Chargers took on the Saints after joint practices with the organization all week. During these joint practices it’s always a great opportunity to get to spend some time training with other players than your own teammates. Opportunity for new looks and new schemes can be absolutely crucial in getting ready for the start of the regular season instead of taking weeks to get into the swing of things.
Special teams seemed to get a lot of the spotlight to start the game. This was great to see J.K. Scott already in midseason form with his bombs and huge airtime on every punt. Darius Davis, we got to see on special teams bobble his first ball. We also got to see his offensive side and just an observation by myself, but this kid has speed and on the receiving end of the football from the quarterback he has hands. Darius having good receiving hands and that lightning speed could develop into something similar to Tyreek Hill and how the Chiefs utilized and developed him over time.
Easton Stick can run and has speed in those feet. Two running touchdowns along with great improvisational and speedy decision-making skills. Some might say this washes this week because of Sticks two interceptions. Although we have signed Justin Herbert to the largest NFL contract and know he is the caliber player we want for years to come at quarterback and hope he’s healthy during his tenure with the team, you still need a competent backup to give you a shot at winning in those dark moments. So, when you see a performance like we did Sunday from Easton Stick, that can be a little disconcerting. Especially coming from his amazing preseason performance last week against the Rams. Another thing that is crucial for starting quarterback growth is having what’s called a clipboard quarterback as your QB2. A clipboard quarterback is someone who might not have the physicality to be your starter but their incredibly football smart. Easton Stick has an extremely high football I.Q. Just seems like he’s having a little problem with consistency. Now that could be him or it could be that both his interceptions were on the outside of the field which could be because of our new offensive coordinator and what he’s trying to emphasis with his integration of his new offense.
Tuli. Thats it. This guy is a tackle for loss machine. He destroyed Saints Trevor Penning for a negative four-yard loss. Being three deep on our edge rushing chart is going to be amazing this year. Dan Henley is showing up and showing out. Looks like he will be in the starting lineup more often, a lot faster than we expected him to. Another standout in the secondary is JT Woods. He has made leaps and bounds from where he was at last year. His coverage is outstanding, and I can’t wait to see him perform live this year. All this adding up, even though we lost, our secondary defensive unit and our backup defensive lineman are looking phenomenal at depth.
Even though we lost this preseason game there was a lot to take away from it. I’ll leave you with this stat, zero teams that have won every one of their preseason games have won a Superbowl. Zero.
Big shout out to Conrad Zager, Abner-Rene Chuvac, Jake Attica, and Abner-Rene Chuvac for use of their photos from the game. all these fan photographers are part of the Charger Bolt Family group on Facebook.