One of the most-overused clichés in football is that a team takes on the personality of its coach.
I beg to differ. I think the team takes on the personality of its best player, the one who can bail them out of tough situations, keep them focused when things go awry and has the ability to make play after play in the face of all types of pressure.
In San Diego, that's quarterback Philip Rivers. If you want to know why the Chargers are 4-1, tied for the best record in the league, and look to have a real Super feel about them, it all starts with Rivers. He might be a docile, peaceful family man off the field, but he is a maniacal in-your-face quarterback who never backs down when on the field.
It's that fearless approach that makes him who he is as a player. It's why some opponents loathe him. It's also why teammates love playing with him.
There was a Rivers play earlier this season where Seattle's Bobby Wagner kind of rode Rivers out of bounds on a scramble. It wasn't a flag, but it was a subtle shot by Wagner. Rivers didn't like it much, and got in Wagner's face on the sideline.
Message sent: Don't even try that bullying stuff with us.
That's who the Chargers are now, a tough, physical team with a quarterback who stands in the face of pressure to make throw after throw. It features a defense that tackles well, a secondary loaded with quality cover players. It's also a defensive team that features the resurgence of two key veterans in corner Brandon Flowers and pass rushing outside linebacker Dwight Freeney.
The Chargers are first in the NFL in scoring defense, third in total defense and second against the pass. The offense is tied for eighth in scoring and 11th overall, despite ranking 27th in rushing. The Chargers are first in point differential, with a plus 70.
In two of the past three weeks, they haven't exactly beaten up on the league's elite with home victories against the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets, who are a combined 1-9. But they do have victories over Seattle and Buffalo, a combined 6-3, and were it not for a fourth-quarter collapse in the opener against the Cardinals, they would be undefeated.
Rivers, right now, is the MVP of the league. Even without a true running game, coupled with an offensive line that has been just OK (they've started three centers in five games), Rivers has been outstanding.
His ability to climb the pocket is as good as any quarterback in the NFL, including Peyton Manning. Rivers often feels pressure, moves up away from it, and then has this unique ability to throw from a variety of angles.
He can throw tight spirals, or lob in perfect touch passes. He can zip one 20 yards sidearm, or lob one overhand over the head of a linebacker. Rivers' passes almost never look the same, from play to play, the release points changing from down to down.
But it works. Rivers is the NFL's top-rated passer with a rating of 116.7. He has 12 touchdown passes and two interceptions. He's completing a league-best 70.3-percent of his passes.
Rivers' pre-snap reads are as good as any in the league. He's great at identifying what a defense is doing, and then checking to what he needs to do. Most of the times, he's right. Even if the ball sometimes comes out fluttering in the face of pressure, he will stand in and make those throws. There's that toughness again.
Here's a look at one of those plays from last week's game with the Jets. It took smarts to check to the right play and toughness to make the throw in the face of pressure.
Play: Third-and-6 from the San Diego 46 with 13:00 left in the second quarter.
Offense: Posse (Three WR, 1TE, 1RB)
Defense: Nickel, quarters look, but actually blitzed the safeties and played Cover-zero.
As you can see, the Jets lined up as if they were in quarters coverage. But as the safeties crept up, Rivers smelled a blitz and changed the play. Both safeties blitzed Rivers inside, leaving the corners in man coverage with the receivers. Rivers had pressure in his face from the blitzing Dawan Landry, who was a free runner, but Rivers sat in and lofted a pass to Eddie Royal, who beat Kyle Wilson in off-man for a 22-yard gain.
That's a play that showed Rivers' smarts, toughness and his ability to drop passes into perfect spots even if the motion isn't as smooth as some of those pretty passers.
San Diego's slumping running game showed life last week against the Jets. Rookie Branden Oliver ran for 114 yards. The Chargers are down to Oliver with injuries to their top three backs. The line is also banged up. They were down to two offensive line starters in the second half last week, and they will likely start their fourth center (Chris Watt) this week against Oakland. Add that all up, and it's easy to see why Rivers is an MVP candidate.
The defense has also impressed. On that side of the ball, the leader is safety Eric Weddle. He is another tough guy who doesn't back down to anyone. Up front, they have some good, young down players in Corey Liuget and Kendall Reyes in their 3-4 scheme.
Outside linebackers Freeney, Jarrett Johnson and Melvin Ingram (who has missed the past three games with an injury) have done a nice job. Freeney has excelled with his rush, while Johnson has been good in the run game. Inside linebacker Donald Butler is good run player as well.
I think the key to this unit, though, is the secondary. Weddle has the range needed to play safety, and as a former college corner he has a ton of versatility. He can line up in the box or deep, and he's successful doing both. Fellow safety Marcus Gilchrist is another former corner who has range and versatility. Both are good tacklers.
The addition of Flowers on the corner has really helped. He is playing at a high level after being released by the Chiefs this summer. Flowers went to the Pro Bowl last season, but he didn't play as nearly as well as he is now. Add in corners Shareece Wright, Richard Marshall, rookie Jason Verrett and safety Jahleel Addae, and you are talking about a deep group that both covers and tackles.
Here's a look at a play from the first series of last week's game that shows the value of having two safeties who play like Weddle and Gilchrist.
Play: Third-and-3 at the Jets 39 with 13:29 left in the first quarter.
Offense: Posse (3WR, 1RB, 1TE)
Defense: Dime showing two-deep safety look, but rotate into a single-high safety with a robber-coverage.
