<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
First things first—I’ll admit that last week when I said I’d start doing a Bolts column every week, it’s because I was expecting we’d put our first half\/second half trouble behind us. <\/span>In other words…I don’t want to write this! <\/span>I hate watching the Chargers lose, and it usually produces a pretty bitter column. <\/span>But, a promise is a promise, dear reader, and I’d never let you down (whoa noooooo). <\/span>As always, these live and unfiltered thoughts from during the game include uncredited and unappreciated comments from Ryan “Leaky Pipes” Thies, JJ “Menu in the Desert” Fiddler, and Shar “My Wife” Higa.<\/span><\/p>\n 1. The Dolphins won the coin toss and deferred—this isn’t a good sign, because it means they’re smartly coached. <\/span>The Bolts have been terrible in the first half, and fiery hot in the second. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 2. Maybe we’re going to make them pay for that smart coaching—we actually look like ourselves on this opening drive. <\/span>Two screens to LT, using Buster over the middle, giving Gates some good looks. <\/span>This could be the moment…<\/span><\/p>\n 3. And we’re kicking a field goal. <\/span>Goodbye, moment!<\/span><\/p>\n 4. Most of the rest of the first half is spent yelling, throwing things, and trying to keep JJ (Bolts fan since birth) from breaking my television in half. <\/span>Let’s just skip ahead…<\/span><\/p>\n 5. It’s 17-3 as we head to Papa John’s to pick up pizza. <\/span>I’m wondering if it’s not a good idea to just stop watching the first two quarters of these Chargers games. <\/span>If I’d watched the second half last week, I would’ve felt great about our performance. <\/span>I’m confident about the third and fourth quarters, but concerned, too. <\/span>If we keep just laying back and assuming we’ll pour it on in the second half, eventually we’re going to get bit.<\/span><\/p>\n 6. After a strong drive down the field (our defense is still lacking any kind of intensity and putting no pressure on the QB), Miami misses a field goal. <\/span>Then a fast drive by the Chargers leads to a TD, so it’s 17-10 instead of 20-3. <\/span>My last point aside: I love the second half.<\/span><\/p>\n 7. Jacob Hester has a dream play on the kickoff, taking the ball away the way you imagined you could before you ever actually played football. <\/span>Man, I love <\/i><\/span>the second half!!<\/span><\/p>\n 8. So, 4th<\/sup> and Goal on the one, and Norv gives us what we want—he goes for it, and hands the ball to LT. <\/span>But he calls a little off-tackle thing, instead of a Superman jump. <\/span>Not to belabor a point I’ve been making all season, but with Lorenzo Neal in the backfield, that would have been a touchdown…<\/span><\/p>\n 9. Okay, I know we’re all enamored of the Wildcat Wing-T, but did the Chargers coaches not watch tape last weekend? <\/span>This doesn’t seem too difficult for me, especially with a strong-tackling corner like Jammer, a huge DT like Jamal, and a very sturdy linebacking corps, even without Merriman. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 10. After that TERRIBLE PI call on Clinton Hart, I’m starting to feel like a conspiracy-peddling Raiders fan. <\/span>Is it me, or are the Bolts the recipients of the league’s worst reffing streak in a long, long time? <\/span>Or am I just making excuses for our total lack of pressure on Chad Pennington and the fact that we can’t get off the field on third down? <\/span>It can be both, right?<\/span><\/p>\n 11. So, the second-half strategy caught up with us, and we’ve lost to (sob) the Miami (weep) Dolphins. <\/span>We’re now (bawl) 2-3, and a full game behind (oh God, why?) the Denver Broncos. <\/span>At least my Niners are still in division contention, even after a tough loss to the Pats today. <\/span>You want to know the face of being an NFL fan in this crazy season? <\/span>The Niners are 2-3, and I’m on top of the world, although worried about playing the Eagles at home. <\/span>The Bolts are 2-3 and I’m devastated, but glad that we’re at least going to get to play a soft Patriots team next week. <\/span>Huh?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bitter and angry, Mike manages to squeeze out a coherent column about this week’s Bolts loss to the Dolphins. The Dolphins?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5511"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5511"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}