Chargers' Bye Week Couldn't Come At Better Time
By Dave Thomas
When you have lost three straight, maybe it really is time for a bye after all.
The San Diego Chargers were left reeling Sunday after a 37-0 thrashing at the hands of Miami Dolphins. With the loss, the Chargers fell to 5-3 heading into their bye weekend.
After losses to Kansas City and Denver, San Diego was hoping to use its visit to South Florida to get back on the winning track, but Miami (5-3) had much different plans.
So, where does a team some had pegged earlier this season as a serious AFC playoff contender head from here?
Schedule Lightens Up For Two Weeks
With a bye week in their midst, the Chargers will look to get healthy and work out the kinks in practice for a non-existing running game, a secondary that is looking at times more like the old secondary that would oftentimes get torched, and getting Philip Rivers and his receivers back on track.
Rivers (2,351 yards passing, 20 TD's, eight interceptions this season), who was torching opposing secondaries for a number of weeks, tossed three interceptions in Sunday's loss, finding that without a running game, moving the ball pretty much relied on going through the air.
One of the big goals for the Bolts over the bye week will be getting healthy, especially as it concerns starting running back Ryan Mathews (knee injury).
Injured early in the season, Mathews may return to action on Nov. 16 when the Chargers play host to the rival Oakland Raiders. To date, Mathews has run for a mere 71 yards on 23 carries. With Mathews and Danny Woodhead (out for season) sidelined, Branden Oliver has been the workhorse carrying the ball, carrying 98 times for 371 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Whether Mathews returns or not on the 16th, the Chargers have two games coming up that are basically must-win affairs. A loss or losses to Oakland and St. Louis (Nov. 23) could prove to be daggers in the season.
After those two games, San Diego plays five teams to end the season that all stand a reasonable or good shot of making the playoffs.
It begins with a tough road test Nov. 30 in Baltimore, then home dates back-to-back with New England (Dec. 7) and Denver (Dec. 14).
The Chargers then hit the road for back-to-back dates in San Francisco (Dec. 20) and Kansas City (Dec. 28).
While the season is far from in the tank, the Bolts need to start with a resounding win against the Raiders a week from this coming Sunday. In their last meeting in Oakland in early October, the winless Raiders gave San Diego all it wanted before falling 31-28. Expect Oakland to again put forth a strong effort when it comes calling Nov. 16.
For more Chargers news and updates, visit Chargers Central.
Dave Thomas has been covering the sports world since his first job as a sports editor for a weekly newspaper in Pennsylvania back in 1989. He has covered a Super Bowl, college bowl games, MLB, NBA and more. His work can be found on Examiner.com.