Question wasn’t if season would start, but will it reach end

Sez Me …

Let’s look at this NFL season as we might stare through the deli glass at a sausage.

Appears pretty good on the outside, nice skin, seemingly fresh. But, as it’s prepared by sneaky butcher Roger Goodell’s hands, we have no idea what lurks inside.

Bad enough that, no matter how much it stinks — and so much of it has even during previous pre-newnormal seasons — Goodell’s going to say it’s delicious, which is why it costs so much a pound.

He can sous vide it all he wants. Can’t guarantee it’s going to come out juicy and tender.

No one, including Rog, can say if The League even can complete its season. But there never was a doubt in my mind they would at least start. Too much money involved, so much wherewithal, TV salivating, gamblers back to driving The League’s Rolls.

And judging by testing numbers thus far, virus cases have been few. It’s not as though they’ve been in a bubble and avoiding contact.

Until Thursday, when Chiefs-texans opened the season, no football had been played professionally since early February. As the great Jerry Magee would say, all offseason

the same page with whether it be double teams and fits and ways you’re working off a combo block,” Rivers said from Indianapolis in a video chat with media.

“The fact that these guys played every game last year together and certainly have been together now for a handful of years, I think that’s huge. It didn’t take long, and they all take great pride in it — obviously, the run game and protecting.”

It’s not true that, up front, the Chargers always failed Rivers.

Go back to the last time Rivers took over an NFL team — 14 years ago in San Diego when he followed Drew Brees after backing him up for two years.

Battering rams at fullback (Lorenzo Neal) and tight end (Brandon Manumaleuna) worked in tandem with a fairly good line.

Able to stay healthy, the same five linemen combined to make 84 of 85 starts including a playoff game.

Coach Marty Schottenheimer ran the offense through Hall of Fame running back Ladainian Tomlinson.

With Rivers keeping the ball out of harm’s way, the Chargers led the NFL in scoring and fewest turnovers en route to a 14-2 record.

The blocking for Rivers held up fairly well as San Diego finished fifth, second, fourth and and second in points from 2007 to 2010.

Rivers was less fortunate for most of the remaining years in his 14-year run as a starter.

Many of those nine lines were mediocre or worse. While Rivers wasn’t blameless for the team’s failure to win the West title in his final 10 seasons with the Chargers, the 12-4 season he directed in 2018 coincided with a good season from his left tackle (Russell Okung) and center (Mike Pouncey) and the same five starters making all but two starts in the 18 games overall.

His Colts debut comes in Jacksonville.

Advantage, Philip. Rivers’ best passer rating against an AFC club is his 119.2

career mark against the Jaguars. The 4-3 defensive scheme they favor is one he has carved up many times.

That Rivers can lean on the ground game today calls to mind the first game he started for the Chargers, a 27-0 win in Oakland in which Rivers threw only 11 passes and handed off 31 times to Tomlinson.

Nelson missed a practice this week with a back injury, but if he and his linemates play up to the standard they set last year, the running back tandem of Marlon Mack and rookie Jonathan Taylor should benefit Rivers.

So, look for Rivers to start out 1-0.

And expect the same from his former team, which has enough firepower defensively to overcome the Bengals in Cincinnati.

In this case, driving the forecast is a blocking unit that likely ranks near the lower end of the spectrum.

The Bengals’ line had a poor 2019 season that contributed heavily to the team’s 2-14 record. An upgrade now is left tackle Jonah Williams — but he’ll be making his NFL debut without benefit of any exhibition games.

Adding to the challenge for rookie QB Joe Burrow, the Chargers have an explosive defense capable of attacking from various angles and disguising its intentions well.

“He definitely hasn’t had a line like ours coming after him — yet,” end Joey Bosa said of Burrow, whose performance with LSU last year Bosa described as amazing.

Tyrod Taylor will be the first quarterback other than Rivers to start for the Chargers since Drew Brees went against the Broncos in the 2005 finale.

Brees didn’t finish that game, suffering a shoulder injury that ultimately sent him to the Saints, whom he would lead to a Super Bowl victory four years later.

The mobile and resilient Taylor, 31, is holding this job until the team turns to strong-armed rookie Justin Herbert, who signed a fouryear contract worth $26.6 million after going sixth in the draft.

tom.krasovic@sduniontribune.com