Chargers hope to clean up ground game

Tuesday, Oct 17, 2006
By Casey Pearce, Chargers.com

The Chargers had little to complain about after racking up 421 yards of total offense and holding the 49ers scoreless in the second half in route to picking up their fourth win of the season.  As they did some self-evaluation, one number Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer didn’t like was the team’s average of 2.9 yards per rush.  

“L.T. had 21 carries yesterday.  We had 10 of those which we considered wins and 11 of those which we considered losses,” Schottenheimer said.  “Obviously we’d like to be able to do a better job in that regard.  That’s something that we’re certainly going to focus on because I think throughout the course of a season, we’re going to have to have balance.”

The Chargers were a little heavier on the pass Sunday, throwing 39 times compared to 30 runs.  That was partially due to the fact that Schottenheimer and his staff felt that the best way to attack San Francisco’s 29-ranked passing defense was through the air.  The Chargers gained 89 yards on 30 carries Sunday, although they felt like they should have done better.

“It’s not like they’re putting eight or nine guys in the box against us all the time,” Schottenheimer said.  “Everybody’s playing their basic defenses.  In the 49er game, we had too many mental errors on offense.  We’ll continue to work on that and make sure that there’s an understanding of what they’re being asked to do.  Hopefully we can get that executed.”

The Chargers have had success on the ground this season.  They’re currently second in the NFL in rushing yards per game, averaging 158.2.  However, their average per carry is 4.3, which is ninth in the league.

“We’ve shown the ability to run the ball effectively,” running back LaDainian Tomlinson said.  “I don’t think it will be a problem.  We just have to tweak some things.  We were passing the ball well.  That was our groove … throwing the football.  We really didn’t have a groove running the ball.  Sometimes it works opposite.” 

Even though they’d like to have more big plays in the run game, as quarterback Philip Rivers pointed out, the Chargers were able to convert on the ground when necessary.  They picked up 10 first downs on runs, and Tomlinson scored four rushing touchdowns.

“We had some solid four, five and six-yard runs,” Rivers said.  “We were 80 percent on third down, and a lot of those were handoffs to Lorenzo (Neal).  I thought it was a solid performance for us, but you look at the tape and there were plenty of things to correct out there.” 

Schottenheimer jokingly offered one solution to the yards-per-carry issue.

“We’re just going to keep throwing it,” Schottenheimer said.

“Over the last two ball games, we’ve thrown it 55 percent of the time and run it 45 percent of the time.  If we can get the running game where we’re closer to that 4.0 average, going on the premise that we can continue to throw the ball effectively, we should be in pretty good shape.”

Injury update

Linebacker Tim Dobbins suffered bruised ribs in Sunday’s win but is not expected to miss time this week.  Schottenheimer is hopeful that safety Bhawoh Jue (knee) will be able to increase his workload after participating only in some individual drills last week.  Tackle Roman Oben (foot) is eligible to begin practicing this week, though the team is unsure when he’ll be ready.  He was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform list prior to the start of the regular season.

“We may – and the operative word there is may – get Roman some work this week as well,” Schottenheimer said. 

Offensive tackle Marcus McNeill underwent a minor procedure to place a pin in his fractured right hand Monday.  He’s not expected to miss any practice this week.  The operation was similar to the one he had on his left hand in August.

“It had worked so well with his left hand, they thought they should do the same thing with the right,” Schottenheimer said.