Well, that two-game East Coast trip did not go so well for the San Diego Chargers. Two games away from home resulted in two defeats. Outside of wide receiver Keenan Allen’s sweet touchdown reception between two Minnesota defenders, Sunday’s performance against the Minnesota Vikings was not exactly the kind of display the Chargers could be proud about.
The 31-14 defeat the Chargers absorbed was not as one-sided as it seems. But it wasn’t pretty either. The Chargers are back to square one and headed back home to the friendly confines of Qualcomm Stadium where they hope they can get back to .500 ball. There was some good, some bad and some ugly to take away from the Chargers two straight road losses.
The good: Quarterback Philip Rivers surpassed Hall of Famer Dan Fouts as the all-time leader in touchdown passes as a Charger when he went for No. 255 against the Cincinnati Bengals on a short touchdown connection with Stevie Johnson. Also good was Allen. Allen hauled in 12 passes for 133 yards, two touchdowns-and that spectacular 34-yard reception from Rivers just before halftime as the Chargers cut the Vikings’ lead to 10-7.
That would be as close as the Chargers got to within Minnesota rest of the game.
The bad: Missing in action the last two games has a 100-yard rushing performance from the ground game on an individual basis.
Rookie running back Melvin Gordon, after putting up decent numbers against the Bengals with 88 yards on 16 carries, went for just 51 on the ground on 14 rushes against the Vikings. The run game is a vital part of the Chargers’ success, which is why they selected the former Wisconsin star at their top draft pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
This is not all on Gordon, though. As a team, the Chargers, including Danny Woodhead and Branden Oliver, averaged 3.2 yards per carry against the Vikings and combined for 90 yards altogether. With the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town before they hit the road in Week 6 to take on the Green Bay Packers, those numbers are going have to be upgraded if the Chargers hope to stay on the winning side of .500.
The ugly: The big-play bug. The Chargers got caught up with the big-play bug against the Vikings, and it wasn’t in their favor. For the most part, the Chargers played decently on defense, holding Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to a porous afternoon (13 of 24 for 121 yards), but gave up the big-play on a 43-yard touchdown run by Adrian Peterson. The other big play of the day came courtesy of Minnesota linebacker Chad Greenway, who took a tipped passed and returned it for a pick six touchdown return to officially close the door on the Chargers.
The Chargers hope they can get well against the Browns and Steelers at home. A solid run game to compliment Rivers and the passing game, and reducing the big play would go a long way into that coming to fruition.
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com