Your Los Angeles Chargers just wrapped a fairly early bye week, after notching a Week 4 win against the Las Vegas Raiders that propelled them to a .500 record (2-2) for the year.
This off-week is crucial for many players to refocus and recover before starting the season again against the Dallas Cowboys.
One big name that must come back if the Chargers want to turn this two-game stretch into an actual win streak is running back Austin Ekeler.
Daniel Popper of The Athletic has recently noted the struggling rushing attack since Ekeler has been out with an injury.
"The Chargers ranked 29th in EPA per designed rush in Weeks 2 through 4. Most concerning, 29 percent of their designed rushes went for zero or negative yards in that span. Only the Raiders had a higher percentage of rushes for zero or negative yards in Weeks 2 through 4."
With Ekeler out, fourth-year running back Joshua Kelley has been the RB1 for the team. Previously used as a change of pace back to Ekeler, Kelley runs a little more smash-mouth football running A to B rather than making people miss.
With the ankle injury to Ekeler Kelley needed to step up in the rushing and receiving game to help fill some of the void the star player leaves.
Unfortunately, he just hasn't.
After his 91-yard performance in Week 1 where Ekeler played and gained 117 yards on the ground. Kelley has struggled heavily since being thrust into the starting spot.
In three games, Kelley has rushed for 2.6 yards per carry and only 116 yards. It gets even worse when 31.8% of those yards came off two runs, one of 22 and the other 15.
The other big issue is the dynamic nature that Kelley doesn't bring out of the backfield.
In three games as the starter, Kelley has only seen two targets.
This is mostly because the Chargers use other running backs out of the backfield, but the team somewhat shows their hand based on who's lining up at tailback.
The running game starts and finishes games, and right now the Chargers are not finishing games.
"They need a reliable running game to close some of these leads out. The Chargers totaled just 18 yards on nine designed rushes in the second half against the Raiders, when they nearly relinquished a 17-point halftime lead."
A change needs to be shown and facing the Cowboys after a rest week, the Chargers will have a big challenge.
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