Late fifteen to ten touched up.
What's some guys welcome into a playoff edition of Chargers Weekly as always, joined by the voice of the Chargers, Matt money Smith. Obviously Money very excited for this game, but can't help but just think about what's going on in our city the last forty eight hours.
Yeah. Look, the city's rallied around each other. We're trying to lift up the people that are dealing with things that could have never possibly fathomed was going to be in their life. I think because where the Bolt is where it is, the Chargers are where they are. I assume there's a lot of people at the facility today where we're sitting that are like me. I've got two to three friends that have lost homes. I've got four to five co workers that have lost their homes. The Palisades is a huge community of entertainment people, and having come from the music business and working in radio, a lot of people live there, and a lot of people and the kids who are in schools there because they're great schools, are now without a home, and certainly our thoughts are with them and what they're going through. And I think, like anybody, if you're you know, you may think that they've gotten god knows how many you know offers, but still offer it. Hey, our house is open whatever you need, and it's appreciated because that's essentially what we've done, and even though no one's taken us up on it, they tell you how genuinely appreciative they are. That. So if you do have friends that or family or co workers that are dealing with it, please let them know they got a place to put their head, they got a place to eat, they got a place to put their kids, because that's what we do. You know, we're used to it in Los Angeles. Sadly, you know, I lived through the Malibu fires in ninety three when I was evacuated and our entire neighborhood burned down, and it truly was a damn shame that our house stood, considering we were for idiot college kids that live there, and all the houses behind us were families with kids, and we watch them go through the rubble of nothing but foundations and fireplaces and you know, holding each other and crying. It's just terrible, but it's an opportunity to you know, show the best of us and to be the best person you can be to those that are dealing with it. And and obviously you know we're wearing our l A f D hats. Yeah, it's a it's a tiny little show of support to what they're doing out there. But man, just true heroes you know that are that are helping everyone out.
Yeah, you see the players and coaches rock these today is we get set to to fly to Houston and just driving in, Man, I come from the two ten and just the cloud of smoke in Altadena, a city that is destroyed, mal destroyed Pacific Palisades. So uh, hopefully we provide a little bit of an escape as we get you ready.
For for charges football on Saturday.
But just our hearts with everybody that's affected by by this and this, you know, the firefighters here, man, just the heroes. Man just going into this thing, attacking this and hopefully getting this out.
Yeah, just saying it's it's all anecdotal, but it's just you know, it's what I'm living through right now. Seal Beach is a huge fireman community. For whatever reason, we just got a ton of firemen in our city and was talking with someone who knows the chief of one of the units and said it's the first time, and I think he was saying maybe since the Malibu fire, he's like that. It's say an all hands on deck where they are digging as deep as they can San Diego things like that to get everyone they can, get everybody they can up there and all rallying around each other. And yeah, that's what they do. You know, instead of running from danger, they run into it. And we certainly appreciate it. And I know they get I know they feel it because they feel it every day in our community, you know, because they're around us all the time, and everybody tells them how much we appreciate what they do. But I think it's you know, when you see the images and you see the flames and you see where they're standing and where they're you know, they're drawing their line of defense, putting themselves in harm's way. We certainly appreciate it. But like you said, Chris, we're here. You know that there are we're in LA there's plenty of outlets for people to get great coverage of this, much better than we can do, and we're here to provide that distraction because you know it can when you keep looking at the bottom of that screen and you see zero percent contained, it can be a real punch in the gut. So we'll try to take you away from that for a little while.
Yeah, our crew at kykew New has done a remarkable job. And you said firefighters, Man, just they're a different breed. You know, my dad's a firefighter, he was for thirty years on the East Coast. My brothers a firefighter, and just can't say enough about what those guys do on a daily basis. But I do want to mention, depending on when you're listening or watching this, the Chargers are doing just a ton of great things as we get you ready for the playoffs. January ninth, which is today Thursday, Ranch A Cuckamonga, there's going to be a supply drive for the La wildfire evacuees. Same on the eleventh at the watch party, the moros appear.
So Chargers are.
Doing a lot to try to bring attention to this. And you know, if you're going to be in Rancho, if you're in the Ie, or if you're gonna be at the Hermosa Peer for the Wildcard watch party, there's a supply drive for all the wildfire evacuee So.
Something to keep in mind obviously, you know, the Spanos family always very generous when it comes to taking care of the community. So you know they scratched out a big check to help the cause as well. And don't be afraid to do that because man, they're gonna need it. Like you said, it's not just the Palisades, but you know the Eating fire, the Woodley fire, the Hollywood Hills fire that you know up by Running Canyon that broke out. So the whole community can need help. And it's great to rally together, especially if you can rally together around a Charge of football game. Yeah, you know, for the wild Card week and all the watch parties that we have, and not just show up with your community with the Bolt fam, but also show up with a little something in your hand if you can afford to whatever you might be able to provide to help.