With three receivers, the Chargers went to a dime package with two-high safety look in Weddle (yellow) and Addae (red). They actually had Gilchrist on the field, but he was in the box area in man coverage against tight end Jeff Cumberland, who stayed in to block.
At the snap, Weddle dropped down as the robber and took away in the inside slant to Jeremy Kerley as you can see. That forced Smith to try and hit David Nelson deep in man coverage with Marshall, and Smith overshot him.
I assumed Denver would have an easy time of winning the AFC West. Now I am not so sure. This San Diego team is tough, and they have a quarterback capable of carrying them on his back.
Denver and San Diego meet for the first time this season in Denver October 23 on a Thursday night.
My advice to the Broncos: As San Diego showed Seattle, buckle up and get ready for a team with a tough quarterback that won't back down from anybody.
More observations from studying the film
Pump the brakes on the Russell Wilson love from MNF: I get a lot of heat for not slobbering over Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson like a lot of other media members. I think he's good. They think he's great. One day, he might be. He isn't yet. You would have thought after his performance Monday night against the Redskins that he should have just taken off his pads and gone right to Canton. Why wait? Was Wilson good? Yes. He rushed for a career-high 122 yards and scored a touchdown and threw for 201 yards and two scores. It was an impressive display.
He made some magical plays that night on scrambles, the kind of plays that make the national media stand up and salute. I was impressed by some of them. But having quarterbacks who run for 100 yards isn't a good thing. This is a passing league. It always will be. And eventually Wilson will have to handle the pocket better. Most of you will say that a 16-yard scramble is a positive play, right? So would I. Only when I looked at Wilson's 16-yard scramble on Seattle's first series against the Redskins, I would have graded it as a negative play. There are reasons why.
Let's start with the end-zone look.
Why is he leaving this pocket? It's clear that the tackles have taken the outside rushers way up the field and the inside two players are getting handled by three Seahawks. There is no reason to run. He doesn't even have to move off the spot, to be honest. But he clearly felt Ryan Kerrigan behind him. OK, so move up and throw. To who you say?
When Wilson first had his back foot hit the ground, he could have gone to the top to Doug Baldwin, who was open, or to Robert Turbin in the right flat. It was third-and-10, so I can't fault him for passing on Turbin against the Washington zone. But what happened next, I can find fault. He kept his head down and ran for a first down. Positive play for sure, but if he kept his head up he had a touchdown to Jermaine Kearse, who was wide open down the middle with his hand up.
This is the type of play where most will rave about Wilson, while I see two negatives. He's usually pretty good throwing when he's outside the pocket, but on this play he missed a sure touchdown and he left a clean pocket way too early.
What's up with Mo Wilkerson? While studying the Chargers for this piece, I also took a hard look at the Jets. That's not a pretty team. But they do have talent at some spots, especially on the defensive line. I think Muhammad Wilkerson is one of the best down lineman in the league. He is big, powerful and athletic. He is the type of player teams love and crave on their front. He makes some amazing plays. But there were two plays in the San Diego game that I couldn’t figure out. Either he took it easy on these plays, or he was asked to do something weird by the staff. Here's a look at each of them.
Now you tell me, what does that look like to you? It looks like Wilkerson is coasting. But this was early in the game. It's not like he was tired. I know it was hot and it was a long trip, but these plays stood out to me. I don't know if he was asked to play it that way, but it sure came off as if he wasn't going hard.
The strange thing is that throughout the game he did make plays. He is such a force that on several occasions he beat doubles and got to the runner. Even late in the game, in the blowout, he was still making plays and seemed to be going strong.
Maybe he didn't feel good early on. Maybe the Jets wanted him to play it that way. I know defensive lineman take plays off, even if they shouldn't, but these two were way too early in the game for that to be the issue. One thing I do know: It's not a good look for a player of his ability.
J.J. Watt Play of the Week: Every week in this space I highlight a J.J. Watt play. He's the best defensive player in the league, and watching his tape is a treat. He is a force, even if the stat sheet doesn't always show it. The play I pulled out from last week's game with Dallas was the one where Tony Romo spun away from him for a sure sack to throw a touchdown pass to Terrance Williams.
Of course, that's the play that everybody was talking about. But I didn't pick that play to highlight his getting left grabbing for air. I picked it to show one of the true secrets to his success, which is his get-off at the line. Take a look at the play below and you will see a player who looks to beat the snap as he charges past Tyron Smith, one of the best left tackles in the league. But I ran the play back and forth a bunch of times and I think that Watt actually got off on the snap. That's amazing quickness for a man his size. Take a look.
So what do you think? Was he across the line before the snap? Or is he just that good? I think it's the latter.
The evolution of Cam Newton: With all the rage about Wilson and Rivers and Andrew Luck, one quarterback who is really throwing the football well and not getting a lot of attention is Cam Newton. The Carolina quarterback has had two consecutive games where he's really thrown it well. When I watched the tape of Carolina's victory over the Bears, the thing that stood out to me was how much more poised he is in the pocket. In years past, Newton would take off and run at the hint of pressure. Now he's moving to throw. Maybe it's because of his rib injury, but he's clearly doing a better job of trying to allow routes to develop.
He's matured as a player off the field, but I also think this is maturing quarterback on the field. The Panthers don't have a ton of weapons and the line is suspect, but Newton's passing ability has really grown. Newton has thrown five touchdown passes and one interception and has a passer rating of 94.6.
