Evaluating Bolts At The Bye | LA Chargers

Evaluating Bolts At The Bye | LA Chargers

has a lane 1510. Touchdown Chargers. Welcome to Chargers Weekly presented by Splitero with Jalil Adai. Today, Matt Money Smith here. For those of you not watching but listening to the audio component, you will not hear Chris Harry. He earned a buy as well visiting with his family on the eastern seab seabboard up there in Charleston. Uh I’ll probably be out next week as I’ll be in the uh the Midwest visiting my folks for Thanksgiving. So I think it’s going to be Chris and maybe Jal as well. But uh Jal, I think look, we’re going to look back. We’re going to talk about uh what was the situation in Jacksonville, but also important to look forward and I’d love to just start with this is as you played a number of years. I would assume you had early buys, you had, you know, those perfect week eight buys and you probably had late buys. Um what what is a by-week for a player? What goes into it? Do you look forward to it? Not saying you overlook an opponent, but just kind of especially when you have one this late in the year going into week 12 when you started early with that Hall of Fame game. Um, did it look like a team that was in desperate need of a by-week? Yeah, the first thing, you know, we did usually was when the schedule came out, we would look to see when is our by-week, right? Hoping that it wasn’t early in the season and that you can get one mid midseason, closer towards the end because your body’s banged up, right? And it’s it’s a it’s a hall. It’s a hall mentally. hits a hall physically. People don’t understand um what these players go through day in and day out and it’s a true grind, right? And rightfully so, and this is why they get paid the big bucks and they’re professional athletes and we expect them to be professionals in their respected space. But when you look at the by-week now, you just hit it hit it on the head, money, this team looked like they needed a buy, right? The way they came out and they played, they were flat. Um Jacksonville brought it to them on all three phases. Out physical them um out schemed them um top to bottom. So when you look at it and you say, “Okay, what goes into a bias?” Okay, first of all, we’re going to go visit family, right? We’re going to reset. We’re going to get healthy. Players who are banged up don’t get to leave. They have to obviously stay back and get treatment. Um, reset your mind, refresh your mind, but also you’re always you’re always in the mindset of being a professional player and wanting to gain an advantage. So, you’re looking forward to, you know, two weeks and seeing the opponent that you’re playing and you’re home and you’re studying film as well while you’re taking a break, but you’re definitely getting away from ball for a few days. um and allowing it to be fresh again once you get back. Uh you said it when I said it. I got accused of making excuses and you know people wanted heads on a platter and people to be fired and all that stuff when I did my Instagram on Sunday night after we got home. And I used the word flat. I said look every that there wasn’t a single position group that played well. So share with the people listening and with me you know what does it mean to come out flat? How does a team come out flat? What is it that leads to that? Well, they just had a massive win, right, on Monday on, excuse me, on Sunday Night Football against the Steelers. And that can carry over sometimes for good or bad, right? And it’s on the leaders of the team to be like, “Hey, yes, that was a big win on national TV against a team that is a respective team that’s supposed to make the playoffs and go far, but we can’t let them we can’t let that victory allow us to go way to Florida, right, in North Florida and and come out flat.” And flat means, listen, it could be lack of preparation mentally, physically, um thinking that, hey, we’re going to Jacksonville. We just whooped up on the Steelers and we’re going to Jacksonville, who’s a Travis Hunterless team. Trevor Trevor Lawrence isn’t playing his best ball and it’s the Jaguars, right? Typically, it’s the Jaguars. Look at the Jag. Well, this could be a stat game. This isn’t the same Jaguars, right? And when you say how they come out flat, they didn’t play with urgency. They didn’t play with any physicality. Um the coaches got out schemed, right? And it just is what it is. and you watch the brand of football that the Chargers played on Sunday, that’s the one word that you can say. Not Herbert didn’t play well. Um the the the Water Boys didn’t play well. Nobody played well. I don’t even know if the equipment staff packed the right equipment. Right. It’s I’m joking. But it’s just what it was. It was an allaround loss and it was a total team loss. And you’re right. And you’re right, Money. I mean, this is media and obviously we pull for the Chargers and we want the Chargers to win, but when they put out a a performance like that, we also have to be real and be realist about what we seen on TV. Yeah. You know, I’ll tell you, you mentioned Justin, it’s it’s his worst game as a Charger. I mean, that’s ultimately what we’re talking about. He’s had multiple interception games. He’s had low yardage games. um he’s been on the wrong side of a 45 nothing, you know, shut out at the hands of of the Patriots and Cam Newton. Um but I kept saying it like I think when you marry expectations, which players were available, who who the opponent was, I think this is probably the worst performance of, you know, the the Justin Herbert era. Uh you’re talking about 81 yards passing and an interception and you go to the bench. He’s never done that before. uh unless it’s been for the opposite, you know, where they’ve been blowing a team out, you want to get him a little bit of rest. I think it’s also important to point out that it’s not all on him. Guy got absolutely creamed back there um repeatedly. So, I think it’s understandable that, you know, you’re you’re maybe going