Bolts From The Blue
The Chargers and Rams played a rather wacky contest inside SoFi Stadium on Saturday evening that ended in a rather miraculous win for Sean McVay’s group.
With 28 seconds left, the Rams faced fourth-and-10 at the Chargers 48-yard line. Quarterback Stetson Bennett heaved a prayer up the field to receiver Brennan Presley who managed to haul it in with two defenders draped over him. On the very next play, Bennett hit wideout Tru Edwards for the game-winning score to gibe the Rams a 23-22
From one end of the spectrum to the other just like that. The Bolts fall to 2-1 on the preseason and will travel to the 49ers for the preseason finale.
Justin Herbert and the starting offense got to play only the opening drive against the Rams backups. They managed a field before their time was done, but it came at the cost of Quentin Johnston who took a very hard hit near his chin from a defender as he tracked a go ball up the right sideline. He froze up on contact with the ground, but luckily got up on his own and was carted to the locker room.
With the starters and veterans on the sideline, both Tre’ Harris and KeAndre Lamebert-Smith had standout performances. Harris caught six passes for 85 yards (despite some bad misses from Taylor Heinicke) and KLS notched 66 yards on a pair of receptions. Both numbers were good for first and second on the team, respectively.
However, it may have been two UDFAs who authored the biggest plays of the night for the Chargers.
First, wideout Luke Grimm returned a punt 66 yards for a touchdown to give the Chargers their biggest lead of the night. Then, with the Rams attempting to respond, defensive tackle TeRah Edwards dropped into coverage on a blitz call before undercutting a slant and taking it back 27 yards the other way.
It was a night full of big plays and momentum swinging wildly back and forth. It’s just unfortunate things swung hard away from the Chargers at the worst of times.
This game is meaningless for any reason that matters, but don’t tell the faithful that. Third and fourth-stringers or not, you want to see your team finish the game strong. The Chargers failed to put it away tonight with a number of different opportunities.
Now, with one week remaining in the preseason, we’ll get to see who is still chasing a roster spot and which players have seemingly locked down a job for this year.
First Quarter
Chargers won the toss and chose to defer. The Bolts offense was up first.
On the second play of the game, Herbert found McConkey over the middle for a 16-yard gain. Herbert then took the following snap and heaved a go ball up the right sideline to Quentin Johnston. The ball ricocheted off his chest before a Rams safety hit him up near the chin area and Johnston could be seen freezing up as he collided...
