San Diego Chargers
2011 PFF All-AFC West Team
The fourth stop on our all division tour of the 2011 season (AFC East, AFC North, AFC South) sees us head out West as we tip our hat to the top individual performers from the AFC West. In a season when no team could sustain a high level of play throughout, there were both some tough choices due to excellent play and some tough choices due to a distinct lack of quality.
As with the other All-Division Teams that we’ve presented this week, some discretion was required for defensive personnel to ensure the best players make the team rather than the best players that fit a certain scheme.
Here, then, is PFF’s All-AFC West Team for the 2011 season:
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Re-Focused: Chargers @ Raiders, Week 17
While San Diego may have already been eliminated from playoff contention, you could tell from the kickoff that they were intent on preventing Oakland from winning the division. Philip Rivers was in the kind of form that very few other quarterbacks have ever produced, with his nagging injury long in the past. This was another season where probably the best overall team in the division will find themselves at home during the postseason.
For the Raiders, they couldn’t stand the pressure in front of their home fans when the Broncos were losing to the Chiefs, opening up the chance at the AFC West crown. It was their front four that won them the first matchup, sacking Rivers six times. This time, with Jared Gaither controlling the dangerous Kamerion Wimbley, Norv Turner was able to call up the vertical pass plays which are such a staple of the Chargers’ offense and gash Oakland through the air.
Three to Focus On: Chargers @ Raiders, Week 17
The Chargers won’t be able to realize their ultimate goal of winning a Super Bowl this season, but now that they’ve been eliminated they can take solace in spoiling a division rival’s playoff hopes. It’s a small consolation, but just enough motivation to keep the dejected Chargers competitive. There’s also a good chance it will be the team’s last time playing for Norv Tuner, which could cause the players to give their best effort in an attempt to send their head coach off right even if things didn’t go as planned during his tenure.
The Raiders obviously don’t need any extra motivation with a division title still in sight and a chance for the sixth seed wild card spot even if Denver wins. Oakland has won their last three meetings with San Diego, each by at least a seven point margin. Carson Palmer (-3.1) got his first win as a Raider against the Chargers back in Week 10 and, in a small sample size, has historically played well against San Diego. He played the Chargers twice as a Bengal since PFF began collecting data and graded well in both games, with his best grade in 2010 coming against San Diego. Now that Palmer is a Raider, will the Chargers become the division rival he always saves his best efforts for? Read the rest of this entry »
Re-Focused: Chargers @ Lions, Week 16
They had it all to play for here. With a win they remained in contention and possibly kept their head coach around for 2012. Either that wasn’t enough motivation for the San Diego Chargers or they just simply were not good enough. Are they now a franchise who has seen ‘it’s time’ pass them by without the Super Bowl they craved?
While San Diego appears to be heading in the wrong direction, you can’t say the same thing about the Detroit Lions. The main reason for the Chargers poor showing here was that they were simply overpowered by a Lions outfit that seemed to remember just how explosive they can be when they’re geared up.
Their reward is a long overdue playoff appearance where we’ll really get to see them tested. If they can play like this though, then ask yourself; who couldn’t they keep pace with?
Three to Focus on: Chargers @ Lions, Week 16
This AFC West/NFC North matchup finds both teams who still have hopes for the postseason. However, those dreams are much more realistic for the 9-5 Detroit Lions, who control their own fate in terms of earning a wildcard spot. The 7-7 San Diego Chargers have looked good the last two weeks, especially last week against the Baltimore Ravens, considered by many to be one of the best teams at least in the AFC, if not the NFL. It may be too late for their usual late-season rally, however, since their division has grown more competitive recently.
The Lions have also been inconsistent, looking dominating at times (their 45-10 beat down of Tim Tebow and the Broncos in Denver comes to mind), while amateurish at other moments, plagued with self-inflicted penalties (like the infamous Ndamukong Suh stomp or Nate Burleson’s three PI-flag performance against the Saints). They’ve also had a couple of close comeback wins, like their 28-27 win over the Raiders in Oakland last week. Regardless of which versions of these two squads shows up on Christmas Eve, it should be an entertaining contest.
Re-Focused: Ravens @ Chargers, Week 15
Football can be a funny old game. Given the 20 point margin of victory for the San Diego Chargers you’d assume they dominated the Baltimore Ravens in every phase. After all they picked up 145 yards on the ground, another 270 in the air, all while limiting the Ravens to just the one score before a garbage time Torrey Smith touchdown.
