Week 17 vs. San Diego Chargers

San Diego - The 2009-10 NFL season came to a merciful end for Redskins' fans and ended in a fitting manner. The season finale with the San Diego Chargers was a virtually meaningless game as the outcome did not effect either team. With a win or a loss, the Chargers are going into the thick of playoff battle and Redskins' coaches, players and fans are going home again trying to forget about the last 4 months of their respective lives.

The Chargers are clearly a better team than the Redskins. Their offensive unit, led by perennial Pro Bowl QB Philip Rivers, are in a completely different league compared to their counterparts in burgundy and gold and it showed when the game began.

Rivers only played for the first two possessions in the first quarter and wasted no time throwing for 99 yards and giving his team a 10-o lead before being replaced by backup QB Billy Volek. Volek continued the push and gave the Chargers a 13-0 lead early in the second quarter.

As the Chargers' second and third stringers quickly began coming into the game, Jason Campbell was able to gain some brief momentum in the second quarter and he connected with two the team's top touchdown specialists, TE Todd Yoder and FB Mike Sellers. As usual, though, it was not enough. The Redskins mustered only two field goals in the second half and gave up a late touchdown with only 35 seconds left to Billy Volek and company that gave the Chargers the win.

Jason Campbell finished the day with good numbers, at least, on the surface. He finished 28/42 for 281 yards, 2 TD's and 0 INT's. However, he did not move the ball at all against San Diego's starting unit. As he has done all season and career long, Campbell racked up his numbers either against second and third units or at the end of the game playing against prevent defenses. Even against San Diego's backups, Campbell still only manager a 6.7 yard per catch average.

The Redskins running game was virtually non-existent as it has been all season. Starting RB Quinton Ganther managed a mere 27 yards on 12 carries. Surprisingly, Jason Campbell was only sacked one time. On the receiving side, WR Malcolm Kelly had a personal record 84 yard catch. On the downside, how many WR's have you seen make an 84 yard catch and still do not score a touchdown? Besides the record catch, Kelly had an uninspiring 4 catches for 25 yards.

It was nice to see long-time Redskins favorite FB Mike Sellers end the season and possibly his career with a touchdown catch. Sellers will be 35 next season and the Redskins already have rookie FB Eddie Williams that they drafted in 2009. Williams spent much of the year on IR so it is still possible that Sellers could make a return for one final run with the team. Iron Mike has a total of 46 rushes, 102 receptions and an impressive 21 touchdowns in his 10 year career. If this is the end of his career, Mike will be truly missed by hard core Redskins fans.

A bright spot for the Redskins was the kicking game. PK Graham Gano was 2 for 2 kicking field goals. Albeit, his long for the day was only 25 yards, but that is besides the point. The Scotland born, Gano, was signed late in the season and finished 4 for 4 with the team. Now, the Redskins need to lock him up for the 2010 season. Gano had an impressive training camp with the Baltimore Ravens before being let go at the team's final cuts. Besides, every NFL team should to have at least one Scott or one Irishman on it. Between, PK Graham Gano and P Hunter Smith, this would be one important box already checked off on the Redskins' offseason to do list.

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JacksGhost
Washington Redskins Hog Blog