I’ve said it before: consider subscribing to The Athletic to get Daniel Popper’s content. He offers the best Chargers reporter coverage that I have experienced as a fan. In The Athletic, he offers video breakdown to accompany his article.
Here’s a taste of two of five topics in his Monday Breakdown column.
COSTA MESA, Calif. — Today is Monday, and that means it’s time for the Monday Rewind.
The concept is pretty simple: Five thoughts from the previous day’s Chargers game, accompanied by videos of all the key plays. (For the Chargers’ Monday Night Football appearance, I will publish a Tuesday Rewind. For the Thursday night game, I will publish a Friday Rewind. Same idea. Different days. Accuracy matters, folks.)
I started this weekly feature last season while I was in Jacksonville, and the Jaguars subscribers enjoyed it. I’m hoping you guys will, too.
The Chargers defeated the Colts 30-24 in overtime Sunday at Dignity Health Sports Park. Philip Rivers engineered an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive on the opening possession of the extra period, and I covered that in my postgame story, if you’d like the details. The Monday Rewind will always focus on topics that I didn’t address in that week’s postgame story. Just so we’re clear.
That’s enough blabber. Let’s get to it.
1. The run blocking was outstanding
Austin Ekeler had a career day Sunday filling in for Melvin Gordon, who continues to hold out in search of a contract extension. In just his fourth career start, Ekeler scored three touchdowns — two receiving and one rushing — while amassing 154 yards from scrimmage. He rushed for 58 and added 96 receiving yards, including a 55-yard touchdown on a screen pass.
Ekeler deserves a lot of credit; he was finding holes and breaking tackles. But so do the Chargers’ offensive linemen, who were the ones opening those holes for Ekeler and Justin Jackson (57 rushing yards on six carries).
“They deserve, probably, more credit than I got today,” Ekeler said.
The group — Trent Scott, Dan Feeney, Mike Pouncey, Michael Schofield and Sam Tevi, from left to right — was dominant in the running game from start to finish Sunday. The linemen were also largely responsible for some big gains on screen passes, including Ekeler’s long touchdown.
On the Chargers’ second possession of the game, in the first quarter, they cleared the way for Jackson on a 23-yard run.
Two plays later, Ekeler got his turn, running through a wide open lane for a gain of 13.
Fullback Derek Watt also was key in the running-game success. He played 15 of 64 offensive snaps and sealed off the edge on this pitch to Jackson.
The Chargers had their most success rushing in the 22-personnel package — two tight ends (Hunter Henry and Virgil Green) and two backs (Watt and Jackson/Ekeler).
Both of Jackson’s chunk runs came in that personnel package — first the 23-yarder, and then this 24-yarder in the third quarter.
Feeney pulled from his spot at left guard and opened the hole on the right side for Jackson.
Perhaps the most important run of the day — outside of the game-winning touchdown — was Ekeler’s 19-yard gain in overtime, which set the Chargers up in the red zone. I wrote about this play in the postgame story. Tevi kicked out to the right edge and took out two defenders with a diving block. Ekeler read it perfectly.
“You got to have a mindset that you’re going to go kill somebody in the run game,” Tevi said. “That’s exactly what I tried to do.”
“Sam Tevi had an outstanding game,” Anthony Lynn said.
The screen blocking was equally as impressive. On Ekeler’s TD in the third quarter, Pouncey and Schofield sealed off safety Clayton Geathers and linebacker Anthony Walker to create the inside alley. Ekeler then did the rest, running over cornerback Pierre Desir on his way to the house.
Ekeler also picked up 13 yards on a well-blocked screen play in the second quarter.
And the Chargers had an opportunity for another big gain in the screen game on this play in the fourth quarter, but Rivers’ pass was batted at the line.
Russell Okung is on the non-football illness list because of a pulmonary embolism, and his absence led to some concern about the Chargers’ offensive line entering this season. Some of that is still warranted, which I’ll get to in the next section. But as far the as the running game and screen game, the Chargers linemen — and Watt — played about as well as you can play, and they were a very important part of the team’s victory.
“We had some plays that we worked on early in the week that we weren’t doing it as well as we had hoped,” Watt said. “And we talked about it, we made adjustments throughout the week, and today we ran a few of them where it was things we had literally talked about early in the week. We said, ‘We got to do this if this happens.’ And it worked perfectly, and we executed tremendously well on a few of those plays.”
2. The pass protection was not outstanding
Scott is Okung’s replacement at left tackle, and he had an up-and-down day in pass protection against the Colts.
It really came down to an ugly stretch in the third quarter. Apart from that, Scott was solid. But one missed block on the edge can result in a game-changing play, and that almost happened a couple times Sunday.
The first concerning play for Scott ended up not counting. Still, it’s worth mentioning and showing here. Scott was beat badly off the left side by Colts edge rusher Kemoko Turay.
Justin Houston (No. 99 on the interior) was actually offsides on the play, so the strip sack was negated. But Turay was not offsides. He didn’t start moving forward until the ball was snapped.
Scott’s struggles continued on the ensuing series. He was beat for a sack on first down by defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad.
Two plays later, he let up a strip sack to Turay. Luckily, Scott was able to jump on the fumble to prevent a turnover.
Scott returned to the bench dejected. But Okung was in his ear once he got there, encouraging his young teammate. Okung has been an immensely valuable resource for Scott since he joined the Chargers last spring as an undrafted free agent out of Grambling State. And that mentorship has continued, even as Okung sits out.
“It’s huge,” Scott said. “It’s big time.”
Scott said Okung told him to “just stay calm, trust your technique and don’t get in your head.”
“I was frustrated,” Scott added. “Nobody likes getting beat, and I’m hard on myself. But I came to the sideline, regrouped and didn’t have a problem after that.”
That’s the key here. Scott is a still a very young and very inexperienced player. Sunday was his second career start. Young players make mistakes. In order to make it in the league, you have to learn from those mistakes and display tangible improvement.
Scott did that. He didn’t allow a pressure the rest of the game.
Here he is standing up Turay on a fourth-quarter completion from Rivers to Allen.
And on one of the most crucial plays of the game — Rivers’ throw to Allen to open the overtime drive — Scott was once again sturdy in protection against Turay.
“That says a lot about a man’s character, to overcome adversity and fight back and finish the game the way he did,” Lynn said of Scott. “He played a physical football game yesterday.”
It’s fair to criticize Scott for the blocks he missed in pass protection Sunday. But it’s not fair to completely write him off. The Chargers believe he will improve. They view him as a legitimate starter in this league. He has shown he’s capable of playing at that level.
And he wasn’t the only offensive linemen who broke down in pass pro against the Colts.
Schofield was beat inside late in the first half, and Rivers was forced to escape the pocket.
Schofield and Pouncey then tried to double-team Houston on the next play, but they couldn’t stop him. And Rivers again had to throw the ball away.
“You take away four or five plays, and I thought the offensive line played outstanding,” Lynn said.
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