Bolts & Dolts: Another close game ends in a loss for Chargers

Bolts

Danny Woodhead - 7 carries, 21 rush yds, 9 catches (12 targets), 77 rec yds

This felt like another one of those games where Philip Rivers and Ken Whisenhunt fell in love with Woodhead and the offense suffered because of it. Woodhead's 16 touches were twice as many as the next closest player (Keenan Allen) had. His 44 offensive snaps make Ryan Mathews' 15 snaps look pathetic, especially for the guy that is listed as the team's starting running back.

For what it's worth, Woodhead wasn't bad. He had some good runs, he almost scored a touchdown and he finished with 98 total yards from scrimmage. Good for him.

Lawrence Guy - 2 tackles (1 solo), 1 defended pass, 1 blocked field goal

There were over 100 snaps between San Diego's defense and special teams yesterday. Lawrence Guy played on just 19 of them (13 defense, 6 special teams) and created -10 points for the Washington Redskins (his batted-down pass was caught for an interception-touchdown). The Chargers, who had no business being in this game at all, only had a chance to win it at the end because of Lawrence Guy.

In just three games (and 23 defensive snaps), Lawrence Guy is already the team's third most valuable defender this season according to Pro Football Focus. Quite the waiver claim by Tom Telesco.

Honorable Mentions: Keenan Allen, Eddie Royal, Larry English, Mike Scifres, Sean Lissemore, King Dunlap

Dolts

(Reminder: This post is to highlight players that performed above or below expectations, not coaches or referees).

Vincent Brown - 1 catch (6 targets), 17 rec yds

Unlike Keenan Allen, Brown didn't really bounce back from his mistakes to have a good game (statistically). Against a secondary that he should've dominated, Brown looked scared and unreliable.

Kendall Reyes - 3 tackles (1 solo)

I'm highlighting Reyes here, but the entire defensive line was terrible for most of the game. Cam Thomas is obviously over-matched as the starting nose tackle. Both he and Reyes shouldn't really be on the field in non-passing situations. I feel like they'd both be better off in a 4-3 because of that.

Now I understand why Aubrayo Franklin and Vaughn Martin played so much last season.

Derek Cox - 5 tackles (4 solo)

Cox was targeted 5 times by Robert Griffin III, giving up 4 passes for 78 yards before being benched by Defensive Coordinator John Pagano.

Before the season, the thought process was that anybody at all would be better than Quentin Jammer, Antoine Cason and Atari Bigby were last season. Well, Cox has been quite a bit worse than Jammer was. Shareece Wright has been about as good as Cason was, which wasn't very good. Marcus Gilchrist had been worse than Atari Bigby, but he's trending up as the season goes along while Bigby was trending down throughout the 2012 season. Still, the Chargers secondary may look different but is just as bad as it was last season.

Dishonorable Mentions: Eric Weddle, Manti Te'o, Andrew Gachkar, Cam Thomas

More from Bolts From The Blue:

• Breaking down the San Diego Chargers goal line failure against the Washington Redskins
• San Diego Chargers Daily Links: November 4, 2013
• Chargers-Redskins final score: Washington wins 30-24 over San Diego in Overtime