A.J. Smith unexpectedly went after a wide receiver in free agency as soon as Vincent Jackson departed for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That receiver was former New Orleans Saint Robert Meachem. Drafted in 2007 just two picks before Craig "Buster" Davis, Meachem in his third year showed to be a very capable receiver for 3 straight seasons in the Saints' quick strike pass offense. He averaged 43 receptions for 660 yards and almost 7 touchdowns per season. Those numbers are quite similar to Vincent Jackson's 2006 season. Interestingly, he's only started about half of the games he's played in due to being on a roster with Marques Colston, Devery Henderson and Lance Moore. That is because New Orleans' offensive attack has mostly consisted of having four #2 receivers on the field rather than a #1 receiver and then a #2 and #3. But then that makes us wonder, is he capable of being a #1 receiver in San Diego's offense the way Vincent Jackson was? Let's find out.

Robert Meachem

#12 / Wide Receiver / San Diego Chargers

Height: 6-2

Weight: 210

Born: Sep 28, 1984

College: Tennessee

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When the 2011 season started, there was justified excitement over the off season acquisition of Safety Bob Sanders, a former Defensive Player of the Year and Pro Bowler with the Indiannapolis Colts. Just two games into his season with the Chargers, Sanders was lost for the season after contributing almost nothing. The statistics may show that he had no significant impact on the team, but while stats don't lie, they don't tell the whole story either. Let's examine what his presence on the field brought to the team. First, his stat sheet:

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No. At least, not yet. Now before we talk about why Jammer should stay at cornerback despite his worst year in recent memory, know that he was actually a safety at Texas. Although defensivebacks in general switch between corner and safety spots between college and the NFL level, Jammer struggled to thoroughly learn the cornerback position early on before finally in 2007 showing signs of becoming a top corner. But has he peaked? Is he on the decline? After a terrible 2011 season, it seems like Jammer has lost his ability to cover. Let's analyze a few aspects of his game, and also the team to determine if Quentin Jammer has what it takes to continue as a cornerback for the San Diego Chargers, of if he should be moved to safety. First, look at some simple numbers over his last few years courtesy of ProFootballFocus:

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Going into the 2011 season, most all of the Chargers organization were excited to have former San Francisco 49er defensive coordinator Greg Manusky taking over for the departed Ron Rivera. But by year's end, this once top 5 defense regressed into a totally average, unspectacular unit. While Manusky deserves to be blamed, just how much blame can be thrown his way?

Manusky brought with him veteran inside linebacker Takeo Spikes and Travis LaBoy. Other than that, he was playing with the team AJ Smith had made for him. A team that everyone knew lacked playmakers to begin with but had promise at all key positions, but promise that almost never realized. As already described by Orz, Manusky's unit took a huge blow, and it was something that lasted all year, not just a few games. There has been talk that some players in some way may have 'given up' on Manusky but that shows character flaws in the players more than coaching flaws, which is worrisome. But where was that during the 4-1 start? In fact, the only game I can think of where there seemed to be nothing regarding defense was the Detroit game, so let's take a quick review of the season's defensive efforts and see how other factors may have contributed to the championship winning aspect of this team having been hindered...starting with the 4-1 winning streak.

VS Minnessota, New England, Kansas City, Miami and Denver

A look at the Basic statistics shows that this defense performed very well, with quarterback Donovan McNabb throwing for just 39 yards on 15 attempts and Adrian Peterson totaling 98 rushing yards. Despite Philip Rivers begging the Viking defense to do something with his 2 giveaways, this defense held the opposing offense to just 10 points, sacking the mobile McNabb twice and intercepting him on their first play from scrimmage. The pass rush was decent with Antonio Garay getting pressure up the middle and even Travis LaBoy getting pressure a few times. However, Garay wouldn't have a grade as high as he did in this game for the rest of the year, for we all know that Luis Castillo got hurt for what would become the rest of the season, delivering a serious blow to the entire defense. Losing your anchor is sometimes nearly impossible to overcome, just look at the pass rush from 2008 after losing Merriman, or the run defense in 2009 after losing Jamal Williams. For the rest of the season, both Shaun Phillips and Antonio Garay would suffer from the loss of Luis Castillo, accumulating stats over a 16 game season that they managed to put up in 4 or 5 game spans from a year ago.

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Update: Kevin Acee reports that Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky has been fired.