to have a bad game or sail a couple throws. We saw with Aaron Rogers, right? I I mentioned this uh in that in that Instagram I did. I you know, just kind of in the moment because it popped into my head. And I said, “It’s almost the mirror image of the Steelers game where the defense just had all the answers, pressured the heck out of the quarterback, running game couldn’t going and therefore the passing game couldn’t get going. And ultimately, the defense wore down and you you get gashed in the running game. I mean, it just looked like they were the Steelers from Sunday night and the Jags were the Chargers from that Sunday night game. Yeah, you’re right. Right. And that’s the crazy part because you you talk about the Steelers and that’s an organization who’s historically known to be physical and the Chargers out physical them. And then you went to Jacksonville who they’re an organization who really doesn’t have an identity, right? And we couldn’t stop the run. And when you can’t stop the run, the offense has the playbook at their disposal, right? So if you can’t stop the run, we have a two shell. And then now we’re trying to stop the run with the two shell. That’s not working. Then we’re bringing a safety in the box to create a eight-man box so we can fit the run better. That wasn’t working. So it was like the def and also you talk about Herbert that was the worst performance that we’ve seen from a Jesse Meners defense right for all for so long they played such good ball right the last three weeks they played such good ball and then you talk about Herbert and Herbert’s been under duress all season long right and he’s been under all season long but he’s been able to get over the hump and he’s been able to get through that and still come out with a Superman performance right so this is what it looks like when he doesn’t have a Superman performance and he’s not perfect right and so many times times we’re used to him getting us out of that funk, no matter the the the offensive line being hurt, no matter how much times he’s being pressured, him rolling to the left and throwing a dart for the to Keenan Allen or escaping the pocket. And this Sunday, last Sunday, he was just not able to do that. And I think it’s it’s such a great point, Jal, right? Because that’s what we’re used to. We’re used to, oh, you’re you’re on your sixth and seventh tackle. It’s all right. Justin’s got us. You’re you’re down Aronda Gadston. No problem. Justin’s got us. You don’t have Naji Harris, Omarian Hampton, nor Hassan Haskins. Don’t worry about it. Justin’s got us. And in this particular one, it just didn’t happen. Um, and I think that’s kind of what I tried to to to suggest is let’s not forget the team is seven and four. They are down arguably the best bookend tackles in the game. They are down their starting three running backs. you know, their stud firstrounder who was just starting to get going and looking like one of the five best backs in the league in that Giants game in the first half of the Commanders game. And then they’re down Nashi who was pulling, you know, was ripping five yards a carry. And they’re down Hassan Haskins who’s their best pack pass protection back. It’s just, you know, I it’s such a great point. like we just assume that he’s going to overcome all of that and there’s some sort of fairy dust that’s sprinkled on it and you somehow stay competitive and try to eek something out and this just happens to be the same guy that handed Jesse Miner his worst performance last year and Liam Cohen when the Bucks came to town and Bucky Irving and Rashad White ran for over 200 yards on seven yards per carry and it happened again and ultimately I think that’s what happened to that defense is Travis Tienne and Bahan Don just got going, man, and they had no answers. And they kept running the same play over and over again. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right? And and that’s what they did. And then we just to heart back on Herbert. And a lot of times if he is in a funk, right, the defense bails him out and the defense gets the three and out. So they get the turnover that we need. And then that allows Justin to get into his groove and allows the offense to get into his groove. And on Sunday, just neither side of the ball was able to get into a groove. It just felt like and her I mean Harbaugh even said it. We got to coach better, right? And and it falls on the coaches too. It could fall on the sk the schemes, the schematics. You know, I think that Gro was trying to get the ball out of Herbert’s hands early with screens um and quick game because of he because he knows that, you know, he’s hampered at the offensive line um position and he knows what’s coming with that and that’s pressure. Um, I know a lot of people would have liked to seen Herbert rip it downfield more and stretch the defense, but when you’re being pressured at that such a high rate, I I can’t disagree with Jirro because he’s trying to, you know, combat the the blitz or combat the pressure that he’s getting rushed on. So, we had a game like this in 2015 and coach Pags John Pagano was our defensive coordinator and we came into the defensive uh meeting room and just spirits were down. We get into the building. It’s very low, gloomy. And he said, “You know what? We’re not even going to watch the film.” And we literally took the film, we went out, we went out Murphy Canyon Road, he dug a hole, he buried the film. There you go. And he’s put dirtism and he said, “Listen, we’re going to move forward.” Because he said, “At the end of the day, there’s things for us to learn from, but that’s not who we are and we’re going to move forward and we’re going to look forward to the next opponent.” And crazy enough, we came out the next Sunday and got a big time win against the New York Giants and Eli Manning. So, there’s different ways. Obviously, every coach is different. Um, I think the bye-week is going to be really well work well for them. They’ll be able to refresh and come back