We're taping this on a Thursday. We're getting sit to go to Houston here in a couple of hours Monday. Let's just rewind to Sunday and just it was important to win to get the fifth seed, but it's important to be playing your best football and the Chargers of doing that right now.
Yeah, I think it was even more the latter, Chris, what you said, just keep it going, man. You had it in that second half against the Broncos, and then you did it for four quarters against the Patriots. So do it for another four quarters against the Raiders. And I think you saw it and you continue to see the identity of this team and what they want to do. And DJ brought it up in the post, and I'll credit him because it's a perfect point. He's like, nothing. You know, coaches always want buying, right, how do I get the buy and how do we get the buying with action? And the fact that they had on their open I want to say it was the opening drive if I remember right now, it was the opening drive. And they've got a fourth in inches, not a fourth and one fourth and maybe less than a football. And a different coach might have been like, you know what, time to get aggressive, time to just get Herbert under center, and let's just let's go get it man, and nope, punt it, because that's what they do. They're like, we're fine, man, We're good. This is the game we play. We play field position, we lean on the number one scoring defense in the league. We run the football, We churn the clock and we don't have to freak out, we don't have to break character. Ever, that's not what we do. When that just sets the tone. And you know, I think you can see coaches maybe get away from it when the stakes change and maybe they change and you just you don't get that sense from this staff at all. It's what we've said for eighteen weeks. Now, you know, it's tread water, get to the deep end, pull you under and win a game. And that that that's something you can pack and you can take into the playoffs because there's just there's eighteen games of you know, of proof. That's that's what this team does.
Quentin Johnson thirteen catches, one hundred and eighty six yards. You and Julia spoke to him before that game. I mean coincidentally, how about that for timing good luck coming on charges weekly.
Yeah, exactly, good for him, man. And look, that's what is that a product of. You watch that game and Lad's getting bracketed. You know, they are focused on Lad McConkey, and they are trying to take him away. And Herbert said, all right, well I got number one over here, so let's just go down that road and it's no different than what he did with Keenan in Minnesota when they were running zero blitzes and he's like, well, I know Keenan's going to be able to beat his guy immediately off press, so let's just do that all game. And they never adjusted and the Raiders never adjusted. And look, those were not easy catches. You know, Quinnin took some freaking shots. He made that one handed grab on the left sideline while surviving the ground as well.
He was into zone.
He was, man, he absolutely was, and good for him to do it going into the playoffs and to put that goes it's like, you know, two weeks ago, what did we say. We said, hey, man, I love that you got Darius Davis on film. Now for people to think about, oh, I love that you got Stones Smart on film. Now, this defensive coordinator's got to figure this out, and you know, look out for Tucker Fisk leaking out of the backfield because he's gonna burn you for ten yards on one of these catches as well. And now you've got well, we can we can double lad, we can bracket laud. Okay, go ahead, because here's here's thirteen catches on fourteen targets and really the fourteenth target was a little behind them, so you could almost say a perfect thirteen to thirteen for one eighty six. Go ahead and cut that film up.
Yeah, it's been great to see Quintin really pick things up. And you mentioned mclonkey five for ninety five. Let's just look at Justin's nubbers twenty to thirty six, three hundred and forty six yards pair of touchdowns.
But also just to see JK. Dobbins get rolled in the last two weeks.
Knowing that you're gonna need him starting on Saturday, it's been good to see the running game kind of compliment with Justin's been able to do it.
