FanPulse: Chargers fans’ confidence bounces back with win over Dolphins

Plenty of you here at Bolts From The Blue have been taking part in the ongoing fan confidence surveys since last year. This is part of SB Nation’s FanPulse tool, which sends weekly questions to the city’s most hardcore fans via email.

If you are interested in joining the Chargers FanPulse, please sign up here.

Trends

• At the end of last season, 76 percent of Chargers fans reported confidence in the team’s direction. After free agency, that number climbed to 81 percent.
• Prior to the draft, only 71 percent of fans were confident in the direction of the team. After the draft, that number jumped all the way to 88 percent.
• By preseason Week 1, that number had fallen again to 78 percent confidence. That number fell off a cliff as we approached the regular season all the way down to 59 percent.
• Following the Chargers’ Week 1 overtime win against the Colts, 58 percent of Chargers fans remain confident in the direction of the team. That difference is small enough to be considered holding steady.
• With a loss to the Lions in Week 2, fan confidence was shattered, and it now sits at 20 percent.
• With another loss, this time to the Texans, fan confidence sits at 17 percent.
• Getting back to .500 has the fan confidence climbing all the way to 41 percent.

It’s amazing what playing the worst team in the National Football League will do for your fan base’s confidence. The Chargers struggled a little bit early on in Miami, but by the time the second half rolled around talent won out and the Bolts took down a rather easy victory. That win put the team back to even with a relatively soft schedule immediately ahead.

All fan bases were asked which replacement quarterback they would take, and these were the results.

Jacksonville’s Gardner Minshew and New York’s Daniel Jones were the only two real choices in this poll, and recency bias carried the day as Jones edged the Washington State Cougar.