um and it’ll be good for them. Was that uh was that game against the Giants at home? It was I called that game. I remember that. I called Yeah, I called that game for uh national radio. Uh remember it well. There’s a lot of Giants fans in the building that day and they uh and they all left very sad. Chargers Weekly is presented by Splatero, helping homeowners access their home equity with no monthly payments. Split offers home equity investments. A better way to access the cash you need from your home without getting to go through a bank. Get a lump sum of cash in exchange for a share of your home’s future value. pay off debt, renovate your home, and better your life. Get your free cash estimate at splitro.com/chargers. Just kind of to to build on that, to build on because you mentioned scheme. You mentioned what what coach Harbaugh said in the postgame and what he said on his Monday presser as well as I went back and and looked through it. I was just very because I’ll start I’ll well, you know what? No, because you already talked about Giro. So, let me start there before we get to defense. I was very surprised that there was a more quick game, you know, because we saw a lot of that against the Steelers and we saw it be successful, especially with Quinton, you know, the stiff arms and just those quick throws, those smoke routes, uh, leaking Kamani into the flat. Like there was there was one of those and I was like, man, I just I thought maybe you could get and I know you can’t change the identity of your offense and stuff, but I just figured with I know that they didn’t have a lot of sacks, but there were still a ton of pressures from Trayvon Walker and Josh Hines Allen. I think Josh Allen was uh third in the league in pressures, had over 50 coming into this one. So, I just figured, okay, probably similar to what we saw from the Steelers. When you got TJ Watt and Alex Highmith and and Herbig and all those guys, then yeah, I mean, you’re looking at Trayvon Walker and Eric Armstead and Josh Hines Allen probably going to look the same. And it didn’t. And you know, first play of the game is sevenstep drop, play action. Let’s wait for this long development. Wow, wow. You know, and it was just like, okay, maybe that’s what it’s going to look like today. Okay. And man, Trayvon Walker had his way with this team and Josh Hines Allen and Eric Armstead and it was just like snap after snap those those shot plays just weren’t happening. It wasn’t going to happen. So, I was just very surprised that there wasn’t a shift and and I I say that asking you and I’ll ask it for the defensive side as well and some things that I noticed. Is it just too hard? Is it too hard to to change that much in game to just go straight to a ton of quick game to say, “Hey man, I got two choices here. Either I need my tackles to block and hold blocks or I need their corners to be able to tackle, right? I want their corners to be able to tackle based on what I’ve seen. I’d rather I’d rather go down that road than this road because this road does not look like it’s manageable.” Yeah. No, it’s it’s because it was installed the week before and like you said, you’ve seen it, right? So the the the vocabulary is there. Um they’ve practiced it and there’s been times where you know being in the game and we we ran something last week but we didn’t prep for it that week but we got into the game and seen that this isn’t working and coach Miles or Gus Bradley or John Pagano would say hey listen just we last week we ran X Y andZ we’re going to bring that up in this next downs in these next series because we think that it’ be a good change up. So no they’re more than capable of doing it. I’m not sure what Jirro’s seen um on film. Obviously we’re not in the room. were not in the building. Um, but something that he seen didn’t allow him or make him believe that the same game plan that he ran against the Steelers um would work against the Jaguars, which when you put it like that money and you talk about the guys up front that the Jaguars had, which they rushed only three and four a lot and got home every time. It’s a great point. And then you talk about them being physical when Herbert ran the ball in the first quarter and he didn’t slide and he went head up with the linebacker. forgot his name number 23 and he dumped Herby, right? And it was a clean tackle. It was a clean tackle, but I would like to see Yeah, I would like to see one of the linemen, you know, get up there and shoulder bump. I’m like, “Hey, get off my quarterback.” Right. Like, you’re not going to bully us today. And from that point on, that’s literally what it was. It was like it was a bully ball and the Jaguars were the bully and the and the Chargers never swung back. Yeah. And it worked the other way, too. I mean, they just, like I said, ran the ball just and it was the same play. I mean, you could probably share looked to it like a counter to me. It was just like an inside counter that they kept running. And so, here’s what I was trying to I’ll start with this. Um, and you know, you can you can dig into it and explain it to the people listening. Um, I want that heavy front. I just feel like this team plays so much better with the heavy front when we get those three interior linemen, especially with hand healthy now. I want Tart Hand and Caldwell out there or in the NASCAR package, Tuli is your third interior with Oway and Khalil on the edges, but I just feel like that is much more effective than these light fronts where they only have Tart and Caldwell or Tartan Hand and they’re playing your two edges um and they’re playing Dime or they’re playing Nickel. It just they I felt like they were in that form that personnel grouping way too much. And when they had those three interior and the just the fiveman fronts, it felt like it was a little bit I shouldn’t even say a little a lot more effective. Yeah, I I I see exactly where you’re going with it. And it’s more so it’s the front, but it’s also we keep talking about it. It’s