I mean that's a key word, Chris complimentary football. Right, the Chargers offense is at its peak performance level when you have a run game because it's play action. I mean, Justin is operating, you know, with play action more than he ever has in his career and more than almost any other quarterback in the league. So when you have the threat of Dobbins, who's one of the best explosive run rate runners in the league, so you have to be careful because if he busts through that first line and your second line isn't ready, that thing's gonna get ripped off for twenty thirty yards. And he's got enough of those on tape this year that now teams can't be on their toes and it changes everything because now play action's working. When they see the play action, they're biting and that's when you start getting these looks downfield. And then on top of that, you got a career long rush forty one yards. You know, besting is thirty seven yarder, and now that's on tape. So like it's all I feel great for coach Roman because Giro's taking a ton of incoming this year and it just look, I get this is Chargers weekly. We're sitting in the bolt, so of course we're going to stick up for our guy. But he's got Justin Herbert who's in a boot for three weeks of training camp, then high ankle spring in week two. Then he's got Gus Edwards who's not ready at the start of the season. Then when he gets ready and the two of them are kind of starting to go, JK goes down and it's like you got to have some patience for these, you know, play callers to recognize that they don't have everything, that they're trying to make things work with one arm tied behind their back to some degree. And now that it's all coming together, Look, I think you saw what the Lions did to Justin Jefferson, right, They were like, Hey, we're gonna blitz the hell out of you, and we're gonna play man, and we're gonna commit two resources to Justin Jefferson and if you can beat us outside of that, then great. It's almost kind of look what I like to have Justin Jefferson in the charge. Sure, but you don't know where it's coming from. With Herbert Will, he will give you a dose of Disley for sixty five yards and a touchdown. You know, he's a Greg Roman has been using those tight end screens so effectively, and now you got to account for that. And when you double Lad, he's got c And then look at against the Raiders. You got DJ Shark with his first touchdown, a beautiful grab and a ridiculous throw you know, below a defender, a little side arm action, and then finally Lad gets the score with the two point convert on just one of the most incredible throw route receiver quarterback in sync moments that we've seen this year. Like if I were a defensive coordinator, you know, I say, okay, where do I want to start? Like where you know, obviously want to start with slowing down the run. But if you're going to commit those resources and lads playing one on one and you're not playing too high or you're putting an extra man in the box and you're Darren lad to beat you, man, He's going to beat you. Yeah, So that's where that thing's going to start.
So well, that's that's what's interesting.
We'll get into like Derek Stingley for instance, like is he going to travel? Is he going to stay on one side of the field? And I guess to your point, if you don't have a Justin Jefferson, you don't know where Justin Hurbert's.
Going to go with the football.
So yet you can have a certain or a Stingley have one side of the ball, but on the other side, Quinton Lad, we don't know what Justin's going to do on a week the week basis, And I think that's what makes this offense so dangerous. I was actually doing Houston Radio this morning. They were talking about how, you know, maybe the numbers weren't there for Justin. What do you see out of the offense? Exactly what you said, Like, it's it's a brand new offense. There's no Keenan, there's no Mike, there's no Austin Eckler. So the beginning of the year, Justin has that ankle injury. You're not gonna look like you look now. And I think it's taken an entire season for Justin to build that chemistry. Keep in mind he missed it was a training camp too, right, right, So you gain the chemistry with Quinton, with lad with Palmer, with Chark, with Disley, and now we're seeing kind of the fruits of this offense kind of come to like that second half of the Denver game to now money the offense hasn't played better, Like this is the exact type of football you want to be playing going into the wildcard round.
Yeah, and you know you mentioned Stingley. Look, it's a it's a good defense man. It's a really all three levels, yes, all three levels. Up front, it might be the best pair of edge rushers in the league. I think you can make a pretty compelling case it is with Daniel Hunter and will Anderson guess what though, The Chargers' strength is their tackles. So now Tim Siittle's also got a lot of push. I was watching a lot of his pressures, and man, he can just lift the dude up and put them on skates. So that's something you got to be aware of as well. But you mentioned Stingley, man, they got a young secondary that is playing their tails off. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how because they lost Petres, you know, he's down. They've lost basically two nickels, so they move last there, which would be kind of fun because he and mccauckie of course Georgia together if that's what they're gonna do. But then they moved him back outside because that just wasn't working. I can't remember who that I know they were talking about putting Brian in there. But point being, look, Lad, I wish I had my notes actually real quick. It's just like dig into it because we've already talked about the slot stats on Lad, and you're gonna have to commit a valuable resource to the slot. It's just the reality. Uh second most yards and receptions over expected of all slot receivers. We've talked about it. It's he and CD Lamb eight hundred and one receiving yards from the slot plus four point eight yards or should say plus four point eight receptions over act it in his seven ten point seven yards per target and the slot is fourth best of any wide receiver in the league. So what I'm what I you know, I don't know if those numbers make sense to people listening or watch it. But are you gonna put a Coupda outside because he's been getting He's really struggled this year. So if you're going to Coupda outside with Stingley on the other side, because you have to put Lassiter in there, well, now you've got that outside opportunity. You put a team in crisis because it's attrition. Their secondary has been hurt a little bit. It's been one of the strengths this season. You know, Lassiter stingly each or No, I think it's actually I don't think it's uh. I think Lassiter has three picks if if I'm right, I think Kaitaln Bullock has the five picks as well. He's a great. Yeah, So Bullock and Stingley have the UH have the interceptions. But Lassiter has been great, so just fantastic. So It's really kind of a where you're gonna commit the resource because we know what you want to do. You want to play man. You want to get up there, and if you do, you're gonna have to be able to check every box. And I think that's that's going to be fun to see how they decide, because you know, we talked about going into New England, right, are they going to have Christian Gonzales travel with ladd and they really didn't. What happened, Lad's got two touchdowns and he eats the Patriots defense up, So you know, that's that's what you want to do. You want to put a team's unit in conflict and cause them to think to try to figure out how can we solve this problem.
