RECAP: Chargers Win in a Nail-Bitter Against the Titans, 20-19

The Chargers played their first game across the Atlantic Ocean, since 2008, when they lost to the Saints 37-31. A lot has changed in a decade, one of those things being the outcome of their second London game, against a difficult Titans team. My only issue with the London games is the time difference, most of the fans for the Chargers live on the West Coast. So, they had to get up at 6:30 in the morning to watch the Chargers play in London. I live in the Midwest, so I only had to be up at 8:30 to watch it. It was nice to have football right when you wake up.

Melvin Gordon was downgraded to questionable on Saturday, and he ended up being inactive for the battle in London. Austin Ekeler became the lead back, he didn’t have to do much because, Phillip Rivers made several long passing plays and kept the Titans offense on the field plenty. In most scenarios the team that controls the time of possession wins the game, this game was an  anomaly. The Titans had 35 minutes of possession time and the Chargers only had 24 minutes. They didn’t need a ton of possession time, because the Chargers had several long touchdowns. The first offensive play of the game was a 75-yard TD to Tyrell Williams and Mike Williams got a 55-yard TD later in the game.

The defense had to spend a lot of time on the field, and while they started off hot, they got tired towards the second half of the game. Ingram and Philon both got sacks during the game, and the defense played the run very well to start the game. They lacked in containing Mariota later in the game and he converted a lot of 3rd downs because of it. The best Moto for the defense in the game was “Bend, don’t break”, the Titans got into the redone a lot, but the Chargers were able to hold them to several field goals. There were two significant stops by the defense, one being the interception by Denzel Perryman, to hold the Titans to no points before halftime. The defense also came up clutch at the end of the game. The Titans threw the ball on 4 and goal, from less than 1 yard out, and converted. Mike Vrabel wanted to go for the win and went for the 2-point conversion, and the Chargers defense came in clutch and broke up the play. The lack of running from 1 yard away from the end zone, by the Titans makes zero sense to me, but I’m glad it happened. The Chargers defense continues to get better as the season goes on, and with the return of Joey Bosa after the bye week, it’s going to be a scary proposition for the AFC.