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By Bill Seals Sports Reporter Are the Chargers Super Bowl contenders? The Los Angeles Chargers have gone through the preseason as if the goal is to avoid injuries to their starters. Winning has been secondary to being ready for the regular season, which starts Sept. 9 against the Kansas City Chiefs at the StubHub Center in Carson. The Chargers lost to the New Orleans Saints 36-7 at the StubHub Center last week, yet there seemed to be little concern about the beatdown. Head Coach Anthony Lynn...
Los Angeles Chargers Head Coach Anthony Lynn has been preaching for a more balanced offense since he was hired for the job in 2017. Last season, the Chargers struggled to consistently run the ball, but led the NFL in passing so it was difficult to achieve the balance on offense. With Charger quarterback Philip Rivers and a talented group of receivers, the choice was easy. As offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt said, “You can't ignore the fact that we have guys like Travis (Benjamin) and T...
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Chargers held their first Blue-White scrimmage at the Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa. The offense seemed to be in mid-season form. Below is an early evaluation on the following position groups: Quarterbacks: Charger starting quarterback Philip Rivers has 192 consecutive regular season starts and watching him on Saturday, he looked like he could play another five years. Watching Rivers in drills, his footwork in the pocket was very good. His passing...
The Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers are both coming off seasons that neither would call a success. For the first time since 2005, both LA teams missed the playoffs. For the Lakers, this has become a routine. This was the fifth straight season the Lakers have missed the postseason. For the Clippers, this was the first time since 2011 that they had missed the playoffs. The offseason officially starts on June 21st when the 2018 NBA Draft is held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn,...
The NFL needs to take a stand. The NFL just wants to be loved. In a recent Gallup poll, American football was picked by 37% of U.S. adults as their favorite sport to watch. The next-most-popular sports are basketball, favored by 11%, and baseball, favored by 9%. Americans love football. Networks and advertisers also love the NFL. In 2017, the NFL generated $14 billion in revenue, easily the best in professional sports. Major league baseball generated just over $10 billion; the NBA generated $7.4...
The Los Angeles Chargers will begin their second season in Los Angeles in a much different place than they did one year ago. At that time, coming off a 5-11 season in 2016, Vegas prognosticators picked the Chargers to finish last in the AFC West in 2017. Now, after a 9-7 season in 2017, the Chargers are favored to win the AFC West in 2018. The Chargers won nine of their last twelve games in the 2017 season in impressive fashion, and that has clearly influenced the prognosticators in 2018. The...
The NFL Draft is an unpredictable process. General Managers must plan for several different scenarios that can happen during the actual draft process. A player that is rated high in the draft can fall for a for a variety of reasons. In the 2018 NFL draft, that scenario came true for the Los Angeles Chargers. Below is the round-by-round recap for the 2018 Chargers draft: Round 1 – Derwin James, Safety, Florida State The Chargers got a surprise when Florida State safety Derwin James fell to t...
The 2018 NFL draft is less than a week away, on April 26th through the April 28th and it is time to put our best effort forward to predict whom the Los Angeles Chargers might add to their roster through the draft. The Chargers have seven draft picks, one for each round. Below is the prediction for the Chargers for the 2018 NFL Draft: Round 1 – Pick 17 Leighton Vander Esch, Linebacker, Boise State This is a pick that should be on the board at #17 and a player with a lot of upside. Vander Esch wou...
The 2018 NFL Draft is less than two weeks away (April 26th through the 28th). The Los Angeles Chargers have a very good roster and really need to use this draft to build depth and to find replacements for players that they could lose in free agency in the future. The Chargers have addressed the offense with the addition of free agent Center Mike Pouncey. Forrest Lamp, the Chargers 2nd round pick from 2017, will be back after missing his entire rookie season with an ACL injury. He will start at...
The Los Angeles Chargers are coming off a successful first season in Los Angeles feeling pretty good about themselves. The Chargers ended up with their first winning season since 2014 with a 9-7 record. The Chargers won 9 of their last 12 games and in the process looked like a team that no one would want to face in the playoffs. Unfortunately, the Chargers just missed making the playoffs due to their 0-4 start. The Chargers met many of their 2017 pre-season goals: stay healthy, win close games...
There was once a Quarterback from Westlake High School in Austin, Texas that led his team to a magical Super Bowl Championship. In 2010, Austin Westlake graduate Dree Brees led his New Orleans Saints to an upset win in Super Bowl 44 over the Indianapolis Colts and in the process was named the Super Bowl MVP. The Philadelphia Eagles came to Minnesota as underdogs, looking for their own Super Bowl magic. They were led by a backup quarterback, Nick Foles, who was starting due to an injury to the...
The 2017 Los Angeles Charger season is going to be remembered for a lot of positive developments, including winning nine of their last 12 games. But it will be the missed opportunities that will haunt this team. It was those missed opportunities that will keep the Chargers at home for the playoffs. The Chargers started the season going 0-4, losing the opener by 24-21 to the Denver Broncos on a blocked field goal attempt, losing at home to the Miami Dolphins 19-17 on a missed field goal and...
