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The Chargers game against the Chiefs went from good, to bad, then just downright ugly. The game started with feeding Melvin Gordon the rock, something we were all hoping to see (and are looking to see more of) so that “Flash” could keep rolling with his preseason momentum. The Chargers were successful in most facets of the game and were looking like they would stun the crowd Arrowhead and surprise the critics. However, the Chargers did the most Charger thing. They blew a 21 point lead. A breakdown of playing time distribution of each player may help explain what went wrong and why the Chargers let a 21 point lead disappear.
Here is a breakdown of the snaps on offense:
| Pos. | Name | W1 Snaps | "% of Total W1" |
|---|---|---|---|
| T | King Dunlap | 73 | 100% |
| T | Joe Barksdale | 73 | 100% |
| QB | Philip Rivers | 73 | 100% |
| C | Matt Slauson | 73 | 100% |
| G | Orlando Franklin | 72 | 99% |
| WR | Dontrelle Inman | 58 | 79% |
| G | D.J. Fluker | 57 | 78% |
| WR | Travis Benjamin | 55 | 75% |
| RB | Danny Woodhead | 50 | 68% |
| TE | Antonio Gates | 48 | 66% |
| WR | Tyrell Williams | 44 | 60% |
| TE | Hunter Henry | 30 | 41% |
| WR | Keenan Allen | 27 | 37% |
| RB | Melvin Gordon | 23 | 32% |
| C | Spencer Pulley | 17 | 23% |
| TE | Sean McGrath | 16 | 22% |
| RB | Derek Watt | 11 | 15% |
| T | Chris Hairston | 3 | 4% |
The snap counts that stands out to me the most are Melvin Gordon’s and Danny Woodhead’s . Melvin Gordon had 14 carries for 57 yards, with an average of 4.1 yards per carry, and 2 TDs. He was definitely efficient and was running all over the Chiefs before his snaps were handed over to Danny Woodhead. Woodhead did a good job, but it was confusing to see Gordon’s snaps disappear. By the end of the game, Gordon saw 23 snaps to Woodhead’s 50 snaps. The injury to Keenan Allen seemed to derail the offense and take the wind out of the Chargers’ sails. This would have been a great opportunity to keep handing Gordon the rock and continue to punish the Chiefs’ defense, all while killing the clock.
Controlling possession was a key point in this game and right off the bat, we can see the offense (73 snaps) and defense (71 snaps) shared almost the same amount of snaps. Towards the end of the game, the Chargers’ defense looked tired, which was even more evident in overtime. Here is a look at the Chargers’ snap count on defense:
| Pos. | Name | W1 Snaps | "% of Total W1" |
|---|---|---|---|
| FS | Dwight Lowery | 71 | 100% |
| CB | Brandon Flowers | 71 | 100% |
| CB | Jason Verrett | 71 | 100% |
| LB | Manti Te'o | 70 | 99% |
| SS | Jahleel Addae | 67 | 94% |
| LB | Melvin Ingram | 61 | 86% |
| DT | Corey Liuget | 58 | 82% |
| CB | Casey Hayward | 56 | 79% |
| DE | Darius Philon | 35 | 49% |
| LB | Kyle Emanuel | 34 | 48% |
| LB | Jerry Attaochu | 32 | 45% |
| LB | Denzel Perryman | 32 | 45% |
| NT | Brandon Mebane | 31 | 44% |
| DB | Dexter McCoil | 21 | 30% |
| DT | Tenny Palepoi | 19 | 27% |
| LB | Jatavis Brown | 19 | 27% |
| DT | Caraun Reid | 18 | 25% |
| LB | Tourek Williams | 15 | 21% |
The way the defensive line played yesterday was encouraging going forward and it was good to see Brandon Mebane is in good condition, taking almost half of the snaps. However, the safety play yesterday gradually declined and was difficult to watch as the game went on. Dwight Lowery played all of the defensive snaps, which may have to do with how exhausted they looked out there. Lowery’s skill set is a whole different issue, but having him out on every snap certainly did not help.
It will be interesting to see the snap count against the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that held their own against the Packers, and how it tells a tale of the Chargers’ outcome.