers. “We just haven’t played well early.”
That would suggest a lack of preparation, and that is on the coaches. We’ve been told countless times that football is a game of adjustments, and to their credit the Chargers have often made the proper adjustments within the framework of a game.
”You make changes throughout the game, weekly, throughout the entire season,” said head coach Mike McCoy. “You go in to a certain series in the game thinking you’ve got to do it this way and they change also on defense then you come back and change. It’s all part of coaching.”
But that coaching does not start after the opening kickoff. With all the tape study these teams do they must have a pretty good idea of how their opponents are going to attack them. Why is it the Chargers are so constantly so far behind their opposition at the opening kickoff, especially on offense?
The simple answer would be they’re not getting ready to play properly during the week and that's causing them to miss opportunities early in games.
“We have to come out fast,” said wide receiver Stevie Johnson. “We can’t be taking time to see what happens.”
Basically what he's saying is the Chargers and all their playmakers on offense need to stop waiting to see what the defense is going to do and start imposing its will on the guys in other uniforms.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what it is,” said Johnson. “I don’t know what else to say about it besides we’ll see what happens next week.”
So the Chargers would apparently benefit from a better offensive game plan heading in to Sunday, which is interesting for a Mike McCoy-coached team. Back in 2013, his first year as the head man, the Chargers scored at least 10 points in the first half in 13 games. They went 9-4 in those games. So what happened between then and now?
Ken Whisenhunt left, that's what. Coach Whis is an offensive mastermind who has a knack for getting his offenses off to fast starts. Now the head coach of the Titans, Whisenhunt is starting games off really well. In three games, even with a rookie quarterback in Marcus Mariota, Tennessee has scored 45 points in the first half.
That's five more first-half points than the Chargers have scored in their last six games with one of the best quarterbacks in the league under center (or, in the shotgun).
The only logical conclusion to this is McCoy and offensive coordinator Frank Reich have to change the way they’re approaching things because what they're doing is not working. Reich is a big boxing fan so I’ll use this analogy.
No more throwing a few jabs in the early rounds to get a feel for being in the ring with a new opponent. It’s time to walk out and throw a few haymakers. What we’re saying is less Floyd Mayweather and more late-1980’s Mike Tyson.
If the Bolts can start taking control of games early and then making their adjustments and improving as they go, we’ll be looking at a lot more of the 6-2 version of the team and a lot less of the 2-6 edition.
Now, can McCoy come out of his conservative comfort level and make that happen? Is he capable of opening a game by trying to ram the ball right down the other team’s throat? Honestly, I don’t know. But I’d sure like to find out.
