During the regular season, no NFL team used seven defensive backs on defense at the same time for more than 18 snaps in a game, but the Chargers blew that number away in Sunday’s 23-17 win over the Ravens.
Per NFL Next Gen Stats, via Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Chargers used seven defensive backs on 58 of their 59 defensive snaps. That look helped keep the Ravens offense from doing anything of note until they were down 20 points in the fourth quarter and safety Derwin James said after the game that the key was using speed in the face of Baltimore’s power rushing attack.
“I fell like you need speed against that because I feel like we’re physical enough as DBs to play the blocks,” James said, via Steve Wyche of NFL Media. “I feel like we need speed against that offense.”
The switch, which came two weeks after the Ravens beat the Chargers in L.A., didn’t hurt the Chargers pass rush as they came up with seven sacks and James said “rush and cover work together” when discussing how the extra defensive backs helped create problems in the pocket.
They’ll need a new wrinkle for the Patriots next weekend, but Sunday’s outing was a good sign for defensive coordinator Gus Bradley’s ability to find one.
