The Chargers came away victorious over the Dolphins, 30-10, at the Hard Rock Stadium. The win moved Los Angeles back to the .500 column.
Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s contest:
Melvin Gordon’s 2019 debut put on hold
After Justin Jackson was ruled out and Gordon was activated, many were anticipating him to see the field on Sunday. But Gordon never saw the playing field.
He expected to play after coach Anthony Lynn told him multiple times that he was, but he stood on the sidelines sporting a dark blue Chargers hat. Gordon did have his helmet on a few times, but Austin Ekeler and Troymaine Pope ended up running the show.
Gordon was close to entering the game in the fourth quarter, though. Lynn wanted him to get live game reps when the team was up big and he noticed that Ekeler and Pope were starting to wear down.
“I thought I was at one point. Coach told me to go get my helmet. I was gonna go in. (Pope) was tired. Austin had a whole bunch of reps, and then a timeout happened. They were thinking about it.
‘Let’s just be smart, end of the game. Don’t want you to go in there and something happens and we look crazy,” Gordon said, per Orange County Register’s Gilbert Manzano.
With a full week of practice under his belt, we can likely expect to see Gordon in a limited capacity next weekend against the Broncos.
Working with what you got
Injuries have been the theme for the Chargers since the start of the season. It became more to life, especially on the offensive side of the ball when wide receivers Mike Williams and Travis Benjamin were ruled out, along with running back Justin Jackson.
But the limited depth didn’t stop quarterback Philip Rivers from putting up a stout performance on Sunday. Rivers flashed his arm, along with his legs inside and outside the pocket to buy time, which isn’t something we see on a weekly basis.
Rivers finished 24-of-30 passing for 310 yards and two touchdowns. He connected with nine different pass catchers on the afternoon and surprisingly, Allen didn’t lead the team in the statistics category, Dontrelle Inman did.
Inman finished with five receptions for 76 yards on seven targets. Meanwhile, Allen posted five catches for 48 yards, but he would’ve had more had he not been called for that bogus offensive pass interference which negated his 69-yard touchdown.
Starting slow, finishing fast
Prior to the matchup against the Dolphins, the Chargers would have their opponent right where they wanted them at the halfway mark, but couldn’t keep it that way in the second half. That wasn’t the case on Sunday.
Los Angeles got off to a lackluster start to the game. They led 17-10 at the half, but there was a lot to be desired. Their offense was vanilla and their defense didn’t look they had any life, as quarterback Josh Rosen was slinging it and running backs were picking up good chunks of yardage.
But after some second-half adjustments, the team came out with a lot more life and they showed something that we haven’t seen to this point this season.
The offense started giving Miami’s defense fits, Rosen had no time to throw since he was under so much duress, the run defense was making a lot more stops near the line of scrimmage and the secondary was vacuumed up receivers in coverage.
As a result, the Dolphins put up a goose egg in the second half.
