After appearing to be trending upward against the run, the Chargers took a step back in last Sunday’s loss to the Broncos – allowing 147 carries on 33 carries.
One of the primary reasons for the woeful performance was due to personnel.
Rather than rolling with the team’s best run defenders from the week prior, Breiden Fehoko and Joe Gaziano, Jerry Tillery played most of the snaps out of any interior defender (89%).
As for Fehoko and Gaziano, the two played just 24% and 11% of the snaps, respectively. While they were on the sidelines, Tillery struggled, which led to gaping holes for Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams.
Furthermore, L.A. was without veteran Linval Joseph who’s missed the last two games due to an injury and after testing positive for COVID-19.
Justin Jones, who has been a key component for the unit since his return after the Chargers’ bye week, gave his thoughts about the unit’s performance.
“We weren’t settled down in that first quarter,” Jones said. “That first quarter, I feel like they had a lot of rushing yards. The defense, as a whole, had to settle in. The defense had to figure out what our identity was going to be for that game.
We just had to get our groove and get into our rhythm. The next three quarters after that, the rushing yards really weren’t affecting us. But, that first quarter really put us in a hole. It put our offense in a hole, as well.”
The Chargers can’t afford to make the same costly mistakes against the Bengals this weekend. Joe Mixon has been a highlight of their success rate in the team’s last two contests.
Mixon was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week after his best performance of the season in the win over the Steelers, in which he ran for 165 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries.
“He’s a really good back,” Jones said. “It’s a really good challenge for us up front and a really good challenge for us as a defense. We’ll come and play together. We need to go out and establish our identity from the first play. I feel like it is going to be a battle.”