Editor: Joe Bryant. Game Recap Contributors: Mike Anderson, Michael Brown, Chris Burtt, J.D. Caldwell, David Dodds, Jim Enochs, Joel Faulhaber, Michael Flynn, Kevin Goldblum, Clayton Gray, Bob Harris, Fred Hebert, Jesse Hilsenrad, Drew Kendall, Jeff Lewis, Joey Matusek, Justin Oliver, Steve Prosapio, David Shick, Cody Smith, Scott Smith, Jeffrey Stout. San Diego 23 at Arizona 15 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW San Diego Chargers: LaDainian Tomlinson is the foundation of this offense and he's San Diego's goal line option. The Chargers ran four plays inside the 10-yard line. All four were Tomlinson carries, and he scored on two of them. Drew Brees is being put in easy situations. He's definitely not the guy that has to carry this team (that would be Tomlinson). Brees looks good at times and seems to have everything it takes to someday be a successful NFL QB. He's a good guy to have in dynasty leagues but won't be a difference-maker this season. Stephen Alexander was finally being utilized more underneath and out in the flats. Alexander dropped a 22 yard TD pass that could have been caught. Curtis Conway is the only quality WR in San Diego. If he can stay healthy, he's almost a lock for a 1200-yard season. Why? Who else will catch the ball? One thing to keep an eye on here is the status of All-Everything Junior Seau. Seau suffered a non-contact injury while defending a pass play on Arizona's next to last possession. He looked extremely upset while on the ground and was helped back to the locker room. Looked like a knee injury to me but the early word is they are calling it a mild ankle sprain. Stay tuned. Arizona Cardinals: Jake Plummer just isn't a consistent QB. He doesn't seem to be improving as he ages. He still makes some good plays but follows them up with poor decisions. Plummer is truly a fantasy gamble. Freddie Jones came alive during the game as Plummer showed confidence in him by throwing the ball his way 9 times and appeared to be a focal point of the offense. Plummer seemed to look at Boston then Jones and then scramble for an open receiver. The Cardinals openly talked about getting Jones more looks and this was definitely the case Sunday. Thomas Jones carried 17 times for 73 yards including one 27 yarder. He's definitely not a Stud-RB, but he's not bad. As expected, he was nothing like the RB he was against the weak defense of Seattle last week, but he was pretty decent against the Chargers. David Boston is in a bit of a funk right now with the 2nd game in a row that he was limited. Never did you see Boston look electric. Never did you see Boston get much separation. He just looked like an average NFL WR. WHAT YOU OUGHT TO KNOW San Diego Chargers QB - Drew Brees looks decent in the open field. Granted, he's no Michael Vick, but the youngster has OK legs and some good moves. In the air, he's very inconsistent. There are stretches where Brees looks like a very good QB, but he still is prone to forcing the ball into coverage (which is normal for a young QB). Brees finished the game 17 for 31 for 181 yards and 1 INT. In fairness, Reche Caldwell did let a TD go through his hands though. RB - LaDainian Tomlinson is the man at the goal line as his number was called for all of San Diego's red zone plays. Between the 20s, though, Tomlinson never really looked dominating. He did not have great blocking from his OL but still was effective. His longest carry was 17 yards (on a draw play), and he averaged 3.5 ypc. He is still the focus of this offense and accumulated 31 touches and 116 total yards with 2 TDs. Tomlinson also showed his ability to make defenders miss by catching several screens and check down passes for 25 yards. Note that center Cory Raymer left in the first quarter with an Achilles injury. Terrell Fletcher was given spot duty (2 carries and 1 reception). WR - Curtis Conway may be the only player in San Diego that looks like an actual WR. He can run routes. He can get open. He can catch passes. To top it off, he looks really smooth doing it. This week, he caught 7 for 92. In San Diego's first drive, Tim Dwight ran a reverse (for A yard), caught a 16-yard pass, and was targeted two other times. It looked like this would be the Tim Dwight show. But then he basically disappeared (probably received no more than 4-5 more looks the rest of the game including another reverse (for two yards). Dwight finished with 2 carries for 3 yards and the one catch for 16. Reche Caldwell missed on a TD pass in the 2nd half and made very little noise at any other time in the game. He finished with a carry for 6 yards and no catches. TE - Stephen