It was fun to hear Demiko O.
Ryan talk about this Chargers offense and Lad McConkie specifically saying like, how can I get a guy like that? So he obviously ladd Is has done enough to get the attention of Demiko Ryan and he mentioned Justin Herbert in saying that he's not like Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson or mahomes in that he wants to be in the pocket. He wants to kind of figure out what you're throwing at him, and that leads me to believe that they're going to try to trick Justin. But there's not many defensive coordinators in defense the defenses rather that can trick a Justin Herbert who has three interceptions on the year.
Money.
I think that that's really the key to the game, is, like you, everything that they've done throughout the year, you want to show up in the postseason.
Right.
The hallmark of this team has been just great red zone defense, great on third down, no turnovers, and that's what you're hoping carries over into basically a one game elimination winner, go home.
Yeah. Coach Harbag I thought it was such a great way to describe it when he said, you know, you're facing football death. It's like that we want to stay alive, we want to keep breathing. You know, the playoffs are football death. That's what's you know, staring you in the face. If you can't get this thing right, Look that the key is probably going to be running the ball, just from the Chargers offense versus the Texans defense. If they can run the ball and they can get that play action working, they've been susceptible to explosives, and I don't think there's a better downfield passer than Justin Herbert. And I'm not talking about sixty five yard bombs over the shoulder. I'm talking about fifteen plus right, your guys, fifteen yards twenty yards of air downfield, hitting them in rhythm and in a fifteen yard completion becomes a thirty eight yard gain. Like, no one is better than Justin at that. And the way the Texans play, I've got it right here. Second highest pressure rate, the only team with two edge defenders and top ten pressure rates. So what does that mean. It means that they're comfortable playing man, because we're gonna get home before you guys have a chance to get off this coverage. Our guys will hold coverage and now we can get after you. And they blitz on forty percent of third downs that is third fifth highest in the NFL. And they're good at it, man, they are really really good at it. So if you can get that run game working and they can't come downhill and they can and they've got to commit more resources and man's not working outside, then you can really start to get this thing going. Because I'm assuming they're gonna commit resources to the box and they're gonna play man, and they'll play a single high and they'll run man across the board, and they're gonna say, go ahead, and let's see if you can beat us with your run game, and then we'll adjust. And if you can't, it's gonna make for a bit of a tough day. And if you can, then you can really kind of get this thing humming.
One of the keys of the game, JK Dobbins against those linebackers Christian Harris and Aziz al Shah here, who's back in the lineup after that big hit that he delivered on Trevor Lawrence. What do you see from those linebackers against this running game. You know, we mentioned JK coming back at the right time. We didn't even mention Ezekiel Elliott. It's on the Chargers, by the way. We don't know his status, but it's just it's kind of hard to believe him wearing number twenty four out there.
Yeah, that's wild. It's because it's Zeke. You know, he was at a time, you know, when the conversation is the best running back in the league. And it's also weird that he's just twenty nine. I know, it just feels like he's been around for fifteen years or well.
In twenty sixteen he was drafted four overall.
Joey Bosa was three overall.
So we got teammates, Yeah, teammates exactly in twenty sixteen NFL drafts.
Yeah, And look if I hope Gus was able to go. You know, he's put in the work, He's busted his tail to try to get out there, he's played hurt. You'd love for him to have the reward of a playoff game and to be able to contribute and help this team win. You can argue his forty three yard run against the Broncos was kind of that spark that really got this thing going. So I think for all the people that are just excited by the name and they should be, Zeek's great. You know, Zeke can run. You know that they can. They can. Greg Roman is so good at dialing up and drawing up run concepts and designed runs that he knows what Zeke does. He knows that if he wants to run power, or he runs to run, or he wants to run duo and let Zeke read that linebacker and get after it. It's gonna work. He can. Zeke can sleepwalk through that stuff. And if you can block it up, you know, And that's what this is. It's hey, you know, just to the Zeke thing to get off on that that tangent, like it just shows you we're in a playoff week and Jewel Ortiz is still churning still like can I get can I get in incrementally better? If Gus can't go. As much as I love having a san and as good as he is in pass prosic is exceptional in pass pro, as is JK. And so that's that's priority number one. If you're gonna take if you're gonna be in the backfield with us, you better be able to block, and you better be able to read it. You better be able to see it, you better be able to react to it. And it's not easy, man. You've got to do all that, and then you've got to take on a guy that might be twenty thirty pounds heavier than you running downhill while you're holding your ground like it is not easy pass pro. So I don't want to make light of it, but to me, that's sort of the Okay, where where are we at? And if we're here, can we get to hear? And if if we can get to hear, then I'm gonna do it and let's let's get after And it just it's been such a theme this season where these guys have been signed and three days later, Eddie Jackson's getting forty snaps so Derwin can stay at the big nickel against the Patriots and he's blowing up two fourth.
