The Los Angeles Chargers beat the Carolina Panthers on the road to bring themselves to 2-0 for the first time since 2012. Here are three areas they improved on from last week to secure a win:
Penalties
The Chargers were penalized seven times for 50 yards in their win over the Las Vegas Raiders last weekend. Four of those were false start penalties, which led the league after one week. The Chargers only had three penalties today and it only cost them 15 yards. The worst of them, a holding call on tight end Hayden Hurst, was far into the fourth quarter and garbage time. Otherwise, Chargers were off to a hotter first-half start this time around and were able to score three touchdowns.
Blocking
The Chargers closed out the Raiders game with strong blocking but were struggling for most of the game up until that point. Against a struggling Panthers front, the offensive line mostly dominated the day. Early unofficial stats credit the Chargers' offensive line with just four pressures allowed. The sack that forced a Herbert fumble is currently attributed to Joe Alt, but that is tentative and may just become a pressure instead given the duration of the play and holding onto the football for too long. The blocking in the run game was also far better, even if the yards per attempt went down for JK Dobbins. There was a consistent pop from the line that gave the Chargers a more steady run game than one that benefitted from two long runs to help their average last week.
Pre-snap movement and run game creativity
The Chargers appeared far more creative in the run game this week. They worked outside the tackles more often, got Herbert involved on a designed run, and even handed the ball off to Quentin Johnston (called back due to penalty). Greg Roman opened things up more and built upon what the Chargers did in Week 1. Derius Davis was used frequently as a motion, orbit, distract-the-defense kind of player that gave the Chargers something different to show the opposition. Not all plays were successful, but the diverse approach will continue to elevate the floor of this offense as it gels over the course of the season.