For one play. Technically, about 6 but the other 5 were in nickel. It had to be done because of Antwan Barnes getting ejected and Shaun Phillips getting hurt. For the last game of the year, the pass rush, like it has for all but 2 games, decided to stay on the bench. No sacks, and only 2 times where Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer was running to avoid getting dropped. Now let's get to the important things, including the impending talk of

Greg Manusky gets fired

Will he? Should he? Yes he will be. Talk after the jump, but first here's the grading followed by the evidence everyone wants to see regarding the 4-3 defense no one wants to see because all of those fans who did want the change quit with Norv and AJ keeping their jobs in San Diego.

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The Baltimore Ravens by no means have a high scoring offense, but limiting them to 7 (10) points in game time is incredibly impressive. Of course, you have to give some credit to the offense for keeping RB Ray Rice's carries low by scoring every drive, but getting 2 interceptions and 5 sacks on QB Joe Flacco is impressive considering he is an elite quarterback. All sacks aside, this defense still needs help. Really.

The pass rush is still very inconsistent and the Strong Safety spot shared by Steve Gregory and Paul Oliver isn't doing Eric Weddle any favors. Na'il Diggs has been great in coverage and those rare 3rd down runs/draws/screens, but Takeo Spikes is not built to play the pass in open space. Despite all that, I think Greg Manusky has done a decent job of running the defense. Don't you? No? Well you also think Norv Should be fired and Castillo and Weddle are overpaid and Ryan Mathews is a bust. After studying each and every play, only about 20% of the time do I see an unsuccessful defensive play happen because of a bad playcall. It's usually execution, or lack thereof in some cases (pass rush). Still, they look like they're beginning to get things going and hopefully the next 2 weeks and beyond look like the last 3. Let's get into Sunday's grading and some very nice goodies after the jump.

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Greg Manusky opened up the game with an odd playcall: A double DB Blitz. Either he was absolutely sure the playcall was a run, or at least a playaction pass that would give the blitzers a chance for a sack/pass knockdown. It was unusual because I've always wanted to see a db blitz and the most I see is nickel blitzes or inside DB blitz on double wide sets.

Pass defense wouldn't be an issue for the Chargers, however. Run defense is where the struggles happened. It's hard to defend near-perfect blocking when you're in a wide, light nickel defense expecting pass up by so many points, but it's still aggravating to see it:

Didn't that aggravate you? Another fail was tackling and containment, again. About 75% of Blaine Gabbert's passing yards were gained after the catch. Hit the jump for more.

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If you had told me that the Broncos would only put up 13 points in regulation, I would have sworn the Chargers had won that game scoring 23 points. Like in any game, there were many fails on defense, but how much can you complain when they allowed just one Touchdown and 2 field goals? There were a lot of good things to come out of this performance but lots of bad as well. We'll look into this one Steve Adler style with a Good, Bad and Ugly breakdown.

First, here's the grading for the first and second half. For an easy understanding, know that .50 is average/decent and .25 and lower is bad, with good performances being .75 and anything above 1 is crazy good. However, sometimes it can be skewed if you don't look at the entire spreadsheet, as Cam Thomas only had 1 gradeable play where he rushed the Passer in the first half and he scored well.

Full analysis after the jump

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Pass rush isn't optional. It's necessary in the NFL to succeed, and the Chargers do not have one right now. They are playing without star OLB Shaun Phillips and anchor Luis Castillo at DE. With the lack of a pass rush, the secondary should be looking for turnover opportunities at every deep pass, and they are not. See the picture after the jump to see what they could be doing.

Run defense this game was phenomenal for all but 3 runs. Including scrambles, Da Bears ran 32 times for 2.9 yards per carry. That's 93 yards on the ground. Unfortunately, the effort at run blocking didn't translate to dominating the line of scrimmage when Jay Cutler dropped back to pass. No sacks. There were 3 could-have-beens, but for the most part Cutler either had time to throw, successfully scrambled from pressure, or threw a quick pass. That's the main reason this defense failed to win in the windy city. Sacks can be overrated, but hitting a quarterback as he throws or making him throw inaccurately results in errant passes that can result in turnovers, or at best, incompletions.

Let's take a look at the grading for the first and second half, and after the jump enjoy the video and pics.

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This defense has talent. They really do. But there are a few things missing. The obvious being health. Another being discipline. A glance at the defensive roster shows only Jammer, Weddle, Castillo (hurt) and Phillips as known cornerstones. Is it really so hard for this unit to come together consistently every game? Apparently so. For now, let's focus on the good.