Alexander looked like a decent receiving TE this week. He did drop a tough TD catch but made up for it on the very next play (getting inside the five). Alexander finished with 3 receptions for 44 yards. Pass Defense - Plummer threw for 229 yards but was sacked three times for a loss of 29 yards. Chargers did get a pair of INTs. Donnie Edwards returned one for a TD, and Marcellus Wiley took the other down to the six. San Diego allowed their first TD this week as Plummer tossed two aerial scores. The second TD was to a wide-open Marcel Shipp. One thing to keep an eye on here is the status of All-Everything Junior Seau. Seau suffered a non-contact injury while defending a pass play on Arizona's next to last possession. He looked extremely upset while on the ground and was helped back to the locker room. Looked like a knee injury but the Chargers are calling it a mild ankle sprain. Stay tuned. Rush Defense - Gave up 97 yards on the ground and a clip of 4.6 ypc. Allowed Thomas Jones to gain 73 yards at 4.3 ypc. Not an excellent effort overall, but Arizona's ground game was kept out of the endzone. Special Teams - Carlos Polk blocked (with his leg) a Scott Player punt out of the endzone. Polk was so unblocked that he almost jumped past Player before the kick was made. Player ended up kicking the ball into Polk's lower leg. I've never seen that before. /**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/** Arizona Cardinals QB: Jake Plummer's second pass of the game was a quick hitter that MarTay Jenkins took 65 yards for a TD. After that play, he was anything but consistent. His two INTs were poor plays. He failed to see Wiley dropping into coverage on the first turnover, and he hit Edwards in stride on the second pick. The TD to Marcel Shipp was a rainbow floater that was only complete because Shipp was so uncovered. In fairness, there were several catchable passes that receivers just dropped. Plummer finished 17 out of 35 for 229 yards with 2 TDs and 2 INTs. RB: Thomas Jones had 100 fewer than he did last week, but this was a pretty good effort. The Chargers run defense is strong, but Jones was able to average 4.3 ypc. There were several 2-yard runs, but they weren't due to poor decisions by Jones. There wasn't as much dancing around (like we're used to seeing) in the backfield. Rather, Jones took the handoff and ran with it. On the downside, he had the game's only fumble (around midfield). His longest run was 27 yards. Jones finished the day with 17 carries and 73 yards. On his long run, he probably should have scored but (he said later) couldn't fully push off due to his injured ankle (that had kept him from practicing earlier in the week). Jones was the only RB to carry the ball for Arizona. WR: David Boston was noticeably quiet. He was targeted 7 times and only caught three balls for 57 yards. He also had one carry for seven yards. Granted, these aren't pitiful numbers for most WRs, but they are far below expectations for a player like David Boston. Plummer put up 35 passes this week. For Boston to catch only three is a big disappointment. Frank Sanders showed up small with a pair of catches for 11 yards. Sanders started the game, but he wasn't as involved in the game as was MarTay Jenkins (although Sanders did catch the two-point conversion). MarTay Jenkins started off with a bang as he took a quick throw from Plummer the distance from 65 yards out. The rest of the game was less than stellar as he dropped a few and finished with just one more catch (a five yarder). TE: It appeared that the Cardinals wanted Freddie Jones to do well against his former team as they targeted him more this game than in their prior two. Sadly, though, the passes were generally of the dink and dunk variety. He had 9 targets and finished with five receptions but only 39 yards. Steve Bush saw a couple of passes and caught one for 13 yards. Pass Defense: The Cardinals got to Brees a couple of times early, but didn't generate much pressure in the second half. They did a good job of not allowing the big play as San Diego's longest pass was for 21 yards. The also were able to intercept Brees once. This effort was done without Duane Starks as the best Cardinals CB went out with a groin injury during San Diego's first possession. Rush Defense: Arizona allowed 125 rushing yards, which is too much to be considered an effective defense. However, looking closely at LaDainian Tomlinson's 91 yards reveals a 3.5 ypc average which points to a good defensive performance. Also consider San Diego's longest rush was a mere 17 yards, and the Cardinals have to think they did a good job here.