Oakland Raiders: A Few Keys To Victory Over The San Diego Chargers
By Kevin Saito
Bottle Up Melvin Gordon
It’s easy to knock Melvin Gordon for being a first round bust-ish sort of player. His rookie season was – well – there really is no other way to put it, but his rookie season was pretty terrible. Given all of the hype surrounding Gordon coming out of college, to say he failed to produce would be an understatement.
With just 641 yards on 184 rushes for a very pedestrian average of 3.5 yards per carry, Gordon didn’t make much of an impression on the San Diego offense. Add into that mix, his zero touchdowns and six fumbles and he was more of a liability on the field than an asset.
2016 was supposed to be a fresh start for Gordon. He came into the year having worked on his ball security issues and seemed to be rejuvenated. Ready to play. Ready to start fulfilling all of that potential the Chargers believed he had when they used a first round pick on him.
And though, he did have a 100 yard game against Jacksonville, Gordon has failed to reach even 60 yards in any of his other three games this year. And oh yeah, his fumble last week against the Saints essentially kick-started the New Orleans rally that carried them to a win.
Despite all of that gloom and doom, he’s not a back the Raiders can afford to take their eyes off of. They have been getting gashed by anybody and everybody carrying the football out of the backfield this season.
Oakland is surrendering a tick under 135 yards a game and giving up yards at an average of5.1 yards per carry. Suffice it to say, the Raiders run defense, though ranked thirtieth, just seems like the worst in the league.
San Diego knows this and will very likely feed the Raiders run defense a steady diet of the big back. Expect Gordon to get plenty of carries to soften up Oakland’s defensive front with the hope that he either breaks through, or sets up some work for Philip Rivers and the passing attack.
The Raiders need to figure out how to stuff the run and they need to do it now. They have got to bottle up Gordon and shut down San Diego’s ground game.