dlockz
Hall Of Famer
With a big game coming up figured I would go over the matchups and give my breakdown as well as prediction of this week's game.
QB- Not as big a mismatch as it has been in recent years but Phillip Rivers at this point is a better Qb than Chad Pennington. Pennington should play well enough to not lose the game for us but he just does not have the weapons that Rivers has. Pennington though is well suited for the short passing game that seems to give San diego fits as of late. As long as we dont get too greedy trying to go deep we should have a chance to move the ball on San Diego through the air. Rivers may hurt us deep, we have to get in his face to have a chance of stopping thier passing game because the talent of thier receivers is much greater than our secondary.
Advantage - Chargers
RB- Usually this would be a no contest since San Diego has the best back in the game. I think until LT shows he is fully healed the R/R duo are his equal. We have more options with both good backs and hopefully we us this to our advantage against a very stingy San Diego run defense. Our run defense has yet to be truly tested against an elite back. Sproles needs to be accounted for averaging over 20 a pop receiving and 5 a pop running. I dont expect either team to run all over the other team.
Advantage-Even
Wr- Chambers and Jackson are head an shoulders above our duo of Ginn and Camirllio. Maybe if we can get Hagan and Wilford involved along with Bess we may make a good showing. Ginn and Camirillo do seem to play good in the short game and that is a weakness for San Diego so we might suprise them. So far we have not had a deep threat show up with our pads on and San Diego has two guys that can kill you deep to match thier short passing game to thier rb's and Te's.
Advantage- San Diego big time
TE-Fasano has been great for the fins and seems like a great fit for this offense. Fasano should have a big game versus San Diego. On the Flip side Gates is the best pass catching TE in football and will also have a big game. Most weeks Fasano will be at an advantage versus another teams tightend but Gates is the best.
advantage- San Diego
OL-This is one area while we are young I think our Oline will be among the best by season's end. We need consistent play at center. Satale was huge last week but struggled in prior weeks. I think we have more overall talent at OL than San Diego but in McNeil Dielman and Hardwick they have proven talent that has played together for a while. Thier line has some new holes and its showed last week. Long and Carey have been good so far and Smiley is a definate upgrade over Hadnot. Losing Thomas set us back at the other guard spot. We definately have done a good job of keeping Pennington on his feet and making holes.
Advantage-Even only for now
DL- San Diego boasts two very good defensive linemen in Williams and Castillo who do a great job against the run. The opposite side is fairly pedestrian and depth on the defensive line is suspect. I think in startes they have the advantage at two fo the three positions on the line but our overall depth and the emergance of Langford is better than the Chargers. I still think we are suspect at nosetackle although Ferguson has been solid. Merling, Langford, Wright, Starks and Holiday are good interchangable parts that San Diego does not have.
Advantage-Miami
LB- Overall Miami has a deeper linebacking corps. We should be able to exploit thier medicore inside backers. Outside they still have a potent pass rush with Tucker doing a pretty good Merriman impression so far.
Shaun Phillips is a good linebacker , outside of that its not a very talented corp. Our linebackers are all good with the exception of Roth and Anderson whom one is learning a new position and the other is just not that talented. Porter had a huge game last week and the middle is solid although pass defense is suspect all the way across with our linebackers much like San Diego's.
Advantage-Big time Miami
Secondary- Its well noted how lowly ranked San Diego's pass defense is but as a whole this team does not get beat often deep and is suseptable to the short passing game. I still see thier trio of corners as head and shoulders above our top three corners although Will Allen is a very good corner. I think our safeties are fairly even although Bell should be the best among either team when healthy. Our secondary has been very suspect on the deep game and Arizona truly expoited us. Based on results on paper Most would say its at worst even but I give San Diego a slight advantage.
Advantage- San Diego by a nose. Talentwise they are much better at corner and slightly worse at safety
Special Teams- Kaeding is a top level battletested kicker while Carpenter is unproven but solid so far. They have a better punter who is averaging 50 yards a punt while Fields is uneven. Returnwise so far this year Sproles is superior to any body we have returned kicks with. Ginn not returning kicks is awful in my opinion . Our special teams has been very dissapointing especially on punt returns where we are at the bottom of the league in net average. Still waiting on all these great special teams players to arrive or did we just pull another Worrel. Kick Returns we are among the worst and middle of the pack punt returnwise. San Diego has been pedestrian on punt returns but rank first in the league on kick returns. Hobbs gave us fits last week so hopefully we make some adjustments. Our return game so far has been a huge dissapoint in my eyes but we are only three weeks into the year and for some reason are not using our best return man.
Advantage-Big Time San Diego
Coaching- Norv Turner has never been considered a genius as a coach and Sparano is a first time head coach. Staffwise I think we match up real well with San Deigo. I dont think this game will come down to coaching just the horses.
Advantage Even
Overall I think San Diego is a better team with some pretty decent holes at a few key positions which may derail a superbowl run. I do think they are a much better team than us at this point and many are overvalueing a victory against NE where they had to start a backup Qb and third runningback. Offensively we worked to our strengths last week and San Diego is vulnerable to some things we do well. The key to this game is being able to run on San Diego which is no walk in the park. San Diego has much more firepower but we dont know which LT we shall see which could open a window of oppertunity. I think they have a better chance to exploit our wekaness than thiers based on some key positions.
San Diego 27-17 and in some ways it might get ugly but Im hoping the team built confidence from last week's win. Its the NFL and any team on any given day can win so here is to hoping the Phins pull it out, the fans deserve a win. My heart says go Phins but my brain says we are not as bad as we were versus Arizona and not as good as we were verus NE.