Oakland came out and was immediately shut down on their first drive, going 3 and out. On their second drive, after a big first down, they again were forced to turn the ball over on a crazy fake punt. Their third drive was the one that set a tone they would want to keep up all game. They didn't face a single 3rd down. 1st down, 2nd down, 1st down again. A deep pass to Jacoby Ford where CB Dante Hughes had his arm 3 inches too high to defend gave Oakland instant field goal range, and with the 2 defensive penalties you would think the Chargers wanted Oakland to score. It was not the end. Oakland would continue their philosophy of run, run, throw deep with the occasional screen and playaction. And yet, with the Offense needing the ball to score and make a game out of the match late in the 3rd quarter, the Defense would deliver with forcing a sack-fumble, an interception, and a 3 and out. Check out how poorly they did stopping the run and rushing Carson Palmer...

Here's the grading for the first and second half (0 being owned and 1.0 being dominant):

Video and Pictures after the jump

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The defending Super Bowl Champions came to San Diego and did exactly what they were expected to do. Score a lot of points and win. They scored 31 offensively and could have been held to 24 had it not been for penalties. I don't know where all these penalties started to rain down from in the last two weeks, but it's definitely hurt the team on third downs. The Packers were given 3 free first downs on penalties, two on crucial third downs. As you'll see from the grading, the front 7 hard a harder time than you would think despite 4 sacks and pressure on several other occasions. The Packers are a blueprint for offensive consistency and they seem to pick up yards on every play, with every little bit helping. Aaron Rodgers only threw 4 passes longer than 15 yards, so they had no trouble picking up small chunks of yards when there was nothing downfield. Rodgers also had a lot of chances to scramble for yardage under pressure. Lack of containment in the pass rush and execution on both blitzes and run defense were the reasons for low grades this week.

 Here's the grading for the first and second half: 

 Full analysis is after the jump.

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First it was Luis Castillo, then it was Bob Sanders, Quentin Jammer, Jacques Cesaire, Larry English, and now, Shaun Phillips. Given all these injuries, I'm surprised Greg Manusky has managed to make this defense relevant. Despite so many injuries, the Chargers' defense managed to keep the Chiefs runningbacks to 80 yards on 30 carries. 6 of their 14 posessions were 3 and outs, and 2 resulted in immediate turnovers. While it's easy to point to how the defense has failed, they have also been very successful considering the changes they've gone through.

Here's how the players graded out, as a whole in both run and pass rush/coverage.

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Greetings from BFTB, Cheeseheads! My name is Gabriel, one of 10 writers at Bolts from the Blue, here to answer any questions you may have about the San Diego Chargers. Ask about the players, strategies, weaknesses, psycological evaluations, tendencies, and whatever you're too lazy to google. I've been a full-on Charger fan since '05 when I had to drop the Packers as my favorite 'NFC team' since I couldn't follow 2 franchises (though I still root for them in secret, but not this Sunday).   

Feel free to Rec this into oblivion so it stays at the top of the page and keep the trash talk cleaner than the Fox River was in the 60's.

 Coming home from the Meadowlands, the Chargers were looking back at what could have been. A 5-1 record that was flirted with, but rejected by. Although the offense failed in the second half, the defense was blamed for the loss as well. Mainly, 3 touchdown passes to Plaxico Burress, covered by Antoine Cason. While that was the biggest failure, since it stood out more, most of us may have overlooked failures on the front 7. For the second game week in a row, the Charger defense allowed a 100 yard rusher. Let's take a look at what happened.

First, lets look at the first and second half grading:

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So far this season the Chargers defense has allowed 4.6 yards per carry for 568 rushing yards. Almost a third of that total came in one game allowing the Broncos to rush for 163 total yards. As bad as that sounds, consider that this same defense has only allowed 898 passing yards this year, though half that total was put up by Tom Brady. In any case, they are so far the second best pass defense at the expense of seventeenth against the run. To those who don't think he is as valuable as evidenced: miss DE Luis Castillo much? 

Lots of players struggled to stop the run, and the lack of sacks may lead you to believe there was no pressure, but the facts may surprise you. Check out the grading below and the full analysis after the jump.

 The players by number, in order: Spikes, English, Butler, Diggs, Garay, Thomas, Harris, Nwagbuo, Martin, Liuget, Phillips, Barnes, and LaBoy. Scoring is basically 2.0, 1.5 , 1.0 , 0.5 , 0.0 being Dominated (2.0) to owned (0.0)

Update: Video is up

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July 4th, 1929-October 8th, 2011

Inducted into the Hall of fame class of 1992, Al Davis was an offensive coach hired by Charger great Sid Gillman in 1960 and helped the Chargers win 2 division championships in 3 years. He left to become head coach of the Raiders and turned them into one of the most successful teams in the NFL for the next 40 years. In 1970 he was regarded as a significant contributor to the forming of the alliance that merged the AFL and NFL with his aggressive signings and strategies that intensified relationships between the two organizations.

