Derwin James: ‘Everything Is Still Right There’ For Chargers
At times, there are pivotal moments in the story of a team. At times, those moments come in defeat as the Chargers found out on Sunday.
The Chargers may have lost 22-16 to the 49ers but they showed they can compete, even with an injury-hit defense.Â
The team entered Sunday already absent Austin Johnson to injury and Jerry Tillery, who was released. Defensive lineman Otito Ogbonnia then sustained a knee injury ten minutes in against San Francisco.
In the fourth quarter, Christian Covington left the field with a pectoral injury. This meant it was down to Sebastian Joseph-Day, Morgan Fox and Breiden Fehoko to secure the defense.
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In spite of the mismatch, L.A held the 49ers to two touchdowns and 387 yards of offense. A Chargers defense which ranked 29th in rushing defense restricted Christian McCaffrey to 38 yards and Deebo Samuel to 51.
“All week long we were saying that this offense is all-world and they’re getting everybody back,” Derwin James said. “We took that challenge as a defense. Nobody gave us a chance on defense. They said we couldn’t stop the run. ‘They’re going to go for 300 or 400 yards,’ but I feel like we gave our offense and everybody a chance to win the game.
“That s—- is hard. It’s hard. This is the NFL; you need rotation, you need depth. To have three guys out there the whole time and they’re tempo-ing, s— hard on those guys.”
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“You have three guys playing every snap, legit in the second half, most of the fourth quarter,” Fehoko said. “It’s a grind. We just have to get healthy and I can guarantee once this team gets healthy nobody wants to see us.”
“I feel like we’re still in a great spot because if you look at the AFC West I feel like everything is still right there,†said Derwin James. We just need to get guys healthy and keep playing hard.”