the two high and but they’re allowed to play the two high money to your point when they have that front end in there with the heavier bigger guys inside. Right. So for the people at home, when you have play a two high shell, you only have a sevenman box and that’s called a light box. That’s inviting the run. Nine times out of 10, the Chargers been able to play with a light box, right? The sevenman box, keeping the two safeties back, which allows them to negotiate, negate the big play, the big ball, the big deep balls over the head. They want to keep a umbrella on the defense, right? Fastest way to lose the NFL is is big play. So they keep the two safeties back. Corners play off vision on the quarterback and they’re able to stop the run doing that. Now if you can’t stop the run, everybody in America knows you drop a safety in the box. You go base, you put Duran at high safety and you drop him in the box. So you have Duran and then you have two three other sa three other linebackers. That’s called a hitman box which is known to stop the run. Your gap sound so they call it. The Chargers wouldn’t get out of the two cell look. And I guess that’s kind of where it’s very similar to what I pointed out with the with the offense, right? It’s I’d rather see your corners tackle my receivers than my tackles block your edges. Same thing to me with Jacksonville. I would rather single high man rush blitz and I want to see Trevor Lawrence have to navigate that because he’s just been so indecisive and they’re playing quarters and they’re playing these soft zones and they’re not getting home with four and Trevor found a a rhythm. He found some comfort that had not been there the previous few weeks and I was just I kept waiting for that adjustment like hey man you you said it right. What’s the easiest way to get beat explosive plays? I want to see it. I want to see it. I want Yeah, because there’s no Brian Thomas, there’s, you know, there’s no no Travis Hunter. So, if Jacobe Myers or Parker Washington, if they’re going to beat me, fine. Let me see it, man. And if Trevor Lawrence is going to feel comfortable because on that first series, you saw it, man. He just didn’t want to throw. He had he had a flat on the first fourth down, he had somebody open in the zone and he failed it. Just couldn’t pull the couldn’t pull the trigger. And so to me, that’s what I was kind of waiting for. I’m like, man, I just You got Cam Hart, man. He’s bodying up DK. You got Ben St. Just who likes to play man. Like, get them dudes out there and let’s creep up and and let’s like you said, let’s let’s get just run single high. And And I’d rather I’d rather see that. And I was very surprised that we just never saw it. And the key word you said was an adjustment. So, you go into the game on Sunday with a game plan and the game plan doesn’t work or the game’s not going your way. That’s ball. That happens. Yeah. But you said it, they never adjusted. They kept it too high. They kept Duran at the nickel spot, right? And Okay. So, you have too high. Then you have Dur at the nickel spot who’s outside the box who’s best when he’s inside the box. And then all they’re doing is running him off and then they’re running the ball. So, essentially, you really only have a six-man box, right? Essentially, you only have a six-man box. So it’s even lighter what what for the people at home what money is saying is hey put the base defense in when you got your bigs on at least on first down money when you know they’re running the ball at least on first down when you got your bigs dur at the high safety drop him in the box and then you can sprinkle in your two shell and then get fancy with it on second down and third down once you have him playing behind the sticks but the Jaguars never play behind the sticks on Sunday first down four yards a pop five yards a pop so then it’s second and five and they call that wast downs, which means you could do anything you want to. They’re they’re not predictable because they’re going to take a deep shot. They’re going to do a trick play. They’re going to do a screen because even if they if they fail, it’s third. 35. Yeah. Yeah. And and I’ll tell you the numbers, you’re you’re talking about a team that ran 69 plays and only had 10 third downs and never punted. I mean, that tells you how effective they were on first and second down. They just kept and they they had I want to say they had 30 first downs to six for the Chargers. They never punted, scored 35 points. Um, I’m looking at their scheme breakdown. Uh, cover three 51%, quarters 26%. Who’s who who are you speaking of to be specific? Chargers. Yeah, Chargers. That’s they against the Jags. They were in quarter They were in quarters 25.4% of the time. They were in cover three 51% of the time. So, and and they had that light and I’ll tell you, Jal, help me kind of like explain the idea behind um because I was when I was going through all the explosive runs, multiple I don’t know, mean it might have been three of them that went for big gainers, you know, and they didn’t have like 25 yard runs, but they just had a bunch of like eights and 11s and things like that. They were overloading one side of the line where they would have three linemen to one side of the center and then one single lineman on the opposite with a linebacker about five yards off the line of scrimmage. That’s the way they were lined up. I don’t know what that formation’s called, but every time they did it, they ran right into it and they were gashing them for 12, 14 yards. Yeah. I don’t know what money you got me beat because you your front has to be balanced right it just has to be there’s odd fronts there’s even fronts you play a three technique you play a shade but the fact that they had three linemen on one side of the center I mean if I gave my son who’s seven years old that look he’s going to know to go with the where to go with the ball and another interesting point that you made is that you said they played third 51% cover three that’s a eightman box cover three is eightman box That’s a safety down in the box. Um, now do you play cover through to stop the run? You do. But now when they’re starting to do counters and they’re pulling, your gaps move. So if you’re not gap sound, you can easily get gashed. Now where you make it easier for them to fill the run is manto man, right? And like you said, if you manage on the outside, you have a eight-man box, you have manto man, the safety’s on the tight end, and then they call it my man, my fit. So wherever my man goes, I’m fitting off that. So I’m not reading any gaps. So it makes the defense and allows the defense to play downhill and get to the ball faster. Whereas cover three, you’re covering the zone in the pass. And then when it’s runs, your gaps move based on the offensive lineman and what they’re doing schematically. So it’s bad run fits. