Bolts From The Blue
The Chargers got massive play from some of their youngest players to help bring together a whole-team effort en route to sweeping the season series against the Chiefs. Third-year edge rusher Tuli Tuipulotu posted two sacks and a tackle for loss. Third-year linebacker Daiyan Henley picked off Patrick Mahomes to keep points off the abord for KC. Rookie wideout KeAndre Lambert-Smith caught his first NFL touchdown, and first-year tight end Oronde Gadsden II led the Bolts with 61 receiving yards.
It simply didn’t matter how ugly the game got, the Bolts found a way to get it done. They’re now 10-4 on the season with three games remaining.
With that said, let’s go ahead and check out the highest and lowest graded players on the Chargers from their win over the Chiefs.
Best (min. 20 snaps)
TE Oronde Gadsden II – 90.7
WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith – 74.1
RB Omarion Hampton – 71.4
QB Justin Herbert – 67.6
OT/G Jamaree Salyer – 64.1
Gadsden led the Chargers in receiving yards and had his fair share of spectacular catches to help move the offense down the field when in pivotal moments. His 27-yard catch that brought the offense to the Chiefs’ four-yard line led to the short Cameron Dicker field goal that wound up being the difference.
Lambert-Smith caught just one pass in this game but it was the lone touchdown scored by the Chargers so it couldn’t have been any bigger. He has just two catches on the year but his future remains bright in LA.
Hampton was rather quiet on the day outside of a 26-yard run in the second half, but he was solid enough to keep his grade high in what little opportunities he got against KC.
Salyer let up just one pressure and finished with the team’s second-highest pass block grade (73.5) among linemen and the highest run block grade (63.6)
Worst
TE Will Dissly – 45.3
OT/G Trevor Penning – 45.4
OT Bobby Hart – 48.8
WR Ladd McConkey – 57.4
OG Zion Johnson – 57.6
Penning had a solid grade in pass protection with a 70.1. However, he was fairly bad in the run game with a grade of 42.5. Hart allowed two pressures and finished with a pass and run block grade both below 48.0. Dissly’s run block grade of 50.0 was underwhelming and it didn’t help that when he was asked to pass protect that it also didn’t go very well (47.1).
Best
LB Daiyan Henley – 91.6
EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu – 89.5
S Derwin James – 79.3
EDGE Odafe Oweh – 77.2
S Tony Jefferson – 77.2
Henley had one of the plays of the game when he picked off Mahomes in the red zone. His coverage grade was elite at 90.8.
Every one of Tuli’s grades finished above 60.0 and his best came in pass rush at 85.4.
James all-around great with the second-highest tackling grade (82.5), second-highest coverage grade (79.2), and third-highest run defense grade (79.1)....
