Chargers week 8 snap counts

The Chargers did some things well yesterday, a lot poorly, and ultimately won because for once they had more luck than the other team. There were obviously some changes again yesterday with every DL ever on the inactive list and starting Left Tackle Russell Okung returning to the lineup.

Offense

Scott Quessenberry stepped into the starting lineup this week with Forrest Lamp joining the IR. Russell Okung went right back into the starting role and would have played the full game if not for a calf injury that pulled him out of the game for 9 offensive snaps at the end. Hopefully it was a minor thing and they were being cautious. Sam Tevi was the starter at RT, but as the coaching staff said, they did rotate Trent Scott in for 7 snaps at RT. Scott also came in at LT when Okung went out.

Keenan Allen was limited to 69% of the snaps with his hamstring injury, but still lead the team with 10 targets. Mike Williams played all but 2 of the offensive snaps and made a couple of nice catches. However both Allen and Williams dropped TD passes. Once again, this was a game that should have been more comfortable than it was.

An interesting, and positive in my opinion, change was that Andre Patton played 82% of the offensive snaps while Geremy Davis was down to 18%. I’m glad Patton got more snaps and he gave it full effort, as he was one of the guys pushing Melvin Gordon into the endzone on his score. Wish Jason Moore could have gotten some snaps but with only 45 total snaps of offense, there’s only so much you can do.

Another result from the limited offensive snaps overall was that TE3 Lance Kendricks didn’t see any snaps on offense.

Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler had basically equal field time, 25 and 24 snaps respectively, however Gordon got 11 touches to Ekeler’s 6. Both scored a TD but outside of Gordon’s 19 yard touchdown run, they combined for 10 rushes for 15 yards. The run game has become an afterthought.

Defense

Melvin Ingram returned to the field for the first time in a few weeks and played all but 1 defensive snap. He turned that into 3 tackles, including 1 TFL, and a fumble recovery. The downside here is that Uchenna Nwosu saw his snaps gutted to only 20% of the defensive snaps. There is a positive hidden there though that between Ingram’s 99%, Nwosu’s 20%, and Joey Bosa’s snaps, which I’ll get into below, the 3 of them were on the field at the same time for a handful of snaps, and Nwosu and Ingram had more than a handful together.

Joey Bosa played 88% snaps and was DOMINANT. 7 tackles, 4 TFL, 2 Sacks, 3 QB hits. He has been playing at an elite level all season and this has been his crown jewel so far.

Damion Square played 73% of the snaps and had a second fantastic week in a row. 6 tackles from the interior DL and knocked down a pass. Square is really making the most of his extra snaps and stepping up in a huge way for the Chargers.

Jerry Tillery played 43 snaps and was able to rack up 3 tackles this week after not making the stat sheet last week. It’s another positive step for the rookie that he can hopefully continue to build on.

At LB Thomas Davis was once again up at 83% of the defensive snaps. He did manage 7 tackles including a TFL, but Gus Bradley’s scheme put him at a huge disadvantage a few times when he was matched up vs a slot receiver on a deeper route. Denzel Perryman played 54% of the snaps, and grabbed 6 tackles for the Chargers. Drue Tranquill had a 46% snap share and had a pretty good game again. 4 more tackles and a very nice PBU, he also added 2 more tackles during his 18 special teams snaps.

Special Teams

Nick Dzubnar had 20 special teams snaps and again failed to make a tackle. Derek Watt and Drue Tranquill both had 18 snaps on special teams and both had 2 tackles.