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously I got to watch the film, but it has to be the run fits. If they’re playing cover three, coach Jesse 51% of the time, Coach Jesse Mener was trying to stop the run. That’s a that’s a eightman box. Cover three is a eightman box, right? So, it’s obviously the scheme. It also had to be the guards pulling, uh, counter trap, whatever that they were doing. It wasn’t been it wasn’t being fit up correctly, right? Head to San Francisco and experience the Super Bowl with On Location, the official hospitality provider of the NFL and proud partner of the Los Angeles Chargers. Secure packages that bundle verified tickets with exclusive access to pregame parties. Featuring renowned entertainment and top-of-the-line food and drinks, plus immersive postgame field celebrations. Onloation delivers unforgettable experiences so you can create memories that will last a lifetime. Visit onloationexp.com/blx or call 877-373-5062 to secure your ticket package today. I’m trying to find it so I could show it to you because I don’t want to make sure like I’m not embellishing. So, they’re not technically I mean you got Tuli basically. You have Tuli in almost like a almost like a seven and then you’ve got a a zero and then you’ve got someone just just shaded to the to the left guard. Uh, and then you’ve got it’s it’s Yeah, I think I I might have exaggerated a little bit, but here, let me see if I can let me see if I can do some uh some fun stuff here. Let me see if I can show it to you and then you kind of give me an idea of what we’re looking at as it’s uh All right, here we go. Let’s have some fun here. All right, so can I get back enough? All right, see what I mean? See, look at this hole. Yes. Now, look, go to the other side. Sorry. Go back. Let me see the other the right side of the line. Okay. So, you have a three and you have a shade. You have a three right there to the right. Yeah. I’m trying I’m trying to see if I can Yeah. Here we go. This is the one. So, you have a three, then you have a See what I mean? Look at this. Look at this. Yeah. That’s a odd front, dude. I don’t I don’t even know what front that is, right? You’ve got you’ve got Khalil, Tart, and H and Caldwell. And then you’ve got Tulie here. Denzel here. Tulie has that outside gap. Is that is that tart over 76? Yeah. Yeah. Soap Denzel. Oh, shoot. I did it again. My bad. Um, so that’s hand. I think that’s that I believe is hand. So hand. No, that’s Caldwell. It’s Caldwell and hand. So it’s hand. Caldwell. Caldwell. Okay. Khalil. Tulie. Yeah. So obviously Tulie has the outside. Denzel has the B. Slow it down. See, but once they pull, see they’re pulling. They’re not fitting the gaps correctly. Yeah. So 73 crashes kicks out 76 folds, right? He stays Denzel has to stay inside of that. Right. Here’s small That’s just one small in incident right there. And then here’s another one where it doesn’t it doesn’t show up as much. They’re outnumbered right there. They’re outnumbered. Look at this. Like where do you think this thing’s Look at where this thing’s like where do you think this thing’s going to go? Right there. Yeah. They don’t have enough. Yeah. And it just I felt like that was happening. Here it is again. You kind of got all this right here. I can’t see the right side money. It’s kind of Oh, sorry about that, man. Yeah, I know. It’s a little little wonky, but you know, and that was one where he just got tripped up. It was just very And I think And I think I’m still missing. It might have been Etienne who had um who had one that was even bigger. Um I was just trying to find the explosives, but it might Here we go. Let’s see if it’s this one right here. It might be No, it’s not that one. So, anyway, again, I’m just I’m not not critiquing. I’m just asking you because, you know, I’m like, what is what is this? What what is this alignment? And if I can find the one that was if I can find the one that was very that that caused me to be like, man, I don’t I don’t quite understand what the idea is behind overloading that one side. I was just kind of coming to you for answers because I couldn’t quite if I can be able to see the all 22. I literally on the screen can only see half. Um, and then obviously they’re playing in quarters. So the safety, the quarter safety is called an active safety. He’s in the run fit. So he’s probably playing the run from about 8 to 10 yards right back if they’re back. So it might look a little bit construed from the view that I’m looking at, but the safety has a run foot and the quarters look right. I mean, I can probably give you sideline view. I’m sure the people listening are like, man, I I sure would like to watch this. go to YouTube and watch it there. Uh cuz it’s fun doing this with someone like Jalil. Uh is I think I know what I’m looking at and then uh and then I get you to explain and that’s all I’m looking for. Like hey, what’s I’m sure look Jesse’s brilliant. I’m I’m asking like what’s the idea behind kind of lining this up the way they line it up uh with all the with this this front shifted heavy to one side and and this kind of big Let me see. This