Downs, you know, And that's the defensive player of the month exactly, James exactly.
And that's and like, that's that's a practice squad award because you're Elijah Molden goes down. Okay, well we don't have I have to put Drwin there, drop Eddy Jackson there. We just sign him four days ago. He'll mark before exactly right. And yeah, and so I think that's the Zeke thing is a continuation of of that. It's it's not about finding the next undrafted free agent pro bowler, it's can we get from one to one point two? And if I can get to one point two, then let's get to one point two. It's better than one. So and that's kind of what we're talking about.
And even if it's not this week, if they're lucky enough to get to the to the next round.
Maybe that's when Zeke makes his debut in Powder Blue. And you know that's That's another thing I want.
To talk about because it's the noise around Los Angeles isn't uh oh, the Chargers are going to run away with this one. But it seems like, you know, Rex Ryan called it a bye week for the Chargers and not true. And it's it's I think a product of thirty one to two on Christmas Day with the whole world watching and not the whole body of work.
With the worst uniforms in the history of the NFL.
By the way, are they wearing those on Saturday?
Better or not? I have called game. I called the game in just ridiculously dense fog on the farm at Stanford and it was Stanford versus Oregon. Stanford was in their cardinal and white pant and Oregon was in white top, neon silver pants. Oh no, I wish it was neon, white top, silver pants, silver numbers. Couldn't see it, just could you couldn't see numbers. I'm basically called Massoli back to throw completes it to somebody. Yeah, and it's for eight yards lay by play guys worse than Nightmare and those Texans uniforms all black with maroon numbers and dark blue lining. It's like, what are you doing? Why are you what? And our booth at the taxi listened to me. It's all about me. And I'm all the way up, you know, seven stories high, and now I've got to figure out sod will is that fifty one or is that fifty five? I think it's fifty. No, it's fifty one. Oh no, it's not, it's sixty eight? Like, hey, can I shidebar? Can I can? I all right?
Speaking to sidebars? I think I've hit the statute of limitations. I used to work for the Redskins in two thousand and five. They came up to me. I was like a marketing assistant and they said, hey, hey, Chris, can you stand up for a second. They're like, yeah, you'll do. He goes be a FedEx field tomorrow. I said, okay. They had me model black uniforms that they were like trying to get approved through by the league, right, And it was the coolest day I've ever experienced.
I was wearing pads.
I'm in pads. I'm in pads. I'm doing outs. I'm going in three point stances. And what they did was they put NFL Films music to it and they sent it to Paul Techicli for approval. It's it's like a DVD rom. I can't it's hope it's in storage because it's it's one of the more hilarious things that you've ever seen.
Absolutely on that.
But they wanted to see.
What the numbers would look like, you know, for for people like yourself called the game. It was one of the more embarrassing things in hindsight. But if we're if we're on the tangent of numbers, Hello.
Yeah, yeah, Josh got it. Josh's you're not going on the trip. Go to the storage unit and find the DVD. Have it ready for next week. That's the most important development here.
It is I hope I have it.
I hope I have you better have it? Yeah. I can tell you what would happen if they walked into the room and I was sitting there. They would look at me and go, Nope, next one, what's gonna buy that? That guy is a football player. I don't know where we're were we were talking Texans and I derailed it. It was the Christmas Day game that everybody's.
Everyone's thinking about thirty one to two Texans and not the ten win Texans.
You know, and listen.
C J.
Stroud has struggled a little bit this year. He's been hit a lot. I think he only Caleb Williams.
Has been sacked more fifty two sacksots. And it's weird because Larabie Tunsel is one of the best tackles in the league. I mean, he still is. He's fantastic.
It sounds like his penalties.
