This Chargers win reframes the season for me.

[Dave Gray]

I had this pegged as a loss...not that we wouldn't be competitive, but I figured we were similarly matched teams and it would be hard to win on the road.  ...and it was.  There were lots of lead changes and this definitely could've gone the other way.

But beating the Chargers is super significant.  Not only is it a win where you weren't favored, but it's an AFC victory and it's a win against a team you're likely going to be directly battling for a wildcard spot.

Next week will be hard as well.  I think we're a better team than the Patriots, but it's still hard to go on the road and win against division rivals.  But I think this win is a confidence builder.  If you get that one, Broncos at home looks like a game you should win.

That would put you at 3-0, all wins in the AFC, going into Buffalo.  That's a game we won't likely win, but it feels like you're loose and playing with house money.  I'm really overjoyed right now.

[AQNOR]

The Patriots held their own against the defending Super Bowl runners up.   And Philly has a high powered offense.   Next week is going to be tough.   

[Pappy13]

Too early to tell. The defense has me worried. Sometimes a defensive coordinator doesn't mesh well with the personnel he has. I hope there's just more time needed for transition to this defense, but this 1st part of the season could be grueling. That was a big win as just splitting and going 2-2 in the first 4 games could be big as it might take that long for the defense to find itself a bit. Watching the game today I thought they actually were finding themselves a bit in the 2nd half. Still too many yards given up on the ground, but looked a little better in the 2nd half from the 1st half.

The offense was in top form, but that's a really bad pass defense that San Diego has as well. I still expect Miami to have a good offense, but I don't expect this will happen every week. I will credit the offensive line with a good job of keeping Tua clean. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't that bad. I also really liked how Tua stepped up into the pocket on several throws. Typically he's bailing out to the left or the right of the pocket, glad to see him step up into the pocket on several plays. He needs to do more of that. He's learning about how to be an NFL QB and find a spot in the pocket to work from. He looked better yesterday then I've ever seen him except for the center exchange. I expect there will be a lot of work on that this week. They need to figure out what caused that issue and get that cleaned up. Cost Miami points.

[Pappy13]

The Patriots held their own against the defending Super Bowl runners up.   And Philly has a high powered offense.   Next week is going to be tough.   

Meh. I didn't think Philly really looked into the game which contributed to their lackluster performance in my opinion. We'll see. Not saying that New England isn't necessarily a good team, but I don't think you can really judge anything just because it was Philly. They didn't look that good to me and neither did New England for large parts of the game. I could be wrong.

[AQNOR]

Dave, I'd pump the brakes on writing the Buffalo game off as a loss.  After watching them last night, they aren't exactly world beaters.

[CF DolFan]

Moreover the loss of Rodgers and the continuing demise of the Bills changes my perspective. If you can’t beat the Jets up by 10 and them at their lowest point emotionally then you have issues. We can definitely win this division outright and need to do so.

[Spider-Dan]

The offense was in top form, but that's a really bad pass defense that San Diego has as well.

LAC has the most expensive defense in the league, with multiple Pro Bowlers.  Their pass defense was ranked #7 last year.  Just because MIA lit them up doesn't mean they are a bad defense, just as the Chargers' running stats on Sunday don't mean Miami has one of the worst defenses in the league.

[Dave Gray]

Dave, I'd pump the brakes on writing the Buffalo game off as a loss.  After watching them last night, they aren't exactly world beaters.

Any given Sunday and all of that.

But if you're just looking at this logically, Buffalo was a 13 win team last year....and we're playing them at home in a game they kinda need to win.  Their advantage (a big QB that's hard to bring down) is our weakness.  I expect a loss there and hope to be surprised.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Moreover the loss of Rodgers and the continuing demise of the Bills changes my perspective. If you can’t beat the Jets up by 10 and them at their lowest point emotionally then you have issues. We can definitely win this division outright and need to do so.

Yeah, Josh Allen has been a turnover machine the past 19 games he has played. Two of those INT's last nights were just poorly thrown bombs and that reflects poorly on him. If our defense can get their shit together by Week 4, I don't think he will be underdogs.

