Pete Dougherty: The Packers line was no match for the Chargers’ rushers,
CARSON, Calif. - As the clock ran out on their dominating 26-11 win on Sunday, the Los Angeles Chargers blared “Bang the Drum All Day” over the loudspeakers at Dignity Health Sports Park.
They couldn’t resist, and really, how can you blame them and their badly outnumbered fans — the ratio was probably 75-25 — for relishing the ultimate indignity by playing the Green Bay Packers’ touchdown celebration song after drubbing them on the field?
The Packers earned the mocking by getting manhandled in every way imaginable from start to finish.
“It’s a humbling experience,” Packers tackle David Bakhtiari said while describing a defeat in which the Chargers outgained the Packers 442 yards to 184.
Bakhtiari and Bryan Bulaga were front and center among the many Packers players who had bad days. The starting tackles had played good football in their team’s 7-1 start, but on this day they were unable to handle Chargers defensive ends Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram.
This was one of the Packers’ worst offensive performances in recent memory — they had only three possessions and 50 yards in total offense in the first half, and by the time they scored their first touchdown with 6:21 to play the game was all but over. And one of the biggest reasons the Packers never got on track was their inability to block Bosa and Ingram.
On the official stat sheet, Bosa and Ingram had one sack each plus another shared sack, and combined for two other hits on Aaron Rodgers, plus each had a tackle for a loss. On the field they blew up the Packers’ game plan with those big plays and eventually forced coach Matt LaFleur to double-team or at least chip block both on many passing downs.
The Packers count on Bakhtiari and Bulaga to usually handle outside rushers on their own, but on this day they didn’t, and LaFleur’s offense never recovered.
“Their pass rusher that went against me played better than me,” Bakhtiari said, not mentioning Bosa by name but clearly referring to the player who was the third overall pick in the 2016 draft.
Maybe the Packers’ no-show Sunday was as simple as they got full of themselves after their heady 7-1 start to the season. If so, that ultimately falls on LaFleur.
The rookie coach had his team make the long flight to California on Friday instead of Saturday, but that’s not unusual — other coaches leave a day early on cross-country flights, as have some of LaFleur’s predecessors.
But the Packers were as big of a dud as imaginable in this game, and really, it’s mind-boggling.
They had a road stadium full of their own fans who couldn’t have been more excited to see their surprising team in action. If this was a trap game, the Packers had everything in place to rise above the trap. But not even the boisterous Packers faithful, in an intimate setting by NFL standards (a full house of 25,435 attended), could inspire their team to anything approaching competence.
Going into the season it was hard not to wonder how many games a young (39-year old) rookie head coach might cost his team as he learned his big new job. There wasn’t any evidence of that in the first eight games, but Sunday’s noncompetitive performance was stunning.
“We’re kind of rolling, 7-1 and starting to listen to the chatter maybe a little too much,” Rodgers said. “I think this will be a good thing for us. We’ll regroup, go back home and play another good team before the bye.”
Or, as LaFleur put it: “They were more prepared. They definitely coached better than we did today and definitely played better, and that’s life in the National Football League. You better come and bring your ‘A’ game each and every week or you’ll have a performance like we did today.”
The Packers were fortunate that all three rivals in the NFC North lost, so they remain a game ahead of the 6-3 Minnesota Vikings for first place. But the 7-2 Packers did lose ground to San Francisco (8-0) and New Orleans (7-1) in the race for the top seeding in the NFC.
Bad losses happen in this league even to good teams — the 1996 Packers weren’t competitive in a 21-6 loss at Dallas in mid-November of that season but went on to win the Super Bowl — so this terrible performance in and of itself doesn’t wreck the season.
What could matter, though, are the consistent issues their defense has had stopping the run and covering tight ends over the middle, and how that has compromised its ability to get off the field when they don’t force turnovers, which they didn’t Sunday.
Chargers running backs Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler combined for a 4.7-yard average and 150 rushing yards Sunday, and it wasn’t like it was because of big plays. The long run for each was 16 yards.
Also, tight end Hunter Henry led the Chargers with seven catches (12-yard average) and seemed to be open behind Blake Martinez or in front of safeties Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage whenever Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers needed him.
What matters is whether this loss exposed other cracks in this team or ends up being an anomaly. The Packers certainly don’t have any excuses at this point, because they’re about as healthy as they could hope to be.
Davante Adams (sprained toe) returned from a four-game absence Sunday and tight end Robert Tonyan (hip) appears close to returning. Unless somebody came out of this game with an injury that wasn’t apparent, the Packers just might have their full 53man roster available for Sunday’s home game against 5-3 Carolina.
“You rinse your hands a little bit, or try to,” Rodgers said of the dud performance. “That’s what you’d like to do, but I think the best thing to do is go back and be very brutally honest with your side of the ball and your own personal performance and knuckle down on some of the details. I think we were a little bit off, but I think more than that the focus was off, and that was disappointing to see.”