And the rest of the line has been bad. So that's kind of what they're what they're running into is offensive line is basically, you can't have a you can't have a I don't I'm just trying to think of the best way to put it, because they're all good players, they're in the NFL. But let's just say, if it's a one through a five, you can't have any ones. Man, you can get by with you can get by with five threes. You know, you can get by with two fives, or you can get by with a five, a four and three twos. You cannot get by with four fives and a one, Like, you just can't it doesn't. They will attack it relentlessly and you can do that. So I think that's essentially what's happened is they have too many ones or twos that are still trying to get it figured out. And I think they've gone through ten or eleven different combinations as well, and that's not good. Like the Chargers, they're starting five has played together sixty five percent of the snaps. It's top five in the NFL, and it shows. And that's why while it was a little leaky at the start of the season, here we are late and it's the lowest pressure rate in the league these last two and a half weeks, going back to even the Bronco game. So I know you could say Raiders and Patriots and all that, but it includes the second half of that that Bronco game as well.
Yeah, the strength or strength to of Slater and all versus Anderson and Hunter, I think it's a big and hopefully you can just neutralize those guys, but I do think that this is gonna be a Bosa Mac game, Like if those guys can get home on CJ. Stroud and you know, even derwin at the line of scrimmage, making life hard on those guys on Stroud and the fact that you don't have Diggs, you don't have Tank Dell. It's really kind of like a Joe Mixon Nico Collins are like the two guys you can't let beat you on Saturday.
I'll tell you it's funny. I'm gonna go sort of not opposite that, but complimentary to that. This to me, could be a Tier Tart game. This gonna be a Tier Tart Morgan Fox game because I assume they're gonna commit resources. They'll let Larremie, you know, sit on the island and see if he can operate on the island, and then they'll commit resources over to the right side to Fisher And that's kind of what they'll do, and that's going to leave the middle vulnerable. And the middle has not been good. It's been soft. So Tierre's been so good. And we don't talk about him enough because he's more of a rotation player. He's not out there as many snaps where he can pile up some gaudy stats. But this guy that can blow up plays man. He can get back there in a hurry, he can get his hand on the ball, he can pop it up in the air, for an interception, he can track down you know, CJ, because he's right in his lap immediately and he looks up and there's you know, Khalil or Joey coming there and then he gets stuck in a sandwich and you can strip that ball out like I could see it being that Morgan Fox Tier Tart defensive tackle upfield kind of deal, because it's just the way that that line has been operating this season where they've been real leaky inside.
I like that, And you know that's a guy who, again not necessarily a household name. But what have we seen every single week, whether it's on offense defense, somebody's stepping up and you don't know if it's your And that, I think is what the playoffs is all about, is finding the guys who may not contribute on a week to week basis.
In terms of like a Pro Bowl impact, but like.
We've seen it offensively, money like every single week Justin has been able to identify somebody who helps win a football game. And I think offensively, you know, you talk about the tight ends, you know, like Disley Stone's smart, like there's gonna be someone in this game who maybe we're not talking about that could end up being the reason why they win.
Yeah, it's you know, it's kind of something that Justin has done his whole career, right, He's made Charger fans familiar with the likes of t Billy and Jalen Geigan and Tucker Fisk and Stone Smart this. You know, this season it's been Will Disley, who's never really been a pass catching tight end. I can pull that. I mean, like, the numbers on Disley are hilarious. He coming into this season, where is it?
So It's like, I'm gonna make you a pass catching tight.
End exactly here. It is so previous highs Disley thirty four receptions this year, fifty previous high end yardage three forty nine, four hundred and eighty one. And he missed a few games, and he missed a couple of games. And on top of that, the guy's got three hundred and three yards of yak sixty three percent. He's a giant tight end. Normally, what do they do. They run down the scene, they catch the ball and they fall on the ground, you know, And here's a guy who's like doing jump cuts and jukeing guys on their shoes, and he's got all this yak like it's hilarious how it's all worked out, and I mean and by hilarious, I mean it's just it's incredible. What what it means and football we say it all the time. Football is circumstance. The circumstance of Will Disley playing with a quarterback like Justin Herbert is is this? It produces this? And I love that Tucker Fisk was standing in the end zone like, ooh is this Oh it could be? It went and it went behind him at Disley and then for a secondary thought.
I'm wide open.
