During the offseason, many people (including myself) found it easy to talk themselves into the Los Angeles Chargers. Both star tackles, Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, would be back, and the mind meld between QB Justin Herbert and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel would lead to an offensive explosion, as the defense comes under new coordination as well. Two games in, and it looks like the Chargers might be circling the cycle of futility.
They're 0-2 in the "easy" part of their schedule, with losses to the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders to open up the season. The defense has been rough, but the offense has been an abject disaster. Their EPA/play and offensive success rate are tied with the Cleveland Browns through two games.
Their -0.78 EPA/drive is the seventh worst in the league, and their 1.22 Points per Drive is 29th in the NFL right now. The schedule doesn't get any easier either, with road games against the Bills, Seahawks and Chiefs and a home game against the Broncos before their bye in Week 7. Even after their bye, they have road games against the Rams and Ravens, with a Texans tilt in between.
This season could go from bad to cataclysmic soon, and an offense that was supposed to carry the load is the biggest reason they're 0-2. So let's dig into what's going on with the offense and how the Chargers can fix it. Let's start with the fixable things first, which also happen to be the most glaring problems on the Chargers' offense.
This is the worst offensive execution I've ever seen from a Jim Harbaugh team. Through two games, they have the second-highest rate of penalties per offensive snap; they're tied with the Green Bay Packers for the lead in fumbles so far, and the offense looks like 11 guys that have never played football together a day in their lives. I mean, this isn't a tragedy; it's more of a comedy.
Benny Hill couldn't even come up with something as funny as the Chargers' offense against the Raiders. Only in Los Angeles could the quarterback make a nice play to get the ball off, but the intended target got the ball broken up by his own teammate: This is a good job by the Raiders of understanding tendencies and who gets the ball on 3rd down. Show a zero blitz, but drop 2 DTs into the McConkey window.
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