QB- Not as big a mismatch as it has been in recent years but Phillip Rivers at this point is a better Qb than Chad Pennington. Pennington should play well enough to not lose the game for us but he just does not have the weapons that Rivers has. Pennington though is well suited for the short passing game that seems to give San diego fits as of late. As long as we dont get too greedy trying to go deep we should have a chance to move the ball on San Diego through the air. Rivers may hurt us deep, we have to get in his face to have a chance of stopping thier passing game because the talent of thier receivers is much greater than our secondary.
Advantage - Chargers
RB- Usually this would be a no contest since San Diego has the best back in the game. I think until LT shows he is fully healed the R/R duo are his equal. We have more options with both good backs and hopefully we us this to our advantage against a very stingy San Diego run defense. Our run defense has yet to be truly tested against an elite back. Sproles needs to be accounted for averaging over 20 a pop receiving and 5 a pop running. I dont expect either team to run all over the other team.
Advantage-Even
Wr- Chambers and Jackson are head an shoulders above our duo of Ginn and Camirllio. Maybe if we can get Hagan and Wilford involved along with Bess we may make a good showing. Ginn and Camirillo do seem to play good in the short game and that is a weakness for San Diego so we might suprise them. So far we have not had a deep threat show up with our pads on and San Diego has two guys that can kill you deep to match thier short passing game to thier rb's and Te's.
Advantage- San Diego big time
TE-Fasano has been great for the fins and seems like a great fit for this offense. Fasano should have a big game versus San Diego. On the Flip side Gates is the best pass catching TE in football and will also have a big game. Most weeks Fasano will be at an advantage versus another teams tightend but Gates is the best.
advantage- San Diego
OL-This is one area while we are young I think our Oline will be among the best by season's end. We need consistent play at center. Satale was huge last week but struggled in prior weeks. I think we have more overall talent at OL than San Diego but in McNeil Dielman and Hardwick they have proven talent that has played together for a while. Thier line has some new holes and its showed last week. Long and Carey have been good so far and Smiley is a definate upgrade over Hadnot. Losing Thomas set us back at the other guard spot. We definately have done a good job of keeping Pennington on his feet and making holes.
Advantage-Even only for now
DL- San Diego boasts two very good defensive linemen in Williams and Castillo who do a great job against the run. The opposite side is fairly pedestrian and depth on the defensive line is suspect. I think in startes they have the advantage at two fo the three positions on the line but our overall depth and the emergance of Langford is better than the Chargers. I still think we are suspect at nosetackle although Ferguson has been solid. Merling, Langford, Wright, Starks and Holiday are good interchangable parts that San Diego does not have.
Advantage-Miami
LB- Overall Miami has a deeper linebacking corps. We should be able to exploit thier medicore inside backers. Outside they still have a potent pass rush with Tucker doing a pretty good Merriman impression so far.
Shaun Phillips is a good linebacker , outside of that its not a very talented corp. Our linebackers are all good with the exception of Roth and Anderson whom one is learning a new position and the other is just not that talented. Porter had a huge game last week and the middle is solid although pass defense is suspect all the way across with our linebackers much like San Diego's.
Advantage-Big time Miami
Secondary- Its well noted how lowly ranked San Diego's pass defense is but as a whole this team does not get beat often deep and is suseptable to the short passing game. I still see thier trio of corners as head and shoulders above our top three corners although Will Allen is a very good corner. I think our safeties are fairly even although Bell should be the best among either team when healthy. Our secondary has been very suspect on the deep game and Arizona truly expoited us. Based on results on paper Most would say its at worst even but I give San Diego a slight advantage.
Advantage- San Diego by a nose. Talentwise they are much better at corner and slightly worse at safety
Special Teams- Kaeding is a top level battletested kicker while Carpenter is unproven but solid so far. They have a better punter who is averaging 50 yards a punt while Fields is uneven. Returnwise so far this year Sproles is superior to any body we have returned kicks with. Ginn not returning kicks is awful in my opinion . Our special teams has been very dissapointing especially on punt returns where we are at the bottom of the league in net average. Still waiting on all these great special teams players to arrive or did we just pull another Worrel. Kick Returns we are among the worst and middle of the pack punt returnwise. San Diego has been pedestrian on punt returns but rank first in the league on kick returns. Hobbs gave us fits last week so hopefully we make some adjustments. Our return game so far has been a huge dissapoint in my eyes but we are only three weeks into the year and for some reason are not using our best return man.
Advantage-Big Time San Diego
Coaching- Norv Turner has never been considered a genius as a coach and Sparano is a first time head coach. Staffwise I think we match up real well with San Deigo. I dont think this game will come down to coaching just the horses.
Advantage Even
Overall I think San Diego is a better team with some pretty decent holes at a few key positions which may derail a superbowl run. I do think they are a much better team than us at this point and many are overvalueing a victory against NE where they had to start a backup Qb and third runningback. Offensively we worked to our strengths last week and San Diego is vulnerable to some things we do well. The key to this game is being able to run on San Diego which is no walk in the park. San Diego has much more firepower but we dont know which LT we shall see which could open a window of oppertunity. I think they have a better chance to exploit our wekaness than thiers based on some key positions.
San Diego 27-17 and in some ways it might get ugly but Im hoping the team built confidence from last week's win. Its the NFL and any team on any given day can win so here is to hoping the Phins pull it out, the fans deserve a win. My heart says go Phins but my brain says we are not as bad as we were versus Arizona and not as good as we were verus NE.
