Bolts From The Blue
Chargers football is back.
The bye has come and gone and the hope is that the team was able to flush everything negative over their extended break. It’s tough to feel uber-confident this week based on how the Jaguars game went, but if they can’t take care of business this week, then there’s no point in believing their at a place to make a push in the playoffs.
Los Angeles will also be wearing their navy uniforms again after winning their first game with the new alternates. After going 0-6 in the old navy kits, being able to start 2-0 in these would be a refreshing change, as well.
With that said, let’s go ahead and jump into this week’s game preview and the three things I’ll be watching closely when these teams take the field on Sunday.
The Chargers entered their bye week after watching their offensive line get obliterated by the Jaguars pass rush that featured Travon Walker and Josh Hines-Allen. Newly-acquired offensive lineman Trevor Penning was rough in his Chargers debut and it seemingly has forced the Chargers take him out of the starting lineup after just one game.
Per The Athletic’s Daniel Popper, it is Jamaree Salyer who is getting the shot at starting on the blindside this week based on observations from practice. Also of note is that, even when healthy, it looks like Trey Pipkins has won back the starting right tackle job from Bobby Hart.
The unfortunate part is, no matter what they do at the tackle spot in place of Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, the interior of Johnson, Bozeman, and Becton has been so poor for the majority of the season that it almost is irrelevant who they throw out there.
Salyer has played well in spot duty and you just hope his lack of elite athleticism won’t hurt him against the monster that is Maxx Crosby and his 19 total tackles for loss this year.
While filling in for Hampton, Kimani Vidal recorded three games of over 100 yards offense while scoring three total touchdowns. However, in the other three games, Vidal totaled 63 yards combined with zero scores. Hampton’s ability to make something out of nothing has sorely been missed, but it remains to be seen just how fast they’ll throw Hampton back into the lion’s share of the carries.
With this week, I don’t think it’d be all that surprising to see Vidal still get a good chunk of snaps against the 2-9 Raiders. With or without Hampton returning, this is a must-win game that most certainly SHOULD be a victory, so I can see the coaching staff making the call to ease Hampton in more than the fans would probably like.
For comparison’s sake, Vidal has recorded 417 yards and two rushing touchdowns with an average of 4.3 yards per...