Lance Alworth, one of the greatest Chargers and NFL Players of all time, chose Davis to do his HOF induction speech, as have 8 others. Al Davis was clearly a man in the hearts of so many players and coaches alike. He left an unmistakable footprint across the football world and for that reason will be remembered fondly. Say what you will about the state of the Raiders the last 10 years, Al Davis always wanted the best for his team. It's time for everyone to put their rivalries aside and realize that this was a great person for many reasons.

He will be remembered for his many achievements as the Raiders Coach, CEO and GM, including 3 super bowls and an AFL Championshp, along with 12 AFC West Championships. He also hired the first Hispanic NFL Coach in Tom Flores, along with being a big part of opening other racial bridges in the NFL. His Commitment to Excellence is what has defined not only his team, but a part of the National Football League as we know it.

Goodbye Al Davis, You won, baby.

Going into Mile High, The Charger defense has a chance to put the Bronco offense in a chokehold. Denver is struggling on offense and overall, the Chargers have a decent defense that has the ability to shut down the Broncos. Keeping WR Eric Decker's impact to a minimum and limiting a relatively weak run offense will be keys to this team heading into the bye at 4-1. That, and trying to get at least one turnover out of a team that likes to give the ball away about twice per game. Looking at the chart below, you can see that in many aspects, these two teams are on opposite ends of the statistical spectrum.

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For their week 4 matchup at home, the Charger defense came out with a new philosophy: Attack. Defensive coordinator Greg Manusky called up 6 blitzes. In the first half. 5 more in the second half for a total of 11. That means 21% of the time, there was a blitz, and many of them worked to produce a sack, interception, and a long third down. When you look at it from a coaching perspective, it was easier to blitz and be aggressive when you have a lead during seven of the opposing offense's drives, which is why the last 3 games haven't been so aggressive as far as blitzing goes. It could also be that the lockout and lack of time with new players and a new DC made it difficult to work out anything exotic. In any case, it was great to see Greg dial up the pressure. At the end of the article is a surprise for you loyal readers and blitz fanatics.

New this week was Defensive lineman Tommie Harris. Want to know how he played? Read along. You'll also get some insight as to whether Larry English was actually getting pressure leading to his two sacks, or if they were just luck of the play. Here's a hint: His first half score is inflated by his one and only gradable pass rush. 

Here's the first and second half grading:

Update: Video added

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5 Consecutive 3 and outs. Cinco. The Chiefs couldn't get a first down all first half last Sunday. Not. One. This is the Charger defense everyone expected to see all game. Unfortunately, adjustments and 2 critical penalties gave the Chiefs an offense in the second half. While Philip Rivers was trying to give the Chiefs a chance in the first half with 2 picks, bad special teams play at the start of the 3rd quarter and a near 10 minute drive from the middle of the 3rd quarter to the 4th gave the Chiefs a chance to make a game out of this match. At the beginning of the 4th quarter, Cassel had only thrown 13 passes, completing 11 for 62 yards. It took a goofy pass from Matt Cassel to Eric Weddle to seal the game, and 15 point favorites never even had a 15 point lead.

First, some interesting stats:

• 24 Net first half yards
• Longest first half play of any kind allowed: 4 yards
• Beautiful 67° game-time weather.
• Despite just 18 yards on 7 throws, Cassel had a better QB rating than Rivers. (Halftime) 

Here's the final grading for the game, first half then second half:

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35 points allowed. It's hard to win a game when you give up 35 points. It's easy, however, to give up 35 points when you give the ball back to the other team 4 times on 2 interceptions, a fumble and a failed 4th down at the goal line (which is essentially  a turnover considering you give the ball away without having scored any points). But while the defense was on the field, did they perform poorly? Was the playcalling questionable? Lets examine both aspects and come to a conclusion.

Here's the final grading :

Click here for the full analysis.

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This new season brought many significant people into the Chargers organization. New Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky. Bob Sanders. Takeo Spikes, as well as Donald Butler getting to start, and first rounder Corey Liuget. So how did the defense do? Let's dive straight into this. First, let's look at a few basic numbers:

Here's how everyone graded at the end of the game:

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