In 1965 the Chicago Bears opened their season 0-3. They won nine of their next ten games to get back into the conference race, but fell short in their bid to win the conference. The Green Bay Packers and the Baltimore Colts were conference co-champions that year. Despite beating the eventual champion Packers by 21 points and shutting out the Colts on the road, the Bears could not overcome their 0-3 start. The Bears fate of 1965 is the similar to the fate of the Los Angeles Chargers of 2017. The...
The Los Angeles Chargers' 2017 season has been like a roller coaster ride. Up and down, never dull and never ending. The season started with a four-game losing streak, followed by a three-game winning streak, followed by a two-game losing streak, followed by a four-game winning streak. Then came the meltdown loss at Kansas City, which some feared might have ended the roller coaster ride and the Chargers' playoff hopes. But hope is still alive for the Chargers. On Sunday, the Chargers went on...
The Los Angeles Chargers have come a long way from their 0-4 start. They won four straight and seven of nine games to get over .500 and back into the playoff race. They had overcome some early season issues and seemed to be on the track to a possible division title in the AFC West. Until Saturday night at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. In an unexplainable performance the Chargers reverted to some of their early season issues and were soundly defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs 30-13. The...
Tom Telesco, the General Manager of the Los Angeles Chargers, must be beaming these days with the play of his 2017 5th round draft pick from Iowa. Rookie defensive back Desmond King has become the epitome of being a Charger. He is a player, like his team, who is getting better and better every week. On Sunday at the StubHub Center in Carson, the Chargers crushed the visiting Washington Redskins 30-13, setting up a big division matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday. The victory was the...
The NFL is considered a young man's league, but don't tell NFL quarterbacks that. The top four passing offenses in the NFL are led by veteran quarterbacks: Tom Brady with the New England Patriots is 40 years old. Philip Rivers of the Los Angles Chargers is 35 years old and will turn 36 on December 8. Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints is 38 and Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers is 35. Rivers has been playing the best football of this group over the past three weeks. On Sunday at...
The Dallas Cowboys are known as "America's team." They are one of the most popular professional sports franchises in the country. The Los Angeles Chargers, on the other hand, have been referred to as "Nobody's team." They have a marketing campaign known as "Fight for LA." They are trying to convince fans in Southern California that they are worthy of their support. On Thanksgiving Day the Chargers may have gained the support of a few more fans and at the very least the respect of many fans by...
Sometimes a new head football coach in the NFL is so desperate to spark the offense and win that he will make a decision out of desperation. On Sunday, that is exactly what happened to Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott, who decided to bench an experienced starting quarterback in Tyrod Taylor and give rookie Nate Peterman his first start as a quarterback in the NFL. Peterman was a fifth round draft pick out of Pittsburgh in the 2017 NFL Draft. The decision to start the rookie ended badly,...
The Los Angeles Chargers are like the boxer that no one wants to fight. It is going to be a close fight, a bloody fight. They can get knocked down, but they get right back up. They never quit. They are going to fight until the bitter end. Unfortunately, the end is usually bitter for the Chargers. On Sunday the Chargers lost in overtime to the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-17, dropping to 3-6 for the season and losing another game they should have won. In a wild fourth quarter the Jaguars tied the...
The Los Angeles Chargers have reached the halfway point of their schedule for the 2017 season. Their first half record of 3-5 is disappointing but a three-game winning streak did give Charger fans hope until the mistake-filled loss to the New England Patriots on the road. This past weekend was a bye weekend and gave the coaching staff an opportunity to do some much-needed self-scouting. As Charger head coach Anthony Lynn stated: "We're reflecting back on some self-scouting. Guys are doing projec...
If the NFL gave out participation awards the Los Angeles Chargers would be weekly winners. In the last 26 games the Chargers have played, 22 of them have been decided by eight points or less, with 15 of the 22 resulting in losses. But as Chargers Quarterback Philip Rivers stated after Sunday's game with the Patriots: "There are no participation trophies." Every game the Chargers play in is close and Sunday's game was no exception. In a tough matchup in Foxboro, Massachusetts the Chargers fell to...
The Los Angeles Chargers have reached the halfway point of their schedule for the 2017 season. Their first half record of 3-5 is disappointing but a three-game winning streak did give Charger fans hope until the mistake-filled loss to the New England Patriots on the road. This past weekend was a bye weekend and gave the coaching staff an opportunity to do some much-needed self-scouting. As Charger head coach Anthony Lynn stated: "We're reflecting back on some self-scouting. Guys are doing projec...
What a difference three weeks can make! Three weeks ago, after a 26-24 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn was describing another close loss that put the Chargers at 0-4. "We have to tackle when we are in position to make a play. We haven't made a play on special teams that's helped us win a game yet." The frustration in his voice was palpable. Well, that was then, this is now. On Sunday the Chargers got outstanding performances from both their defense...
Back in early January of this year Nick Novak kicked a 50-yard field goal to give the Houston Texans an early 3-0 lead over the Oakland Raiders, a lead that the Texans would never relinquish on the way to a 27-14 playoff win over the Raiders. The loss eliminated the Raiders from the playoffs. On Sunday Novak's 32-yard field goal with no time on the clock gave the Los Angeles Chargers a 17-16 win over the Raiders in Oakland. This loss did not eliminate the Raiders. They are 2-4, as are the...
