While it may not have been the 1-0 start the Chargers were hoping for, Los Angeles had one of the best overall team rushing performances in team history. In fact, their 66.7% success rate is tied for the seventh-best rushing performance in the league over the past decade.
How did offensive coordinator Kellen Moore scheme it up?
Pulling guards
Los Angeles has two good lateral athletes at guard – second-year players Zion Johnson and Jamaree Salyer. Johnson posted elite times in the shuttle and 3-cone drills as a draft prospect, while Salyer had an above-average shuttle time. Neither played their natural position as a rookie, though – Johnson played at right guard with Salyer filling in at left tackle.
Last year, both players were asked to down-block almost exclusively. Coming into this season, Johnson shifted to his natural left guard spot, ceding the right side to Salyer. Moore immediately made use of their athleticism, having them pull to the opposite side of the formation multiple times against the Dolphins.
In both clips, the guard trails behind the formation to block the playside defensive end. This provides two benefits.
One, Los Angeles’ tight end is freed to block a linebacker in space rather than fight a losing battle as a one-on-one blocker against a bigger defensive lineman. Donald Parham (first clip) and Gerald Everett (second clip) are able to execute those blocks to eliminate the linebackers from the play.
Two, it gets Johnson and Salyer moving downhill, adding additional power to their blocks to move the defensive end out of the play to give their running back extra room to cut upfield between the outermost in-line blocker and the pulling guard. In the first play, Austin Ekeler finds a hole between Salyer and Parham and fights for extra yardage. Ekeler cuts the second run between Johnson and right tackle Trey Pipkins but gets caught from behind when Johnson’s man Jaelan Phillips peels off the block.
Get the tight ends in space
The Chargers’ tight ends were a major cause for concern this offseason and preseason, and the fact that LA did not make a move to add another name to the room irked many fans looking for an upgrade. Instead, Moore found ways on Sunday to get their existing personnel into advantageous matchups.
Pulling a guard to let a tight end block a linebacker is one way, as already discussed. Another is to get the tight ends themselves in motion:
Here, the Chargers put both Stone Smartt (84, motioned in the backfield) and Gerald Everett (7, motioning at the snap) to set up a run to the left side. Everett gets a running start to help dig out Bradley Chubb, and while it’s not a good block, it does prevent Chubb from making a play on Chargers running back Joshua Kelley. As Kelley flies by the scrum at the line, he has Smartt lead blocking. Smartt finds Dolphins safety DeShon Elliott in space and Kelley cuts off his inside shoulder to gain a few extra yards.
Here, the Chargers motion Everett to the playside, where he’ll be asked to single block defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah. As Everett motions over, Miami linebacker David Long shifts one gap over towards the playside, putting him exactly where the Chargers want him. Instead of having Trey Pipkins try to reach Long in space, LA has Pipkins double the defensive lineman and force Long to wait for the play to develop.
That gives Donald Parham the opportunity to hit Long right in the hole. I think that this play is designed for Parham to kick the linebacker out and lead block for the running back, who on this rep is Kelley. Parham doesn’t move Long out of the hole, but Everett’s strong block on Ogbah gives Kelley an opportunity to bounce the run outside, where he’s then able to turn it upfield behind a block from Mike Williams.
Mixed signals
One of the biggest problems in the Chargers’ run game a season ago was LA’s predictability. Joe Lombardi’s offense had specific formations for specific runs, a tendency that defenses were able to key in on to shut down the ground attack.
On Sunday, Moore showed that LA can run a number of different plays from similar formations. Let’s look at two back-to-back plays from the first quarter to illustrate this:
Play one: Justin Herbert motions Everett into position to serve as the Y-tight end on what looks like it could be Y-lead inside zone. Everett looks to be leading the play, but instead cuts back to block linebacker Jerome Baker. Johnson and center Corey Linsley carry their double team until Johnson is able to pass the block off and then block linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel. Ekeler cuts it back between Linsley and Everett and finds the yardage.
On the very next play, Herbert again motions Everett to the left side of the formation. This time, the tight end lines up just outside left tackle Rashawn Slater rather than between Slater and Johnson. Still, it looks like he could be the lead blocker on the same play the Chargers just ran. Instead, Linsley and Salyer slant to the right and Herbert hands a jet sweep to Everett. His caravan of Williams, Pipkins, and Joshua Palmer can’t quite seal off the outside and the play is stopped for a short gain.
Still, the fact that Los Angeles can be multiple from similar formations, especially on back-to-back plays like this, is an encouraging sign as teams begin to gather film on what this Chargers offense looks like.
Stack 'em up
Los Angeles ran a handful of plays with Herbert in shotgun with a running back off to his side and a tight end lined up directly in front of that back to punish Miami’s personnel in the box.
Here, the Chargers motion Everett into the backfield, which sucks Jaelan Phillips and Andrew Van Ginkel further into the box. LA now has a six-on-six, but again, Everett is not asked to block a defensive lineman nor is Pipkins asked to reach a linebacker in space. Lining up Everett between Pipkins and Salyer gives him a lane to reach Van Ginkel instead, and the resulting hole allows Ekeler to plunge ahead for a solid gain.
Later in the game, LA comes out of the huddle with Everett already set up in the backfield. Dolphins defensive linemen Christian Wilkins and Zach Sieler shift one gap over to stack their formation on the right side as well. But this time, Salyer opens the hole to the center side of the play rather than the tackle side. Linsley comes off his double team to block Jerome Baker while Johnson handles Sieler. Kelley takes the run through the gap Sieler initially occupied before the presnap motion, breaks a few arm tackles, and then is upended by DeShon Elliott.
We talked before about the Chargers’ ability to run a number of different plays out of similar formations. This time with Everett in the backfield, LA asks Linsley to be the main blocker on defensive tackle Raekwon Davis after setting him up as the reach blocker on Jerome Baker in the previous two clips. This time, it’s Johnson who kicks Baker out, opening a cutback lane for Ekeler to rip off a nice gain.
Running back execution
Sometimes, players simply make plays. Both Chargers running backs were on their game on Sunday, which allowed them to gain even more than was blocked for them.
This is a designed cutback run for Joshua Kelley. Both Salyer and Pipkins are flowing to the left side as if it’s designed for Kelley to follow those blocks into the fray, which draws Jerome Baker into the wrong gap. Pipkins catches Baker’s back shoulder, opening the cutback lane for Kelley with nothing but open grass in front of him. A few diving tackle attempts come up short before Kelley is wrapped up by the unblocked safety ten yards away.
Here’s Austin Ekeler’s longest career run, 55 yards directly up the middle. Ekeler sets this run up perfectly in the backfield – his patience hitting the hole draws the eyes of Christian Wilkins as he attempts to control Pipkins at the point of attack. Wilkins thinks Ekeler is coming to the strong side, giving Pipkins a just-big enough window to control him with the inside hand and move him to where Wilkins thinks he wants to go. It gives Ekeler a hole that looks like this:
That seems pretty good!