Of course, it's just Week 1. We can lose by 30 in Foxboro next week and then talk about firing coaches.

[Spider-Dan]

Now I'm starting to get nervous.

Seeing how the media (and the fans) are talking about MIA and LAC is troubling.  These teams were separated by two points!  Both defenses got absolutely shredded!  A 3-point swing should not make the Dolphins "The best team in the AFC by a wide margin in Week 1" (Pat McAfee).  I mean, it's nice to enjoy the shine, but had the Chargers kicked a field goal at the end, I feel like people would be talking about The Failed Vic Fangio Experiment and calling for his head.

I get that it's a win or lose league, but goddamn, there has to be some room for nuance in these evaluations.

[Dave Gray]

^ I thought the same thing.

I see that we are #2 in the Power Rankings and I'm thinking, "If one little thing at the end goes the other way,  we are getting dogged today."  There's too much looking at a week 1 result....for a lot of teams.

[fyo]

Now I'm starting to get nervous.

Seeing how the media (and the fans) are talking about MIA and LAC is troubling.  These teams were separated by two points!  Both defenses got absolutely shredded!  A 3-point swing should not make the Dolphins "The best team in the AFC by a wide margin in Week 1" (Pat McAfee).  I mean, it's nice to enjoy the shine, but had the Chargers kicked a field goal at the end, I feel like people would be talking about The Failed Vic Fangio Experiment and calling for his head.

I get that it's a win or lose league, but goddamn, there has to be some room for nuance in these evaluations.

True, and I'll admit I thought much the same thing, but while the result would have changed and the media criticism would have flipped, the Dolphins were actually still (by far) the better team in the game. Take an objective measure like one of the advanced metrics and the Chargers were just way worse than the Dolphins (and would have been even if the Chargers had won the game by kicking a field goal at the end). DVOA (no longer at FootballOutsiders), EPA, and EVE all massively favored the performance by the Dolphins over the Chargers.

So, yeah, we could have lost the game, but there was no question of which team was playing the better (as in more likely to result in a W) football.

[Fau Teixeira]

If Pete Carroll calls a run to Marshawn Lynch instead of a pass to the patriots, seattle wins the game.
If Atlanta plays any sort of defense in the 2nd half, or plays any sort of ball control on offense, the falcons win the game rather than lose in overtime.

It doesn't matter what san diego "could have done", we won and deserved to win. Only one of those changes with a what-if. we deserved to win all along.

[CF DolFan]

Week 1 is always weird but Miami punted only 1 time. The offense was unstoppable to a team that controlled them last time. The only thing that could stop them was their own self.  It’s hard to beat any team when you turn the ball over twice inside the 5. It’s almost impossible to beat a playoff team on the road when you do that and yet we did. That was a pretty impressive week 1 or week 8 for the Dolphins.

[Pappy13]

LAC has the most expensive defense in the league, with multiple Pro Bowlers.  Their pass defense was ranked #7 last year.  Just because MIA lit them up doesn't mean they are a bad defense, just as the Chargers' running stats on Sunday don't mean Miami has one of the worst defenses in the league.

As you say stats don't tell the whole story. If you watch the Chargers games for the last couple of years (I do) you'll see their defense has a VERY bad habit of folding. It's one of the reasons the Chargers haven't done as well as they should have. They just happen to fold on nearly every drive this game.

Edit: I assume you are looking at yards/game. Yeah that particular stat looks pretty good, but now look at average yards per attempt. 7.3 That puts them at 24th in the league as they faced the 3rd fewest pass attempts against in the league so they tend to give up big plays.

That's not to say that Miami doesn't have a good offense. I think they do and I think the changes that were introduced in this game caught the Chargers off guard a bit and really surprised them. I think teams will figure out a way to do a better job against what Miami is trying to do going forward and Miami will adjust accordingly as well, so it's going to be a top 5 offense in the league, but the Chargers were no match for it this game.