This could be my target. Now he's taking every he is. Appreciate Tucker, He's blocked his tap off. He's done a great job this year. He had those catches in seven consecutive games at least one. But that's this least t Let's get him. Let's get him number two. And by the way, the other thing on that, let's get this one in there, because I do love this. They have played, they have run. This is my favorite stat of the week. This is like, what do you get when you hire Jim Harbaugh and what do you get when you bring Greg Roman into be your offensive coordinator? The Chargers have run one hundred and forty three plays this season on offense with at least seven two hundred and eighty five pound plus players on the field. Seven. So to put that in perspective, the team that's second, I'm sure everyone can guess what team is second, right, the Ravens of course? Yeah, how many plays do you think they've run with seven two hundred and eighty five pound plus guys less than one hundred twenty eight Chargers one hundred and forty three and the Ravens twenty eight for second place? So what does that tell me? Get up in the playoffs and guess what's coming downhill? Here comes Scott Mattlock three hundred plus pounds, Here comes Sam Mustafer and jumbo package. Here comes Tucker Fist like you are going to wear it if you if you fall behind, God help you defense, because here comes one hundred and forty three plays of seven guys that are two hundred and eighty five pounds or more.
That's what Demiko Ryan said.
It's like, Hey, the Charge will play you close in the first half, and if they get you in the second, it's over. Like if they get a lead on you and they pull away, it's over because oh, exactly, that's stat that's what would you get.
That statu I think that was NFL. I want to say that came from the NFL, folks. I don't get paid by them. As a matter of fact, I was fired by them. Yet I will still plug their product because it's that good. That is from the NFL Pro subscription where they have all the Amazon next Gen stats and all that stuff in there.
And that just illustrates Buddy Jim Harball's not doing what anybody in the league is doing.
Hundred, there's three.
There's no copycat anything like nobody's doing what this offense is doing. Yeah, and we've seen it from the beginning with just the emergency of Scott Matt Locke and what he's meant to this offense. And I do think the running game, it's you're gonna have to pack it. You're gonna have to pack a JK. Dobbins cut him coming back, and I think him getting those two games against the Patriots and Raiders, I think is huge for this offense. Get him round him into playoff shape and ready to go.
Yeah. I think the you know, the key to that stat really is Tucker Fisk is that that Tucker is exactly two hundred and eighty five pounds, so that's where it comes. And the fact that you've got a three hundred pound full back that's really rounded into form and isn't just some big, lumbering body. But man, matt Lock's in motion non stop. They typically run right behind him. Wherever he ends up is where it's going, and for good reason, because he's he's paving the way. But that's really what that stat is. It's the five offensive lineman Fisk who's on whichever side they decide to put him on, and then matt Lock in the backfield. And it's like, all right, here's us even of R eleven, good luck with that. I just noticed your your defensive ends, while they are incredibly talented, are Let's see what Will Anderson. Daniel Hunter is two sixty and Will Anderson is two forty three, so that's that's what you're looking. And look they're in speed, Like that's what's interesting, right, It's styles make the fight, right, it's power versus speed. That Texans defense is built on speed. Everybody is lightning quick for their position. So it'll be interesting to see you know how that how how it works you know, are those guys quick enough to get around Slater and Alt because that's how they're gonna do it. They're gonna do it. They're certainly not gonna do with power, not with those two guys. They get their hands on you, it's over when you're two forty and two sixty. But they can get around you, and they've done it all season long, so that's what it'll come down to. But it's nice to have that extra two hundred and eighty five pound body out there as well.
Some of the intangils, just you know, the home crowd.
I think it's so important for the Chargers to not get this crowd into it early and give them a shot. I think when you're on the road, especially, you got to score first.
You got to get to that fast start to make sure that there's no momentum.
Because a playoff game, it's different, the energy is different. It's more intense. The crowds in it, and the crowd can can really will a team to victory. And I think the Chargers have the guys, and I think being on the road the last two weeks has been helpful.
It has and look, they've set an NFL record. It's the first team in NFL history now granted because the seventeen game season is relatively new, but it's the first team that's allowed twenty or fewer points in every single road game in nine games. I should say there have been teams that have done it in a sixteen game season, but now they're the first to do it. You know, in a seventeen game season with nine road games, they're undefeated. When they allow seventeen points or less, they don't lose, So you kind of know what those numbers are. I think the one thing about about the get up early and port on, I just I know that the numbers will will certainly, you know, show that I'm in the wrong here. But I always going to the playoff games and feel like it's gonna be tight. These are good teams, they're all playoff teams. Man, it's gonna be tight. And I want a team that's built to win a tight game. And that's it's. I know for a lot of Charger fans watching or listening, they're like, huh what us us? Yeah, this team, this team, this definition of the Chargers is built to win tight games. They are comfortable, they don't flinch when it's twenty one seventeen in the fourth quarter, and the other teams got the ball with seven minutes, Like, they don't flinch. They're like, yeah, whatever, we'll force the punt and then our team's gonna run the four minute offense and we're gonna win the game. Like it's just to me, that's that's the benefit of having a team like this in a matchup like this. You know, this is not the Ravens that average thirty one points per game. It's not the Bills that average thirty one points per game. This is a Texans team that averages twenty one per game. It's a Chiefs team if they advance, that averages twenty two and change per game. These are teams that play similar styles off you know, in terms of scoring offensively to the Chargers. And if if the heat is real that we've seen these last ten quarters, then feel pretty darn good about you know, the way this team is operating head into the postseason.