But as can be the case, the stats are misleading. The Ravens ran the ball far more effectively while producing numerous minimal gains for the Chargers rushing attacks, with San Diego’s rushing numbers greatly inflated by three runs that accounted for 73% of their rushing yardage. Indeed this game served to prove that good rushing can be pretty worthless when you can’t complete passes to move the chains or stop an opposing quarterback victimizing your overmatched cornerbacks.
That is what this game came down to in the end; one quarterback and one coverage unit being better than the other, and it’s got to be a big concern for the Ravens as they face the possibility of going on the road in the playoffs. Who knows, they may just have a rematch with San Diego to come this season.
Three to Focus On: Ravens @ Chargers, Week 15
Count me amongst the few glad to see this one remain on Sunday Night if for no other reason than to see if the Ravens can keep building towards the playoffs. Right now, they look like the favorite to take the No. 1 seed in the AFC for the first time in their 16 years in Baltimore. They need to win-out to guarantee that and to avoid looking back on the season wondering quite how they managed to lose in Jacksonville.
The Chargers are clinging on by a thread this year and could be mathematically eliminated from the postseason with a loss on Sunday night. Regardless, change seems inevitable for the Chargers after yet another disappointing season. Truthfully, the Chargers have wasted an incredibly talented roster the last two years when the AFC West was theirs to be won.
Despite their problems, the Chargers still represent a significant threat to the Ravens aspirations to be home for the playoffs. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the three matchups to focus on this week.
Re-Focused: Bills @ Chargers, Week 14
How times change. In Week 5, this matchup would have been a top-of-the-bill game between two division leaders boasting 4-1 records, a game to mark out early supremacy in the AFC. Nine weeks later and those same two teams sat at 5-7, in third place in their respective divisions, and were looking to keep their mathematical playoff hopes alive. In only two months, this game became an afterthought of a late kickoff. As the game played out, one team reminded us why they were division front-runners while the other left their fans scratching their heads looking for the drain that their early season form has run down.
For the second straight week, the San Diego Chargers took care of business in a clinical manner against a floundering opponent demonstrating the offensive prowess that eluded them for the middle two months of the season. But for Matt Prater’s heroics in Denver they would have been only one game out of first place in the AFC West right now. For the Buffalo Bills, this marked their seventh loss in eight games since that 4-1 start and a season of such promise has unraveled before them. The same problems of a defense lacking a playmaking ability and an offense only too willing to offer big plays to the opposition reared their ugly heads again and there is a sense that the Bills are back at square one right now. Read the rest of this entry »
Three to Focus on: Bills @ Chargers, Week 14
Two months ago, the Bills and Chargers looked like they would be playoff teams; both franchises sitting at 4-1. Since then, they’ve each lost six of their last seven games and are two games out of the playoffs with four games to go. It was injuries that doomed Buffalo’s season (14 players on injured reserve) and a supposed injury to Philip Rivers along with a few other starters lost (11 players total on injured reserve) that plagued San Diego to mediocrity.
Neither team can go back and change where their record is at now, but running the table from here on out for either team would result in a winning season. After what these teams have gone through, that sounds highly unlikely, but somebody has to win this game. Here are the matchups that will decide who gets to hold on to their dim playoff hopes and who will have to wait for 2012 for another chance.
Re-Focused: Chargers @ Jaguars, Week 13
With one team so dead in the water that they lost their coach, and the other team taking on water faster than the Titanic, there wasn’t much promise for intrigue coming into this game. For a brief while in the second quarter the Jaguars looked like they might again spring a somewhat improbable upset in a home Monday Night Football game, but, as they capitulated just before half time, their fate was sealed.
For the Chargers, this was a must win to keep alive their most slender of playoff aspirations in the AFC West now headed by Denver. Mission accomplished on that front and gaining the win while going from the West coast to the East can at least give them some hope that they have turned the corner.
With the Jaguars adrift at this point, San Diego really just needed to show up and put a few drives together to walk away winners, but they showed some of their best offensive football of the season as, behind a makeshift offensive line, their vertical passing game sparked back to life. Philip Rivers and his hoard of receivers were able to capitalize on a Jacksonville secondary gutted by injury to pick up some big plays off of play action that turned the game. This may have been a low-key affair but there were some noteworthy and alarming performances. Let’s take a look at who shone and who faded under the Monday Night lights. Read the rest of this entry »
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