State of the San Diego Chargers (Part 2)
This is the second part in a series of article discussing the state of the San Diego Chargers National Football League (NFL) team.
Rivers played superbly without his star wide receiver Vincent Jackson and tackle Marcus McNeill, who were injured for most of the season, and managed to carry the whole team on his shoulders. He is a great competitor and leader, with the players in the locker
room rallying around him. He is fierce and fearless and the way that he plays the game is just incredible, certainly ranking him as one of, if not the, best quarterback in the league. All he needs to do is get a Super Bowl ring to prove it.
The team overall wasn’t very good, which is why they didn’t make the playoffs, but Rivers was the one that carried the whole offense. So what does this team now need to give them a fighting chance in the playoffs next season?
Obviously, the team is already very dynamic offensively, mostly thanks to Rivers. As of now, we don’t really know what the team needs. Both of their star receivers, Malcom Floyd and Vincent Jackson, are free agents and we don’t know if they will be back
for another stint with the team. If the dynamic duo does come back, then the team should probably focus more on the defensive side of the ball because, offensively, they are in pretty good shape.
Whether it’s psychological or not, it seems that every year the team plays its best when it is digging itself out of a hole or backed against a wall. The mentality is that the Chargers just seem to start slow every year. This year, the Chargers started 2-5
and finished 9-7. Not enough proof? Take a look at the previous seasons as well. In 2009 they started 2-3 and ended the season by winning their next ten games in a row, finishing 13-3. In 2008, they started 4-8 and then ended at 8-8. In 2007, they
started 1-3 and ended the season with a 11-5 record, meaning that they have always started off with or less than 50% of their games ending in wins and then end the season with a much better record, if not the same.
The Chargers did not manage to dig themselves out of the hole to win their division in 2010, as they did the previous three years, but that could be because Jackson wasn’t there to help the team out. The special teams plays also seemed to take a turn for
the worse this year. They just didn’t do too well with blocked punts, kickoff returns for touchdowns or, frankly, any other part of special teams. Will they able to come back in 2011?
The Chargers will most likely be able to come up with a way to address the slow starts that they have had for four years in a row in the offseason, if there is an offseason. They can keep Rivers and they can get Antonio Gates and Jackson back and play a
lot better if everything works out.
The remaining article about the state of the San Diego Chargers will be discussed in the next parts. Take a look!
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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