Chargers Defense Changing Things up to Free up Joey Bosa

The Chargers are near the bottom of sacks in the NFL. They have sacked the opposing quarterback 20 times, which is rare to see from a defense that features Joey Bosa coming off the edge.

Things have begun to change.

Late in the game against the Steelers, the Chargers defense was trying different things to get more pressure on Ben Roethlisberger. Bosa lined up against left guard Joe Haeg with less than two minutes left, and he saw Big Ben standing in the pocket, so Bosa used his speed to get past the guard and sack the Steelers quarterback.

That sack meant that each of the Chargers pass rushers had brought down Big Ben, but it all happened in the fourth quarter.

“I felt like we kind of all did it together,” Bosa explained. “I feel like, as the edge group, we’ve been waiting to have a really big impact on games. I think the last couple of games, we’ve been doing a really good job. To come up at the end like that was awesome. It felt great celebrating that moment with them.”

They haven’t been getting to the quarterback as consistently as in years past. One of the more significant issues has been that Bosa is getting chipped, double, and even triple-teamed. Other rushers hadn’t stepped up as consistently as they have needed them to, so they made some changes.

“I think that [Run Game Coordinator/Outside Linebackers] Coach [Jay] Rodgers has been doing a great job,” Bosa explained. “He came in two weeks ago with this whole new attitude. I was kind of annoyed at first, like, ‘What is this guy doing?’ But no, it was great. He pushed us to work really hard that week. Unfortunately, I missed last week, but I heard that they had another great week.”

Bosa missed last week due to being a “close contact” from defensive tackle Jerry Tillery, who is on the COVID list.

“It was tough,” Bosa said. “Obviously, I like to prepare. But, going into Week 11 and having a week to rest and get my legs under me, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. I just tried to take advantage of it.”

He has been on a tear lately, getting a sack in each of the last three games. Basically, saying since they started making changes.

After the Patriots loss, Bosa told the media that he wondered why they didn’t implement the defensive scheme of letting him rush through the guards at certain points of the game. New England chipped him on every pass play with a running back or a tight end.

Head coach Brandon Staley said that if there were more third-and-long situations, they would have used it. That the Patriots ran the ball so well that every third down was short.

Things have changed since then, and Bosa is being moved around, but the other pass rushers know they have to step up.

“Joey Bosa is one of the premier pass-rushers of this decade,” fellow edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu explained. “Any way that we can take pressure off of him so that he can go do his thing and be successful is great — if that’s matching him up inside on the guards or getting an overload to one side so that he can work on the tackle, whatever it may be; being able to send pressure or rush with four, guys getting their hands up and disrupting inside, that really frees up Joey to do his thing.”

Another thing the Chargers did on Sunday was putting Nwosu, Bosa, and Kyler Fackrell on the field at the same time with defensive tackle Justin Jones. They got to Big Ben three times in the fourth quarter.

Those guys also helped the defensive tackles hold the Steelers to less than 55 yards rushing. It was a team effort.

“We really put the emphasis on getting off the ball and being aggressive within the run game, just getting off people,” Bosa explained. “I feel like we were doing a good job at the point of attack early in the season, but we weren’t doing a good job of getting off the blocks and really being effective in the run game. Last week, I think we definitely made a step in the right direction.”

Staley, Rodgers, and the rest of the defense know they need to get Bosa going because of how dangerous and skillful he is at rushing the quarterback.

The defense still faces Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, and Derek Carr, to name a few quarterbacks this season. Pressure will need to be applied to each of them, and this new adjustment could help the defense do just that as they did on Sunday.

“It was a fun game,” Bosa said. “It was just fun to get the win and celebrate with my teammates. I just need to keep improving.”

Nuts N’ Bolts

· Injury report. DNP: S Alohi Gilman (quad), DB Trey Marshall (ankle/hip), CB Asante Samuel Jr. (concussion), DB Mark Webb Jr. (knee). Limited: G Matt Feiler (ankle). Full: TE Stephen Anderson (ankle), CB Tevaughn Campbell (toe), CB Michael Davis (hamstring), RB Justin Jackson (quad), LB Kenneth Murray (ankle).