2015 Review - Wk 2 vs Chargers

[bengal kitten uk]

There are now only 17 Sundays until Opening Day of the 2016 season. Join me as I look back, week by week, on the season just gone. The highs, the lows, the what might have beens and the future superstars...

Week 2
San Diego Chargers come to the Jungle

I'm going to do this a little differently this week and post my thoughts on a game that I have long forgotten (for some reason I thought we were @Baltimore in week 2) before and after I've watched the game.

The game in Oakland showed a great deal of promise for the team - the offense in particular looked good, as did our run defense. Now we have the rematch of that playoff game that we should have won against a Chargers team that have just been on the road and scored big in their win against Detroit.

The potential for this one to be a high scoring game is here, but will our passing defense hold up against Philip Rivers this time around? Can Tyler Eifert continue his red zone TD streak? Or will this be the game where our indiscipline costs us?

Adam Jones has scraped past the NFL's discipline with just a fine after his altercation with Amari Cooper so is available to play.

Let's find out! See you after I've watched the game...

[bengal kitten uk]

Wow! How did I forget about that game?

Firstly, another win for the Bengals who are yet to be behind in a game and while it was a mostly comfortable win we did give the Chargers an opportunity to win it in the last minute. This is a theme we'll see more about in the rest of the season - surely we can do better than handing the ball back to the opposition with 60 seconds left and hoping they don't score?

On to the detail...

I feel the Chargers have just shown the league how to beat us. Pretty much every throw was short and their passing game went through their backs - Melvin Gordon in particular. Our linebackers are just not good enough to cover the short stuff and Burfict is still not back from his microfracture surgery. Leveon Bell will be excited to face us having seen what Gordon did.

Our offense, on the other hand, was fascinating to watch. The amount of misdirection, screens and option runs we used really forced the Chargers defense to play honest, opening up the short and medium routes for Eifert and Green. The long bomb TD to Marvin Jones was a great example of this as the safeties left the middle of the field to cover up near the line and Jones simply blew past his man for the score. I don't know who'll be fulfilling this role this year - I hope we don't end up regretting losing MLJ.

Jeremy Hill, after such a good first game against the Raiders, seemed to go into full meltdown here. His questionable first fumble coming when his knee was caught underneath him and can be forgiven, but to drop the second one on a perfect toss from Dalton was inexcusable. His running already looked nervy after the first fumble so will this game haunt him the rest of the season? Gio ran and caught and ran some more, however, so we're still looking good in the running game. Shame about the minor holding call against Kroft that cost Gio his TD.

Speaking of holding... this was the game that reminded us that Holding is actually a penalty. SD were pinged for holding over 5 times and the Bengals also had a few thrown on them. The first step burst of Geno was giving them fits, resulting in 4 sacks for the D. This was the game where it became clear that GENO IS BACK! and he is QUICK.

It was also the game of:
- the Jake Fisher catch! (Sadly never to be repeated)
- Nugent missing a field goal
- Dre Kirkpatrick inexplicably giving Malcolm Floyd a simple walk-in TD on a double move
- Vinnie Rey with the walk-off interception

I really enjoyed that game! Next up: @Baltimore in week 3...

[J24]

Wasn't the Kirkpatrick TD a result of a miscommunication with Lamur?

[Tiger Teeth]

We were at this game. (Second game ever.) It took me about 20 minutes to explain to my wife about Fisher's catch. Good analysis.