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Three Bad Things From The Ravens Game

The Chargers travelled to the East Coast and once again, came out on the short of game played at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. At the halfway point, this season could be one of the worst for the Bolts in a decade, unless there is rapid improvement to things like:

By SDNativeinTX
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Stupid Penalties

It was only fitting that on the day after Halloween, the timing on the idiotic penalties committed by the Bolts defense could not have been more symmetric and spookier for the end result.  Addae got hit with Unsportsmanlike Conduct on the Ravens 1st drive of the game and 1st drive of the 2nd half.  Steve Williams followed that up with a pass interference penalty on the Ravens final drive of the game.

All three were penalties produced by mental mistakes.  All three penalties resulted in field goals for the Ravens.  2 of the 3 were inexcusable; the one early in the 3rd quarter showed enough of a deficiency in thought process or coaching to warrant being mentioned with the other two.  The one on Williams, when he is contacting the receiver and directing him out of bounds showed such poor technique and understanding that I would have been shocked if a high school CB had done it, let alone a professional.

Injuries

I have not talked about this yet, but arriving into the game with key starters already not suiting up and then losing 12 more players during the game makes it the perfect time.  I really just don't know what to say at this point.  I suspect that the limited practices negotiated into the most recent collective bargaining are contributing to the issue league wide, not just on the Chargers.  It also doesn't help that guys playing this game keep getting larger, stronger, and faster, without that level of improvement in bone density, connective tissue flexibility, or stress (in terms of pounds per square inch) that joints can endure.  Perhaps the league and the NFL PA can investigate changing the number and methods of practice and embrace roster expansion, because this problem is league wide, not just localized in Southern California.

Offensive Arrhythmia

Once again, the Bolts try to establish something offensively, fail, try something else which works, and then stop doing it.  Going by the old eyeball test, this offense has not looked efficient all season, except when the coaches permit PR to just take over the game.  The man is capable of playing some incredible football and it amounts to coaching malpractice to not just ride the right arm of El Capitan to wherever it can take you.

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