More Banjo - Chargers Vs. Packers

[ThunderDan]

Leavitt got released this afternoon.

[Guiness]

Clark's batted pass was a great game finisher, and rewatching the same play Gary de-cleated Ekeler who was trying to chip him. There were 3 significant times I saw him go down for little or no reason. Add to that K. Mack going down from a WR chip, the Chargers equipment manager should not have been let on the plane ride home.

[Joemailman]

PFF Best/Worse Packer Grades:

Top 5 offense

1. WR Dontayvion Wicks: 76.1
2. LT Rasheed Walker: 73.5
3. RT Zach Tom: 72.6
4. WR Romeo Doubs: 71.9
5. RB A.J. Dillon: 69.3

Wicks produced 91 receiving yards and drew a crucial defensive pass interference penalty on just 15 routes run. He did have a drop, but he otherwise produced three first downs on catches over 20 yards and forced four missed tackles. Walker gave up one pressure (sack) over 28 pass-blocking snaps. Tom allowed just one hurry over 44 pass-blocking snaps. Doubs caught five of his six targets, made a contested catch and had a 143.1 passer rating when targeted. Dillon caught four targets and gained 34 yards after first contact.

Top 5 defense

1. DL Kenny Clark: 89.8
2. DL Karl Brooks: 81.0
3. CB Corey Ballentine: 71.5
4. OLB Kingsley Enagbare: 67.0
5. S Anthony Johnson Jr.: 62.6

Clark had a team-high six hurries, plus a crucial forced fumble in the red zone and the game-ending batted pass over 49 total snaps. Brooks delivered a sack and a hurry over 19 pass-rushing snaps and held up well against the run. Ballentine gave up just one catch for 17 yards on four targets into his coverage and made four tackles without a miss. Enagbare had a hurry and a tackle for loss over 22 snaps. Johnson Jr. didn’t give up a single catch over 64 total snaps.

Bottom 5 offense

1. RG Sean Rhyan: 43.4
2. RB Aaron Jones: 46.4
3. LT Yosh Nijman: 52.1
4. TE Ben Sims: 53.6
5. WR Malik Heath: 56.1

Rhyan gave up a hurry on just four pass-blocking snaps. Jones dropped another pass and had just 17 total yards on five touches. Nijman gave up three pressures, including a sack, and had a penalty over 31 snaps at left tackle. Sims graded out below average as a blocker. Heath got dinged big for his one pass-blocking snap, which resulted in a quarterback hit.

Bottom 5 defense

1. S Jonathan Owens: 40.5
2. LB De’Vondre Campbell: 44.1
3. DL T.J. Slaton: 45.4
4. LB Isaiah McDuffie: 45.8
5. DL Devonte Wyatt: 45.8

Owens missed a tackle on the 51-yard touchdown and also gave up four catches and a touchdown in coverage. Campbell missed two tackles and gave up two catches; he earned poor grades across the board. Slaton missed a tackle and got a poor run defense grade despite making one stop. McDuffie missed a tackle and gave up a first-down catch. Wyatt had two pressures but missed two tackles; finishing continues to be a big issue.

[run pMc]

I think the LAC beat themselves more than the GB defense stopped them. Not to say there weren't some good defensive plays or even series by GB, but the Chargers were without Mike Williams, Josh Palmer, and Gerald Everett as pass catchers. I'm a little surprised they didn't try to run the ball more as well, but they didn't have great success with it outside of Herbert's scrambles and one long Ekeler run. Still, even Matt Canada figured out that if you trot out 11 personnel GB will play nickel and you can run inside on them. I'd think Kellen Moore could do the same.
I'll say this - kudos to Barry and staff for winning with a defensive backfield of Valentine, Ballentine, Owens and AJJ. That's a JV secondary compared to the hospital ward of Jaire, Stokes, Savage and Ford. Herbert should have absolutely picked them apart, except he had Keenan Allen and crash test dummies to throw to. OK, something called Donald Parham Jr. caught a lot of passes and proved hard to tackle.

This was a case of two bad-to-mediocre (at this point) teams playing each other, if GB had played a top tier team they would have lost by 14. Dropped passes, slipping on the turf, bad tackling, poor blocking, yuck.

I do think the GB offense showed signs of life. They didn't force the ball to Watson, and they put him in a few positions to succeed. He didn't always, but he wasn't bad. Doubs had the nice TD catch. I think they are WR4 and WR3 respectively. Reed and Wicks are the better WR right now. Wicks had a bad drop, and ran the wrong route (or didn't cut it short) on the sack/intentional grounding that Love got mad about. Still, he gets open, has some RAC ability, and isn't afraid of the moment. Reed has some shake and bake to him as well. All these young guys need to work on their hands, and they should improve with experience. Musgrave somehow was overthrown by Love (probably the only time he's overthrown someone) on what could have been a game breaker for them. Otherwise they are getter a little smarter about how to use him and Kraft. Those little DickRod routes? Kraft should do those, he can actually make a guy miss or run them over. Musgrave can't but he can run the seam like a deer. TEs also looked like they are learning to block. Incremental improvements. Deguara got ONE play on offense.

I didn't think they'd win this game but thought they had a chance to, so I'm pleasantly surprised. I think it's a game they can build off, and helps to shorten/break any losing streaks. Will be good for the youngsters confidence and development, but beyond that I don't think it was a convincing win or anything.

[ThunderDan]

Deguara got hurt somehow. They put up on one of the 50 yard line scoreboards, that he was questionable to return.

[Bretsky]

A lot of people here having a hard time enjoying a win.

Regardless of how Tex like rats are, they know we are not going anywhere this year so games like this just help BarryBall stick around

[texaspackerbacker]

I just didn't see this at all. The Chargers rushed 24 times for 150 yards or 6.3 a carry. If you remove Herbert, you have 16 carries and 77 yards or 4.8 a carry. I still don't know why the Chargers didn't rush more.

And while we say the back end held up pretty well for a bunch of scrubs and not high draft picks (which I think they did considering we started Valentine, Balentine, Nixon, Owens and Anderson), if it wasn't for 4 dropped passes this game is probably a 10 point Chargers win. There were WRs and TEs running wide open down the field over and over.

hahahaha I didn't say they didn't suck against the run, I just said less than usual.

APB and whoever else doesn't like Owens: I see him as having "a nose for the ball"/instinctive to some extent anyway - as opposed to somebody like Savage.

True about teh drops - shit happens, and it was nice to see it happen to somebody else for once.