Pretty much all has been written and said about the Chargers-Broncos season-ending game at San Diego. Just wanted to say how "Super" the performance was by the Bolts.

Philip Rivers played a darn-near perfect game. On the way, he shattered Dan Fouts' 1981 club record of season touchdown passes, finishing with 34 and along the way posted the NFL highest pass rating for the season. That was significant in its own right since he was the leading passer for just about the entire season. (Got to be honest though, a handful of times during 2008 I proclaimed that it didn't mean anything when he'd fumble since that doesn't factor in).

Great to see LaDainian Tomlinson finish on a strong note with three TD's and nearly 100 yards in three quarters of action.

People can take their shots at San Diego's 8-8 record. Fine with me, but I've said all year Denver was a fraud. Among other things, the Broncos finished 0-8 Against The Spread at Home this year. Horrible!

Continue reading "Sweet vindication vs. the Broncos"

Back in the summer I took a look at the San Diego Chargers and other teams with respect to how the oddsmakers in Las Vegas were perceiving them.

At the time, I threw out my own quick take on the season. Let's analyze how it turned out:

The Chargers Over/Under win total was 10.5. I really thought, as did nearly everybody, that they should finish 11 wins or more. I said they'd go about 12-4. They managed to win the division again but posted an 8-8 regular season mark after a number of close losses during much of the campaign.

I had the Bolts winning the first two games, Carolina at home and Denver on the road. The Panthers won on the last-play touchdown catch by Dante Rosario and the Broncos took advantage of the botched call by referee Ed Hochuli. So San Diego was 0-2 right out of the gate. I had predicted a win at Miami but loss to New England. It turned out to be the other way around. I also had them winning at Buffalo (eventual loss) but noted it is a very tough site to play at.

Continue reading "NFL Over/Under win totals"

What a fantastic performance by the San Diego Chargers in Saturday's AFC Wild Card 23-17 overtime win against the visiting Indianapolis Colts.

Darren Sproles, Mike Scifres, Antonio Gates, the Charger defense...so much credit to go around the whole team. It was great to see balance in that way - it wasn't just a huge offensive performance, or a shut-down "D" but all sides contributing. Scifres, the punter, was perhaps the most valuable player in the game with four punts placed inside the 10-yard line. None were more important than his final punt in the game with around three minutes to go that put the Colts near their own goal line.

It was a mild surprise seeing an effective LaDainian Tomlinson early on. It had me thinking his injury wasn't as severe as some were speculating. However, LT didn't last long in the game and it looks like he may be out this week. Thankfully there was Darren Sproles ready and waiting for his chance. The multi-dimensional Sproles totaled over 300 all-purpose yards before breaking off the winning touchdown run.

Continue reading "Cheers for the Chargers, and on to Pittsburgh."

Much credit to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday's AFC Divisional playoff win over the San Diego Chargers 35-24.

The Chargers simply were beaten by the better team. It's easy to look back at a couple fluky turnovers (the one-play drive in essentially the red zone where Philip Rivers was intercepted on a deflected pass, and the muffed punt return off Eric Weddle's helmet), but truly the deciding factor appeared to be the Steelers ball control - final drive of the first half and opening drive of the second half. In what's been a problem for the Chargers all year, they allowed Pittsburgh to move down field and take its first lead on a touchdown drive starting with under two minutes left in the second quarter. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, the Steelers used up about 8 minutes to begin the third quarter for a killing TD drive and jump up 21-10.

Continue reading "End of the season; end of an era?"