Chargers Week 8 snap counts

Snap counts for the Chargers’ week 8 loss to the New England Patriots

Well, it wasn’t 45-0 like it was last year, but the Los Angeles Chargers still lost at home to the New England Patriots this week.

The score makes the game look a lot closer than it was, but before we dive into the analysis of what went down, lets take a look at who played, and how often, for the Chargers.

Offense

WRs Keenan Allen and Mike Williams played a lot in this game. Keenan saw the field for a whopping 98% of the offensive snaps after not seeing more than 92% of the snaps (back in week 2 vs the Dallas Cowboys). Williams hit 90% for the first time as well and it was only his second game this season above 80% of the snaps.

Austin Ekeler was questionable after missing 2 practices this week with a hip injury, however that proved to be cautionary as Ekeler participated in 75% of the offensive snaps which was also a season high for him.

3rd round rookie TE Tre McKitty was active for the first time this season and got 11 snaps, surprisingly more than Stephen Anderson who had 7. He didn’t get any targets in the pass game but he was drafted for his blocking abilities anyway. The big surprise here though, was the fact that he was not used on special teams at all.

The final statistic of note on offense was Justin Jackson. He had the longest offensive play of the day, taking a handoff and picking up 75 yards on the ground with some nifty moves behind his blockers. However he unfortunately, and predictably, got hurt and couldnt participate more than the 7 snaps he wound up with on offense.

Defense

The Chargers got Linebacker Drue Tranquill back from injury and he played 74% of the defensive snaps collecting 4 tackles, as well as another tackle on special teams. Good to have him back.

Safeties Derwin James and Nasir Adderley played almost every defensive snap, Adderley missed 2 snaps, and together they combined for 20 tackles with Derwin also forcing a fumble which Adderley recovered. The two are really starting to work well together.

Justin Jones came back from injury and played 64% of the snaps. This didn’t result in much production however, as he was only credited for a single TFL and a QB hit.

Tevaughn Campbell and Ryan Smith both got a healthy number of snaps at CB as Michael Davis left the game with a leg injury while rookie Asante Samuel Jr sustained a concussion.

Special Teams

The big news here was newcomers Andre Roberts and Dustin Hopkins. Roberts had a single punt return for 7 yards and 3 kick returns with a 23.7 yard average (a long of 29). Overall it was hard to judge Roberts too much based on yesterday’s performance.

Hopkins meanwhile made all 3 of his extra point attempts and his lone FG attempt of 48 yards. He looked like a solid veteran kicker and his performance may have been the most encouraging thing to take away from the game.