this might be I can’t I wish I could find it, man. I should have marked it, but I’m so terrible at that because I just watch it and I um I can’t get enough. Anyway, it’s um but like you said, so I don’t want to harp on it too much. Defense issue, you’re talking about zero punts, 30 first downs. Offense could not slow down the pass rush, could not get a run game going. Uh, and as we move forward, I think the big question I have, you know, Jal is with the Raiders went back and watched every snap of the the Dallas defense and one thing that stood out to me was um they were not going to let Ashton Genty beat him. Now, they jumped on them and they got up and so the Raiders had to abandon the run about late second, early third quarter, but they committed a ton of resources. I mean, it was eight. It was eight in the box and they were able there was there was only one time that Genty had I think he ran for about 11 yards on one carry and it was when they had a light box and it seemed like from that point on they were like, “No, we’re we’re going to we’re going to press you. We’re going to get up on the line of scrimmage and if you can beat us with with Jack Bash and Trey Tucker, then so be it.” Yeah, you hit it on the head, money. You’re you’re really good at what you do. But the reason why I say um with all that we’ve talked about and the negatives, the by-week is such a positive because one, you get to selfcout yourself and you get to see, okay, just like we looked at the film, okay, what did we do wrong? Yeah. Where were we lined up wrong? Who didn’t fit well? How can we cover this better? Because that film that we just put on the screen for 30 seconds, the Raiders are going to dissect that. And it’s a copycat league. Whatever the Jaguars did well that worked against the Chargers, the Raiders are going to run it exactly the same. And I bet anybody, any Charger fan, if you look at what the the Jacksonville Jaguars did, you’ll see it when we play the Raiders. Now, when you self scout, you can prepare for that, right? That’s why a by-week is very, very crucial at this time, especially coming off a game where you struggled on all three phases that you can say, “Okay, how did we get beat? Now, let’s take our our let’s get let’s remove oursel from the situation. Look at it from a bird’s eye view. How would we attack it? So, let’s make changes.” So, I think the Chargers will be fine in that aspect. When you look at the Raiders, you’re right. Hey, it’s Brock Bowers and then it’s stopping Brock Bowers and it’s stopping Ashton Ashton Genty, excuse me, stopping the run. Like you said, I would play eightman box, manto man, Mano Emano. My corners are better than your wide receivers and we’re going to make sure that your two best players don’t beat us. Duran James on Brock Bowers and we’re stopping the run with the eightman box. That’s how I’m going in. Stupid simple, right? I’m not trying to be fancy. I’m not trying to confuse Gino. When we get the third down, we can do all that, right? We can get We can get cute. We can go NASCAR package. We can change up the looks. We can bring different pressures. But first and second down, let’s keep them behind the stick and force them to get in the third and long. And Gino’s not going to beat you, right? And you know what? You got to disrupt Gino. You disrupt Gino and you got him. You give him time and he can cut you up. You know, he’s got a big arm. And so I think that’s sort of something that I, like you said, you have a two weeks to look at it. All right. I was able to uh to get something just because I I want to make sure that we have some closure here. So, I was able to kind of get it here on the phone so I can hold it up and you can see that’s the formation I’m talking about. Look at that hole. So, so the outside. So, is that uh Mickens? Mickens has the gap between 80 and 86. Denzel has the gap between 66 and 72. Or the linebacker, who’s this linebacker right here? Sorry. That is uh that doesn’t look like Denzel. Let’s see. Not sure who that is. It’s not Denzel. I’m not sure who that is. But for me, it was more the It might be Marlo. It might be as I’m looking at it. Whoever it is, it’s Troy D. Troy Dia is out there. And then I think that might be I’m not sure, but that’s definitely Troy. Whoever that is at the linebacker spot, I’m not going to Well, listen. It looks like he’s miss. He’s He’s aligned wrong. Okay. It looks like he’s aligned wrong. is just a That’s what I thought. I was like, “Yeah, because one bomb blows everybody up, right?” He has So, watch what happens. See, he came to his gap. He did come to his gap. Mickens has to come now. Mickens has to come now and squeeze off of 85. You see Tulie’s holding the outside. He came to his gap, but he’s too washed in. He’s He’s right behind the DTackle. Okay. So, then look at that hole. It’s a parking lot. Yeah, that’s that’s what I was talking about. So, so they’re I see the front, but the alignment they’re aligned wrong from the beginning. Okay. That’s and that’s what I was trying to figure out. I was like, man, I’m looking at this. And and that run ended up going for I just I was trying to cut it up while you were talking. I didn’t want to have people think I was ignoring you or something. I was just like, I know I saw this darn play. Where is it? And uh and sure enough, there there it is. I might be able to get it back up on the on the big screen because I think that’s that’s sort of what people are are talking about, right? They’re just like, “Hey, what’s what’s uh what’s going on here with Jesse? Why why is this happening?” kind of thing. So, here I can get it back up on the big screen. And it’s so that is it. It’s Delawn Phillips. Del is who it is. Who’s out there? It’s Delawn and it’s So, this is late in the game. This is three minutes left. Um, so it’s backups that are out there. It’s Troy. It’s Del Shawn. And that makes a lot more sense then that you got someone who’s I can give it to you here as I just pulled it up. You can kind of get a look