The Chargers travel to Jacksonville this week to face the 5-4 Jaguars who are coming off a debilitating loss to the Texans where the latter came back from 26-10 in the fourth quarter.
Los Angeles, on the
other hand, is riding the high of downing the Steelers 25-10 on Sunday Night Football.
A win this week would put the Bolts at five games above .500 heading into the bye which is really the best case scenario following some tough games dropped earlier in the year.
There’s a number of storylines in this week’s matchup, let’s go ahead and jump into it. These are the three things I’ll be watching closely when these two teams take the field on Sunday.
1.) Will Kimani Vidal capitalize on what be his final start this season?
Since Omarion Hampton was placed on IR earlier this year, Vidal has started five games for the Chargers. In three of those games, Vidal has gone over 100 yards of offense and has scored three touchdowns in that span. In all, he’s totaled 386 rushing yards and 53 receiving yards. Behind a patchwork offensive line through most of that time, it’s been very impressive.
Two weeks ago, however, Jim Harbaugh mentioned that the earliest Hampton could return from IR is after the team’s Week 12 bye. While that’s not the most certain response to know when Hampton will actually return, it does potentially tell us when Vidal will be done playing as the lead back. If he does return after the bye then this week could be Vidal’s last start.
And I believe Vidal knows that. I believe he’s going to use that as the best form of motivation to show the coaching staff that they don’t have to overthink the future of the backfield. He wants to be a part of it and that makes me think he’ll turn in one more good performance before his time in the spotlight comes to an end this season.
2.) Jesse Minter must exploit weak links in Jacksonville’s pass protection
The Chargers pass rush was active early and often against the Steelers to make Aaron Rodgers uncomfortable all day long. They sacked the quarterback three times on the night but made many more plays in terms of forcing incompletions and throwaways.
This weak, the Chargers can once again try and get after the quarterback by exploiting the weak points up front for the Jaguars: Left tackle Walker Little and right guard Patrick Mekari.
Little leads the team with eight sacks and 36 pressures allowed on the season. That is six sacks and 13 more pressures than the next closest lineman. He also has six penalties this year which is second most on the team. He’s far and away the weakest link of the starting five and the trio of Mack, Tuipulotu, and Oweh need to make sure he continues having a rough season,
As for Mekari, he’s second on the team with 23 pressures with one sack let up. However, he leads the team with seven penalties. His 48.9 pass block grade from Pro Football Focus is also the worst on the team by a good bit. Could this be a big game for someone like Teair Tart or Jamaree Caldwell? If they’ve watched the film
3.) Time to exorcise some skeletons in the closet
The Chargers are winless in their previous two games against the Jaguars. The most recent matchup was their historic meltdown in the playoffs when the team blew a 27-0 lead. The previous game was a 38-10 shellacking earlier the same season at home. For those that don’t recall, that was the game Rashawn Slater tore his biceps.
Los Angeles hasn’t beaten the Jaguars since the 2020 season when they won 39-29 inside SoFi Stadium. They haven’t won at Jacksonville since 2019 when they won handedly 45-10 with Philip Rivers still playing quarterback for the Bolts.
Sunday’s game is a big one for obvious reasons. There’s only nine players left from the team that suffered that playoff defeat and each one of them will be using that memory as motivation. For all the numerous new faces, they’ll surely be made aware of what happened almost three years ago and find their own reason to fight like hell for a victory.
Besides all of that, this win matters for either team’s playoff aspirations, as well. The Chargers are winners of three straight and could move to 8-3 before their Week 12 bye. After that, it’s a game against he hapless Raiders.
Taking care of business this week is simply a must.
