 The San Diego Chargers were warned by fans and experts that they had to stop coming out sluggish. For the past few seasons the Chargers have made the playoffs only after strong finishes that took advantages of poor play within the AFC West. Now they stand in second place at 2-2 with an undefeated Broncos team with few flaws before them. Rivers and company will have to wake up very soon to have a chance to catch a wild card to even make the postseason now. Once again the Chargers offense has been prolific and the defense has struggled. This means that the Chargers are scoring 25.3 points a game (10th in the NFL) and giving up 25.5 points a game (25th in the NFL). The return of Shawn Merriman was supposed to fix these problems. The Chargers defense has traditionally played very well in the playoffs (especially against the Colts) but has come up lame in the regular season. This football team needs to break that cycle soon. They are already forcing two turnovers a game, but that is not enough when they allow 151 rushing yards a game. The offense may score the tenth most points in the league, but this team seems to lack that explosiveness of years past. That is because they are having troubles running the football. San Diego is averaging a mere 53.8 rushing yards a game. LaDainian Tomlinson is no longer the dominant beast he was before. He is an older running back with nine years and 2,677 carries under his belt. Tomlinson is averaging just 3.5 yards a carry when he is healthy enough to play and backup Darren Sproles is averaging only getting 2.4 yards a carry. He is too small to consistently run the football against NFL defenses at 5 foot 6 and 185 pounds. Phillip Rivers has been busy throwing the ball, averaging 295 yards threw the air a game. His favorite targets are Vincent Jackson and Antonio Gates. Jackson has been a good all around receiver serving as a possession guy and a deep threat. Gates is still more like a receiver than a tight end with 14.5 yards per catch. The Chargers have three division games in row to get back into the AFC West postseason race, including a huge match game against the Broncos in Week 6. The games against the Chiefs and Raiders are must wins, but luckily they should also be easy wins. The stretch of games after those three, that include the Giants, Eagles, and the last chance to play the Broncos are going to be another make or break stretch for the San Diego Chargers, and only one of those three is at home at Qualcomm Stadium.
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