at it now. Yeah. So the gap sound on the look at the right side. Look at the right side. The gap sound. Okay. So the gap sound on the right side. That’s what I’m talking about. Yep. So the right side they’re gap sound. On the left side they’re not gap sound. Del has to scoot over. He’s between 80. Is that 66 or 66 and 72? That’s it. Should be his alignment. Yeah. They got the extra alignment out there, right? So he should be 66 and 72 making I think that’s 55. So it’s a dogga. So they have the extra lineman out there. And then I wonder where he’s going to run. There you go. Right. Right between where he should be. Oh, that’s Reed. That’s a corner. Yeah. So they got to come down. They got to fill their gaps. They’re the corner’s playing way too deep and the linebacker’s bossed over way too far. He has to get in his gap. Like line up in your gap. So you fight force with force when he blocks down on you. You see that lane he creates? That’s what we’re talking about. Yeah. See, that’s fun to have Jal here. Get it all squared away. Hey, you bring you bring it to life and I’ll paint the picture, money. You That’s what we’re talking about, man. That’s what we’re talking about. And look, you got Ashton Jenty out there instead of Laquin Allen and that’s going to be a real problem. Um, but like you said, it’s Nico Reed, it’s Delshon Phillips, it’s late in the game. Um, and so that’s not necessarily a scheme situation. It’s a it’s an assignment sort of thing. And and that’s that’s the great thing about having these two weeks, get stuff cleaned up. I’m also kind of interested to see what they want to do with this offensive line. You know, I I think it’s unfair to to assume that Trevor Penny’s going to come in, be dropped at left tackle, and get an A+ rating, you know, grade from from Pro Football, stone Josh Hines Allen or Trayvon Walker. And and I think you kind of knew that the book on Trevor was he’s a good run blocker. He’s very physical. They kicked him inside because he struggled in pass bro and and it was a real struggle for him out there in pass protection. Um just could not quite seem to get an anchor and found himself in in Herbert’s lap against and I and that’s why I’m anxious to see kind of how they want to do it because you got Max Crosby, man. I know the Raiders are two and eight. Just about to say. So historically they’re two and eight and the Raiders always play the Chargers. The Raiders always play the Chargers good. Chargers play the Raiders good, right? It’s it’s a historical rivalry. Division rivals, they know each other and no matter what record is on the board for each team that when they play, it’s going to be it’s going to be a good one, right? Majority of the time, but are the Chargers better than the Raiders? They are. Do they have a better roster than the Raiders? They do. Coaching staff better? It is. But they have to go out and prove it. It’s not going to be roll the ball out there once again and think we’re just going to beat the Raiders because we’re seven and four and we got big bad Herby and our defense is historically known to do well and we got the best kicker in the National Football League. We they have to put the work in. Yeah. With those guys, uh how would you play it, Jal? you with with Crosby and Coun and and Wilson, you know, just kind of rotating in there as that third rusher, would you rather go big, which they’ve done quite a bit with with Tucker Fisk and and Scott Matlock, or would you rather spread it out and just run a little bit more quick game against that secondary? What do you think’s more effective? Is it committing more resources to trying to slow that down and putting less people in the pattern or do you think it’s better to put more people in the pattern and just try to get that thing out there? I like I think we can run the ball on them. I think that the Chargers can run the ball on them. Um they’re going to want you to drop back and pass the ball. That’s what the Raiders are going to want you to do because of the offensive line struggling and because of Max Crosby. When when you watch the first game, was it Pit? Pit line Pit was lined up across from Crosby. Correct. In the first game. Yes. Yeah. They basically they wanted nothing to do with Joe Alt, right? But Max didn’t wreck the game either. No, he didn’t. He didn’t wreck the game. Pit actually had a pretty good outing. They were tripping him, sliding to him. So, I think you look at the to answer your question, Money. Sorry, I’m going in a circle. No, it’s fine, dude. you look at, you know, the first game because you have that luxury of what how they attacked them in the first game and what worked well for us the first game and you sprinkle a little bit of that in there, but I also think that at the end of the day, you run the ball because I know we can run the ball on their front. Two quick game screens and then you let our receivers who are better than their secondary go to work, right? Right. So, however that looks, right? I’m not getting paid the big bucks like Gro um to make that game plan, but I think that you can attack them balance. I really do. But I think that you have to establish the run so that you slow down a pass rusher like Max Crosby and he doesn’t have his ears pinned back like, “Hey, I’m getting off this ball to go get after Herbert.” He has to actually sit down, anchor, and force the ball back inside, which he’s still really stout against the run. Obviously, he is. Um, but I’d rather that than saying, “Hey, listen. He knows his pass. He knows it’s a pass now. It’s a situation and he’s just he’s just barking for that ball to be snapped and and get back there.” So yeah, I think a balanced attack has to be it, but the run has to be established. Um, defense, special teams, and a running game. And then that’ll open up things for Herbert and the offense. Yeah. And I think that offensive line, you know, with with the by-week, they they can really kind of dig in and figure out what the right combo is. You know, is it Jamari