The Chargers dropped their season opener on Sunday, falling 36-34 to the Dolphins in a game that featured seven lead changes.
Here’s what to take away from Los Angeles’ performance.
Defensive no-show
Make no mistake here: this loss sits almost squarely on the shoulders of the defense. Tua Tagovailoa threw for 466 yards and three touchdowns, 215 and two of which went to Tyreek Hill. It stings especially strongly considering how the Chargers shut down Tagovailoa and Hill in their matchup a season ago.
That day, LA was missing Joey Bosa, Sebastian Joseph-Day, Austin Johnson, and JC Jackson. All were back healthy on Sunday – in fact, the only player the Chargers were without was rotational pass rusher Chris Rumph II. And yet, LA consistently failed to find answers for the Dolphins’ explosive offense. Six Dolphins receivers averaged more than ten yards a catch and Tagovailoa averaged 10.4 yards per passing attempt. Miami’s weapons frequently found themselves with the nearest Chargers defender more than three or four yards away, leading to ample run-after-catch opportunities.
It’s a sickening performance for a team with a defensive head coach hailed as one of the league’s brightest minds recently as last season. Brandon Staley’s seat was already hot coming into this season, and giving up 36 points in Week 1 will only stoke the flames.
Run game raising the ceiling
Let’s take a break to talk about something positive: the Chargers ran for 234 yards on Sunday, with Austin Ekeler ripping off 117 and Joshua Kelley adding 91 on sixteen carries apiece. Ekeler, Kelley, and Justin Herbert all had rushing touchdowns.
It’s proof of concept for what looked like a new-look offense in the preseason under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. The run game looked more cohesive, creative, and overall more effective than it ever did under Joe Lombardi. The healthy offensive line consistently got pushed up the middle, where Ekeler and Kelley did most of their damage. Kelley’s emergence is also an encouraging sign for developing a 1-2 punch at running back like Moore’s Cowboys teams did with Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard.
We know what Herbert can do as a passer, especially with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams operating at full health. (Williams left this game to be evaluated for a head injury but returned in the second half.) The Chargers don’t need to be this good on the ground every week to keep the chains moving. But as long as they remain at least competent, there are very few reasons this offense can’t be a top unit in the league.
Presnap motion woes
Okay, back to the negatives. We’ve already touched on the major stats for the Dolphins: 466 passing yards, six receivers with ten or more yards per reception, etc. How’d the Chargers let that happen to begin with?
The answer, at least on first viewing, is that LA’s defense had no defense for the presnap motion Miami’s offense utilized on nearly every play. The Dolphins struggled last season against this Chargers team because LA had Michael Davis and company line up on the line of scrimmage and press Miami’s receivers hard, throwing their timing off and forcing them off-course on many of their routes. On Sunday, Miami countered by getting receivers in motion, giving them free releases to utilize their team’s lightning-quick speed against a Chargers secondary built to be much more physical than fluid.
The results were, as discussed, disastrous. Hill sped past every corner the Chargers threw at him – JC Jackson, Ja’Sir Taylor, and even Davis, who has historically performed well against the former Chief. Role players like Durham Smythe, River Cracraft, and Braxton Berrios found space as the Chargers scrambled to adjust to the man in motion. Eric Kendricks frequently seemed a step slow to cover Smythe or fullback Alec Ingold when they motioned to the exteriors of the formation.
Again, the fact that LA had no answers for this is a massive concern. Every team in the NFL uses presnap motion to generate these mismatches at some level. And yes, most teams don’t have the track squad the Dolphins do. But not having any adjustments for such a problem is inexcusable in the NFL in 2023.
Missed opportunity
Despite all of this, the Chargers probably should have won this game. They didn’t deserve to, but they probably should have. The reason for this is simple.
LA lost this game by two points. They gave the Dolphins three points at halftime when JC Jackson had one of the most inexplicable pass interference penalties of recent memory on a last-second heave from Tua Tagovailoa. That put the Dolphins in field goal range with an untimed down, and Jason Sanders nailed the 41-yarder to put Miami ahead 20-17 at the half.
Take those three points away, and suddenly, the Chargers have a 34-33 victory.
There are other things to point to as well. Jackson returned a Tagovailoa interception out of the end zone and was tackled at the 4-yard line instead of kneeling and giving the Chargers the ball on the 25. LA went three-and-out, primarily because of a befuddling call to pass the ball on third and one, despite the success of the run game. Justin Herbert, instead, was sacked just in front of the goal line, giving punter JK Scott a short on-ramp that resulted in an even shorter punt. Miami took back over on the Chargers 35-yard line and immediately connected on a Tyreek Hill go ball to retake the lead 27-24.
It’s a costly missed opportunity. The Chiefs lost on Thursday night, which meant that Sunday’s game was crucial to jump ahead of the reigning champions, even for the moment. The other team bandied about as a playoff contender in the AFC West, the Broncos, lost to the Raiders elsewhere in Sunday’s action. In the bigger picture, the Chargers will likely be contending with this exact Dolphins team for a playoff spot this winter, and this loss may prove to be a costly tiebreaker.
It is impossible to underscore this strongly enough: Los Angeles should win any game they play in which they score 34 points. It means Herbert was on his game and the run game was clicking. The defense is in its third season of this system, with every key player healthy and five former All-Pro players. It’s Week 1, and plenty of adjustments will be made. But if this is what the season looks like, where 34 points behind a strong run game that can remove chunks of the game clock at will aren’t enough to win games, this team is going nowhere fast.
