The Chargers are set to take on the Lions on Sunday in their first road matchup of the season.
Here are the four biggest storylines to follow in tomorrow’s contest:
Filling in for TE Hunter Henry
The Chargers suffered a huge loss when they found out that Henry will be out for at least 4-6 weeks with a fractured tibial plateau.
The former Arkansas product was coming back from a torn ACL sustained prior to the 2018 season and he was off to a great start, posting four receptions for 60 yards in Week 1.
The question arises how Los Angeles will replace such a talented player like Henry.
The Bolts didn’t make an attempt to bring back Antonio Gates, which means that it’ll be Virgil Green and Sean Culkin who make up the positional group in the meantime. Green will serve as TE1, but how much of an impact will he make in the starting role?
Green had his opportunity to step up last season when Henry got hurt, but his production was underwhelming. He did fine as a blocker, but his pass-catching ability left a lot to be desired, only posting 19 receptions for 210 yards and one touchdown.
Culkin has grown more of a pass-catcher on a yearly basis, and it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see him get more targets than Green.
Run, Ekeler, Run
Ekeler knew that he was going to be tasked with taking over RB1 while Melvin Gordon continued his holdout. The former Western product did not disappoint, finishing with 154 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns against the Colts.
Now, as the Chargers head to Detroit, will he able to have that same amount of success on the road?
It’s evident that the Lions have a stouter defense than Indianapolis. They held the Cardinals to just six points and 100 yards through three quarters. Detroit ended up allowing 112 yards on the ground, but it didn’t come until towards the end of the game.
Coach and defensive guru Matt Patricia was fully aware of Ekeler’s success last weekend, so we can expect for him to game plan heavily around him.
Not to mention, if the offensive line fails to keep Philip Rivers upright or the wide receivers that are filling in for Mike Williams struggle to execute, we can expect for the offense to gravitate to Ekeler and Justin Jackson.
Can Brandon Facyson rebound?
No Michael Davis or Trevor Williams due to their perspective injuries, which means that Facyson will have starting duties tomorrow.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the former Virginia Tech product last weekend, where his inexperience in a starting role was exploited immediately after coming into the game.
Facyson will have the responsibility of covering Marvin Jones, who is now slouch of a wide receiver. With the cornerback position thin, it’ll be critical for him to step up and limit the amount of big plays in coverage in order for the defense to keep the Lions off the scoreboard.
Stopping the run
Speaking of keeping the Lions off the scoreboard, the Chargers run defense will have to do a much better job tomorrow after giving up 203 yards to the Colts last Sunday.
Detroit doesn’t have nearly as good of an offensive line as the Colts, but Kerryon Johnson and C.J. Anderson are a solid backfield tandem that are capable of running wild if Los Angeles doesn’t fix their woes in this department.
Those problems lie in the trenches, where the interior defensive line will have to get more push up front. The linebackers will have to do their part by doing a better job at taking proper angles to the ball and tackling in open space.