The way you could descill it down, it's and it's so easy. It's like the the head coach in the quarterback. Yeah, like the quarterback is playing elite football. The head coach won a national championship in this building exactly a year ago. To have the edge, I think, and that's no shot is c J. Strouded Tobiko Ryan, who I think are both excellent in their respective position, but to have a horriball Herbert combination on the road, And to your point, just how good they've been in close games this year and how they haven't flinched. Like the Raiders game started slow and you're like, Okay, well, what kind of game is this going to be? And then slowly, slowly built it day on with that huge interception before halftime to kind of flip things on its head, and that's when you kind of knew it was a yeah.
And that's that's what they're comfortable doing, like we know you're going to make a mistake, and when you do, we'll capitalize on it, and that's what will turn the game. It's a one score game till it's not, and it's not when you create that turnover or when you know it's I don't think they're the highest three and out team anymore. They were for a pretty good chunk of the season, but I don't think they're there right now. Fifth in the league right now three and outs, and that's what they'll do. It's a turnover. Three outs kind of like a turnover, right, especially if there's one, maybe two passes in there. It takes less than two minutes off the clock. Maybe pop one with Darius Davis gets some good feel position and it feels like a turnover. So it's kind of what this team has done and they don't. It goes back to my opening point. I guess it's full circle here. Maybe this is where we'll you know, kind of call it. But like it's a team that doesn't flinch, and that's so important in the postseason because things are gonna get weird and things are going to go wrong because everybody's good and their defense is good, and it's opportunistic and it's got a ton of freaking sacks and a ton of interceptions and maybe they create them, but they don't flinch. You know, when we were talking to Quinton, it was brought up about, you know, the drop in the Baltimore game, and he brought up Herbert and he's like, yeah, you know, or no, that's not what it was. Someone brought it up to Justin in the presser and said, you know, where's q at now compared to where it was in that Baltimore game, and of course Justin's never gonna ding the guy for dropping the ball, and the Baltimore goes, he goes, Look, I just try to convey to everybody else the way I operate, and that's onto the next play, if I thorow pick, onto the next play, if you drop a ball, onto the next play. And it's something we've talked about with Q quite a bit, like he gets too he's too hard on himself when he drops a ball, and it just kind of sticks with him. And I think this year he started to get better about just cutting bait. Whatever dude dropped it, I'm gonna make an incredible catch in the next play and we'll win the game. And it's fine, Like you can't stick on a play. And so I think that's something this team is really really good at. Is just Derwin James halftime against the Broncos. Hey man, that sucked, but that was that. Now we're going to point this way and we're gonna go get it because that's what we do. And I think that's it's something this team is great at. And that again, to repeat myself, that you can pack and travel and you can take that on the road.
I'll end it on the guy you just mentioned, and I think that this is probably the reason why this team could make a deep playoff for US, Irwin James. Irwin James has been here since twenty eighteen. He was an All pros rookie season they were twelve and four. He is seeing the highs early in his career and he's seeing some tough lows with this team. To come off AFC Defensive Player of the Month playing his best football, somebody you can rely on, somebody who just has this infectious energy all three phases feet off the guy I look for him to be at his absolute best on Saturday.
Yeah, you hit it on the head that there's you know, give me one player you want to circle. I think more often than not you'll circle the quarterback. And that's very to do here. I could have done that. It's fifty zero point one percent versus forty nine point nine percent. But there's just something about Derwin Man. There's been something about him this year and the focus, the swagger, the belief, the lead, there's just I'm with you. It feels like I don't feel like they can lose with him out there. Man, Like he just walks out of that locker room and he's like, Yeah, that's that's right. We're gonna win, and you're all gonna follow me and I'm gonna lead you to where we want to go. And that's just it's kind of how we felt all year and I can't wait to see it in the playoffs.
Yeah, we'll end it there. I can't wait.
Appreciate you guys checking in with us, and again, stay safe Los Angeles. We're headed to Houston now, big wild Card game, and we'll see you next week for money, Chris. This has been charged quickly