Film Breakdown: San Diego Chargers Pass Defense Vs. Bears

4th Quarter

Pass #34

Situation: 1st and Goal SD 5
Description: Q4-(15:00) J. Cutler Pass Incomplete Short Left

The Chargers have great coverage on this play as no one is open for the Bears. Langford may appear open on the flair route but Ingram is sitting in the window and any throw to Langford is going to be a pick six by Ingram. Cutler has to throw this ball away as he has nowhere to go and the Chargers stand tall on first down.

Pass #35

Situation: 2nd and 10 CHI 20
Description: Q4-(7:28) J. Cutler Pass Short Left to M. Bennett to CHI 30 for 10 Yards (B. Flowers)

Why is Flowers bailing in man coverage against Bennett? Bennett is an athletic TE with some good speed, but Flowers is a CB. He should be able match Bennett’s speed with ease. Instead he bails on his man coverage and is four yards off when Bennett stops on his curl route. Flowers gives himself no chance to cover this route and Cutler takes advantage of this questionable technique choice for a first down. Flowers may not be able to match Bennett physically but he shouldn’t be so fast to bail in coverage and instead try to mirror Bennett from a closer alignment.

Pass #36

Situation: 1st and 10 CHI 30
Description: Q4-(6:47) J. Cutler Pass Short Right to A. Jeffery to CHI 47 for 17 Yards (S. Williams)

I’m starting to feel bad for Williams at this point. He is clearly not a physical match for Jeffery. Yet he has to keep going up against Jeffery due to being the best option with Verrett out of the game. But he does himself no favors with his poor technique. Jeffery runs a curl route and Williams is initially in great position to break on the curl as he has inside leverage on Jeffery. He stumbles on his break on the curl though and his momentum carries him to the outside of Jeffery. Jeffery easily puts Williams on his back and makes himself available for Cutler. Cutler buys himself enough time and shows off the cannon to hit Jeffery for the first down.

Pass #37

Situation: 1st and 10 SD 41
Description: Q4-(5:01) J. Cutler Pass Incomplete Deep Right to M. Wilson

The Chargers are rather lucky on this play as this should of been a big gain. Wilson gets Mager to bite on the double move and has a step on him going deep. Addae compounds this in his Cover 2 drop by trying to take away the Mariani post route instead of staying between Mariani and Wilson. Cutler instead of throwing it deep tries to throw the back shoulder fade. While as I have said multiple times it is very hard to cover the back shoulder fade; this is not the time for the back shoulder fade because a good deep throw is a potential touchdown. Instead Wilson has to try to adjust to the throw and Mager is able to catch up and get in the way of the throw. I have to call out Flowers again as his technique is poor. He doesn’t start his transition out of the backpedal until Mariani is even on him on the post route. Mariani gets over the top of Flowers and it takes Addae cheating on the post route to bail Flowers out.

Pass #38

Situation: 2nd and 10 SD 41
Description: Q4-(4:55) J. Cutler Pass Short Left to M. Bennett to SD 37 for 4 Yards (D. Square)

Are the Chargers adverse to making good tackles on screen passes? Bennett should be dead to rights for little gain as Weddle and Conner have clean shots on him. Weddle dives for the ankles after he ends up too far outside and Conner is lunging at Bennett instead of driving though him. As a result, Conner knocks Weddle off the tackle and both miss Bennett. Conner needs some individual coaching on his tackling technique after this game as his poor tackling has cost the Chargers yards over and over again. The great hustle by NT Damion Square and LOLB Cordarro Law is the only thing that prevents this play from being a first down.

Pass #39

Situation: 3rd and 6 SD 37
Description: Q4-(4:11) J. Cutler Pass Short Right to A. Jeffery to SD 25 for 12 Yards (S. Williams) [M. Ingram]

Jeffery is just a complete mismatch for Williams to handle. Williams isn’t in poor position and is on his hip when Jeffery makes the break on his curl route. But Jeffery is just such a big body that Williams cannot work his way around the Jeffery box out. You have to give a ton of credit to Cutler though as this throw is spot on while he is getting tackled by Ingram and Law right before the pass is being thrown.

Pass #40

Situation: 1st and 10 SD 25
Description: Q4-(3:30) J. Cutler Pass Incomplete Short Right [S. Lissemore]

The Chargers pass rush bails out the secondary as Jeffery is wide open underneath on the in route. Weddle drifts deep on his hook zone coverage and with Flowers covering Mariani on the bubble route and Willams covering Wilson on the seam route, there is no one underneath to cover Jeffery. Weddle needs to stay upfield and take away this route as the hook defender. Attachou bails out Weddle though by getting quick inside pressure on the stunt against Long. This forces Cutler to flush outside to his right where no one is open. Cutler is forced to throw it away as the pressure from Square and NT Sean Lissemore gets to Cutler.

Pass #41

Situation: 2nd and 10 SD 25
Q4-(3:24) Description: J. Cutler Pass Deep Middle to Z. Miller for 25 Yards and Touchdown

Addae is left is a terrible position as he has two deep routes on his side of the field and no one is coming to his aid. Butler checks Miller on his post route but he fails to get underneath the route. Addae cannot get over the top of this post route though because he has to respect the go route of Jeffery up the sideline. Weddle deserves the brunt of the blame though as he should be deeper in his Cover 2 drop. Instead he barely gets any depth in his deep half coverage in the Cover 2 and Miller gets behind him. If Weddle gets depth in his drop, he sees the post and takes away the route. Instead he leave Addae on an Island and Cutler burns the defense for the touchdown.

Overall Conclusions

The Chargers really missed Manti Te’o and Jason Verett in this game as their replacements were not able to step up and make up for their loss. Verrett may not be big but he has great agility and athleticism to make up for his lack of size. Verrett and Alshon Jeffery were evenly matched until Verrett pulled up with an injury. Steve Williams is not the athlete that Verrett is and could not handle the much more physical Jeffery in coverage. Te’o is very good coverage LB and while Kavell Conner had some coverage breakdowns his issues were more in the tackling department. His tackle technique was very poor and he missed multiple tackles by not bringing his feet and ducking his head. There are more issues besides missing these two good to great pass defenders. The pass rush was non-existent for large stretches of the game as the interior of the defenisve line got no push. Melvin Ingram and Jeremiah Attaochu were able to get pressure off the edge and via stunts but with no interior push, Cutler could step up into the pocket and buy himself time. There were a lot of mental mistakes and poor technique by players you expect better from as well. Brandon Flowers looked lost as he blew multiple coverages and his technique was lacking more then once. He is very lucky he wasn’t picked on more as Mariani got open a lot against him. Eric Weddle was not his usual all-pro self in this game as he blew more then one assignment in coverage and his tackling technique and block shedding left something to be desired at times. Jeremiah Addae struggled in coverage and he needs to improve if he is going to have a future in the league. He needs to sure up his technique, make sure that his shoulders are parallel to the line of scrimmage when he is dropping deep, and not bite on play action fakes in the future. There are some bright spots though. Craig Mager wasn’t completely lost at CB and that is all you can ask for from a rookie CB. Also Melvin Ingram was getting pressure on the QB and was solid in coverage when asked to do it. But without Verrett and Te’o, their backups and pass coverage struggled mightily and a lack of a pass rush could not mask their deficiencies in coverage.