World’s Best Preview: Inside the Chargers

Major changes, Old Man Rivers, dynamic duo of pass rushers and a great comeback story.

CH-CH-CHANGES: The Los Angeles Chargers have a star-studded offense with Philip Rivers at quarterback, the one-two punch of Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler at running back, Keenan Allen and Mike Williams at receiver and budding standout Hunter Henry at tight end.

Nonetheless, the Chargers entered Week 9 ranked 23rd in the league in scoring with 19.6 points per game. With that, coach Anthony Lynn fired offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and handed the keys to the offense to Shane Steichen, the team’s fourth-year quarterbacks coach.

“Whatever happens Sunday, there shouldn’t be any quick reaction to it — like, ‘Oh, wow. Look what the Chargers did,’ good or bad,” Rivers told reporters this week. “We’ve lost one guy from the room on that offensive side. All of the rest of us are still there, still fighting. We have to pick up the slack, push and work harder to get it done. It certainly isn’t a reflection of one person. I’m certainly thankful for Whiz and the time we had together.”

Steichen played quarterback at UNLV from 2003 through 2006 and got his first NFL job as a defensive assistant with the Chargers under Norv Turner in 2011 and 2012. After going to Cleveland for 2013, he went back to the Chargers in 2014 as a quality-control coach before taking over the quarterbacks in 2016.

“I think it started with my high school coach. He was awesome,” Steichen said told reporters on Thursday. “We had a great relationship. From there, coming into the league, Norv Turner gave me a chance. He said, ‘Hey, I have a job for you. It’s on defense, though.’ I said, ‘I’ll be there tomorrow.’ I was in Louisville. I got in my car and I drove across the country. I was fired up. I still talk to him every day.”

From Green Bay’s perspective, the million-dollar question for Sunday is how much of a stamp Steichen can put on the offense. Certainly, the scheme will be the same but will he change tendencies? Focus on getting the ball to other players? Will the players simply play harder for him, which is what Lynn mentioned in a conference call?

One potential big change: The Chargers are 30th in the NFL with a 33.3 percent run rate. Steichen might want to roll out a more balanced offense.

“I think it’d be difficult to put into to revamp the offense entirely,” defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said. “And I’ve been involved in those situations before where you have a change in play-caller. I don’t know how much their inventory is going to change. I just think it’s how it’s being called and what’s being called and what’s being highlighted, what they choose to have up against us. Having worked with Anthony before and then also knowing what he accomplished in Buffalo, being a running backs coach, he wants to run the ball. I think looking at his history, he has been very creative in finding ways to be productive in the run game. But we don’t want to chase those ghosts. We want to prepare for what we’ve seen on tape.”

OLD MAN RIVERS: Rivers is one of the most productive quarterbacks in NFL history. He’s sixth in NFL history with 56,971 passing yards and 386 touchdown passes. Only Peyton Manning (14) and Drew Brees (12) have more 4,000-yard seasons than Rivers, who’s at 10 and counting with a pace to throw for 4,600 yards this season. He’ll make his 217th consecutive start against the Packers, second among quarterbacks to Brett Favre’s record 297.

What Rivers hasn’t done is win the big one. Or even get to the big one. Fair or not, quarterbacks are judged as much by the win column and jewelry as passing productions. With a 121-96 record as a starter, there’s nothing wrong with his .560 winning percentage. However, he’s only 5-6 in the playoffs and hasn’t reached an AFC Championship Game since 2007. In those 11 playoff games, he’s thrown 14 touchdowns vs. 10 interceptions with an 84.2 rating.

With a 3-5 record this season, the 38-year-old Rivers faces an uphill climb.

The record “isn’t where we hoped to be at this point,” he said. “Certainly, we’ve had some disappointing outings. To be 3-5 and have a chance to get right into the thick of it is certainly exciting. We have a tough opponent on Sunday. We just need to do one game at a time. We don’t play them all at once but we can climb ourselves right back into the mix even with the disappointing start.”

COMEBACK STORY: The Chargers’ offense took a step in the right direction in last week’s win at Chicago because of the return of Russell Okung. In 36 pass-protecting snaps – many of them coming against Khalil Mack – the 31-year-old left tackle didn’t allow a single pressure, according to Pro Football Focus.

Okung was coming back from something more serious than an injury. On June 1, Okung wasn’t feeling well so his wife had him go to a hospital. He was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism caused by blood clots.

“I definitely looked death right in the face,” Okung said. “Had it not been for a family that cared about my well-being and took the extra steps to make sure that I got checked on, despite my own resistance to them, I may not be here right now. So I'm grateful for people that love me and care about me.”

Okung returned to practice in mid-October and made his debut against Chicago.

“Absolutely, it’s a blessing to get him back,” Lynn said in a conference call. “With the blood clots and him dealing with his life potentially, it just felt good to get him back in the fold with the team. He played 35 snaps last week. I didn’t want to play him a whole lot, but just wanted to get him in the game, get him back acclimated, because he hadn’t played since last January, and I thought he did some good things.”

PROLIFIC PASS RUSHERS: Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram form one of the top edge-rushing tandems in the NFL.

Bosa has seven sacks this season, including two in each of the last two games, and 35.5 sacks in 43 career games – the sixth-best start since sacks became an official stat in 1982. Among all active players with at least 40 career games, Bosa’s sack rate of 0.83 per game trails only Arizona’s Chandler Jones (0.86). Ingram has only one sack this season but had 32 the previous four seasons. So, while the rampaging Bosa will be a focal point, Ingram is capable of taking advantage.

“I think that’s the situation because of Melvin [Ingram] in there, too,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley told reporters on Thursday. “Where (do) they decide to draw their attention? Some of it is scheme. Some teams want to get five guys out [in routes] and they feel like that puts great strain on a defense, which it does. If you can hold off without the quarterback being effective, it’s challenging. You only have so many guys in the back end.”

According to Pro Football Focus, 68 edge rushers have at least 120 pass rushes. Bosa is tied for sixth and Ingram is 22nd in PFF’s pass-rushing productivity, a metric that measure sacks, hits and hurries per pass-rushing snap. Both rush from the left and right sides almost equally, so they’ll be the joint responsibility of left tackle David Bakhtiari and right tackle Bryan Bulaga.

“Their ability to wreck games is huge,” Bakhtiari said. “I wouldn’t discredit either one of the guys. If Bosa’s the one that’s affecting the play, Ingram will clean up, and vice-versa. They both do a good job working hand-in-hand and in tandem. I think you’ll see that. When you diagnose the film, you see that they try to work together to help one another. At the end of the day, I think they’re selfless defensive players. All they care about is making sure they affect the play and affect the series to get off the field.”