5 Bad Things: KC Chiefs at SD Chargers

Philip Rivers
3 games: 7 turnovers, 6 sacks, 4 TDs. A QB rating of 82.1, which is worse than any season that he's had as a starter so far. It's not too complicated, without Antonio Gates this team rests solely on the shoulders of El Capitan. While we trust him and believe in him to be a great QB, everyone has a period where things just aren't going their way. Unfortunately for Philip, everything is going wrong for him at a time when his team needs him the most.

In this game, Rivers finished 24/38 for 266 yards, 2 sacks, 2 interceptions and a fumble that was recovered by his offensive line. He looked inaccurate and out of sorts for most of the game. A similar performance against the Dolphins would be disastrous.

Antoine Cason
It's been a rough start to the season for Antoine, who was absolutely abused by Dwayne Bowe in the second half of yesterday's game. I'm going to be optimistic for a second and attribute his slow start to the broken hand and time missed in training camp, which would mean that a return to his 2010 form is coming. That being said, I'd rather not see what happens if Antoine has to cover Brandon Marshall for the entire game next Sunday.

Health
Boy, the defensive line is starting to remind me of 2009. You don't remember the Chargers 2009 defensive line? Do the names Ian Scott and Alfonso Boone help jar your memory?

It appears the Chargers always get injuries in a particular group or groups instead of spread all over the roster, and this year that group seems to be DEs. Starters Luis Castillo and Corey Liuget missed the KC game. Jacques Cesaire left and didn't return. If you were to tell Greg Manusky that, at some point this season. he would be coaching with Ogemdi Nwagbuo and Vaughn Martin as his starters at DE (with no backups behind them) he would probably start pinching himself and crying to the heavens to wake up.

The thing with injuries in the NFL is that they happen to everybody. The teams that succeed are the ones that turn losses into opportunities and find new ways to win.

Bryan Walters
I am reserving this spot for "Wes Welker" (the quotes make it so everyone will get the joke this time, right?) until he is taken off punts or improves. Wes had punt returns of 5 yards and 4 yards, and again did that thing where he catches the ball in traffic just to see if someone can hit him at the right moment and make him fumble the ball on the Chargers own 10 yard line. He's a treasure.

Earlier in the week, I had been tweeting at Patrick Crayton about being upset that he was taken off of the punt return depth chart. He sent me back a vague reply that seemed to imply that he'd be returning those this week. Imagine my horror when I saw Welker back there, making mistake after mistake and not getting reprimanded for them.

Pass Rush
Wow, heck of an offensive line they have in Kansas City, huh? The only person that seemingly got near Matt Cassel all day was Antwan Barnes, when he sacked him on his second attempt because Matt was apparently in the middle of a particularly entertaining chapter of Twilight and didn't want to interrupt it by throwing the ball.

That OLB spot across from Shaun Phillips is a giant weakness, the type of weakness that contending teams do not have on their roster, and it was made worse by Bob Sanders not being in the game to occasionally blitz. Plain and simple, Greg Manusky (like most other DCs around the league) is trying to create pressure without sacrificing too much in coverage and it's not working. When Matt Cassel looks comfortable and has time to throw accurately downfield, it's time to change what you're doing.