Sawer left tackle? Is it moving is it moving Pip to left and having Trevor play right, you know, with Mai and get that, you know, 6’5. You know, don’t forget Trevor Penny’s 67. like he’s a big dude so you can kind of try to build that Joel Mai Beckton sort of thing on that right side again especially if Amaran’s back right and see if you can sort of get that working so I I would be very surprised if it’s just going to be like hey let’s try it again I think you’re you’re probably talking about an open competition at O line trying to get some because you know what it’s five fingers on a glove right you just you’ve got to get some cohesion and some chemistry there and they’ve got the extra days to do it um that’s when like I said I I think for me, I I just I feel like coach Mentor has has said it repeatedly, man. There’s no scheme. It’s all about my personnel and how I can put those guys in the best position to succeed. And so, I think we’ll see. I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see a little bit more man on on those receivers just cuz, you know, Bes is a rookie, Tucker’s got some speed, but you can muscle him around a little bit, you know, with a guy like Cam Hart. You’re not you’re not game planning for any receiver specific. You’re not rolling your coverage to any receiver. The biggest threat is Brock. Just throw I would you just throw Derwin on him? 10,000%. Right. Just like they used to do with Kelsey just like, “Hey, Derwin.” There you go. They did it in the first game. Yeah. But Duran Duran held his own. So, yeah. And another thing I would say too, like when things don’t go right, people like to point at the coaches and being with that coaching staff, I know the kind of work that they do. Um, but a lot of times players got to make the plays come to life, too. Yeah. Right. And I that’s why I’m glad I brought up that that that that scheme that or that that uh formation. I was like, man, help me understand that. And for you to say, yeah, dude, guy’s supposed to be here and he’s not. Yeah. Like they could have coached that over and over in walkthroughs on Friday and Saturday and then they get out into the game and players don’t execute, right? Or, you know, they call a play and this is why they pay to you got to get the coach out of that bad situation. Make a play, right? players got to bring the play to life is what I’m saying. So, it’s it’s everybody, right? It’s not just the coaches. It’s not just the players, but I think as a whole, they need to get on the same page. And when the coaches do call a bad play, because they do, they’re human. You got to bail them out, right? And look, I, as I said, it’s the same, you know, it’s the same coaching staff that for the previous three games had a defense that held their opponents in Minnesota, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh to less than nine points. Yeah. per game, you know, and it’s the same coaching staff that lit up Pittsburgh for 25, Tennessee for 27, and Minnesota for 37. So, it’s it’s not like that this has been a month-long trend. It’s uh it’s a team that it’s a defense that beat the Chiefs, Raiders, and Broncos in backto backtoback weeks, you know, and it’s an offense that was able to scheme it up and and beat the Chiefs and the Broncos and, you know, scheme up some plays and get some magic from Herbert against Miami with 47 seconds left. And so, you know, I think as we wrap it, the one thing I’m I’m interested as well with these two weeks in the by-week is trying to figure out some kickoff return and just that that’s I feel like we’ve had one good kickoff return all season long and it was from a guy who’s not on the team anymore, Nah Miller Hines. Yeah. You know, Miami. Yeah. So, that’s that’s really the only big pop that they’ve had all season long. So, I’m anxious to see what they do on on that front. JK’s been great. He had a great You know what? There’s one guy who played well against Jacksonville, JK Scott. Had a had a great day punting. Um and the punt coverage was pretty darn good. So, like you said, dig a hole and uh or you know what, throw it over the fence at uh Yeah, throw it over the fence at Rathon across the street. They’ll freaking light it up with machine gun fire or something like that. Um and then just get back to it. Looking forward Exactly. Good time for a buy. Get these guys healthy. Especially if Amari and Hampton’s coming back, man. That’s going to change a lot. Uh no doubt about it. So, appreciate you breaking it all down, Jal. That’s what uh that’s what we love having you here for, man, is just making some sense of some stuff that uh to people like me, you’re you’re trying to figure out and you don’t quite understand and and having you walk us through it helps uh helps a lot. So, hopefully that helped the people listening. If you could only listen to the audio, remember it’s available at chargers.com on video and you’ll see some of the uh the bad cinematography. I put forth and trying to get that thing to line up that Julio Leo was working with uh with Hey, listen man. Organically, it was organic. Okay, it was it was organic. It was That’s what we do. Uh we’ll be back again next week. Appreciate y’all. Be sure to uh to rate, to like, to leave a comment. Uh we appreciate all that. We’ll interact with all of you and we’ll be back again next week on Chargers Weekly presented by Split Tarot.

On this episode of Chargers Weekly, Bolts radio play-by-play announcer Matt “Money” Smith and former Chargers safety Jahleel Addae recap the latest news involving LA and the entire NFL. Listen to the hosts evaluating the Bolts in all three phases of the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, providing inside perspective on how to regroup and recover in the team’s bye week, and predicting how the team will prepare to face the Raiders at home in Week 13. Presented by Splitero.

0:30 Bye Week Perspective
3:00 Jacksonville Game Recap
28:00 Raiders Game Preview

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