Jaguars: 5 Questions about the Los Angeles Chargers

Can the Jaguars stop the Los Angeles Chargers and quarterback Philip Rivers on Sunday afternoon?

My FanSided.com colleague Travis Wakeman at Bolt Beat wrote an interesting story this week as the Los Angeles Chargers get set to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.

If these are the last few games for Philip Rivers in a Chargers uniform how will he be remembered?
For Jaguars fans, it will be of how he has seemingly played some of his best games against this defense over the years.

The last time the two teams played each other resulted in a 20-17 overtime win for Jacksonville on their way to the AFC Championship game, one where the defense bailed then quarterback Blake Bortles out. Rivers threw for 235 yards and two touchdowns in that game and a costly interception late in the fourth quarter than led to a tying score to send the game into overtime.

This season has been different as there has been more talk about Rivers and his future with the team he has played his entire career with. As Wakeman explains, the talk of him finishing the season as the man under center is now in question.

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"“When this season began, fans were wondering if the Chargers could get two or three more years out of Rivers, who will celebrate his 38th birthday as the Chargers travel to face the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday,” Wakeman writes. “Now, those same fans are wondering if he’ll even finish this season as the team’s starter.“Rivers has given the team reason to be anything but confident this season as he has thrown 17 touchdown passes but also 15 interceptions. Most of those picks have come at crucial times as the team has been trying to rally for a last-minute win, almost like clockwork.”"

Fans in Jacksonville know about miscues happening at the worst time. They have suffered through that for years.

Wakeman took a few moments earlier this week to answer questions about the game between the Jaguars and the Chargers with our staff here at Black and Teal. Here is what he had to say.

What is your overall impression of Philip Rivers this year? The argument has been made and he has lost a step and it’s not the quarterback he was last year. My overall impression is that he has lost something.

Even if he has lost an ounce of strength in his arm, it can make a world of difference at the highest level of play. He’s definitely not the quarterback that the Chargers and the team’s fans have grown to adore and it’s hard to imagine that at nearly 38-years-old, he’ll revert back to that.

Now that Gardner Minshew has been named the starting quarterback for the Jaguars for the remainder of the season, how does the Chargers defense defend him? He is at his best when he is moving out of her pocket. Gardner Minshew presents a more difficult challenge than Nick Foles because of the mobility and playmaking outside the pocket that you eluded to.

But the Chargers have some players that can come from deep in the secondary and make plays around the line of scrimmage and keep him in check in Derwin James and Adrian Phillips.

Expect those two guys to be a big part of the plan to shut him down.

Who is the one player on this roster who has impressed you the most this year and why?  Austin Ekeler. The guy has been much more than just a “spark” for the team this season. He makes huge plays when the team needs them and has truly been the offensive MVP, if not the overall MVP, of the team.

There were aspirations of a Super Bowl this season for Los Angeles. What is the biggest reason why the Chargers have fallen below expectations? It would be easy to blame it on injuries or a poor offensive line, but it really has been the poor play of Rivers. The Chargers have lost eight games. All of those have come by seven points or less.

In most of those games, Rivers has made a critical error (usually by throwing an interception) in the late stages of the game.

The Chargers will win in Jacksonville on Sunday if…? They force multiple turnovers. The Jaguars are a better team than their record indicates, but they are far too careless with the ball.

The key to beating them is to force Minshew into at least one major mistake, possibly two, giving the Rivers and his offense a short field to work with.