Chargers Formula To Stop Brodie Croyle-Led Chiefs Is No Secret

We knew what the San Diego Chargers were going to do, right? It's the formula to beat the Chiefs, if you're able to do it. Norv Turner didn't have to walk up to the podium at his post-game press conference and say it to the media because we already knew.

"We were going to play more eight-man fronts and we were going to pressure more," Turner said of the plan against the Matt Cassel-less Chiefs, per Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Cassel's absence of course resulted in Brodie Croyle starting. There were some reasons to think Croyle could have a decent game. He played OK the last time we saw him start -- 15 months ago -- and, well, that's about the only reason we thought he would play good enough.

"We were going to make sure that," Turner continued, "if they’re going to make plays, we were going to make it hard on the quarterback."

Hard on the quarterback is an understatement. Every time Croyle dropped back to pass, if he wasn't hurried, he was sacked. If a receiver was able to get open Croyle missed him. Occasionally Dwayne Bowe would help him out by promptly dropping a pass.

But that's not even the Chiefs game -- they're built on the run. And, from the start, KC had trouble running the ball. San Diego's formula was perfect. Do whatever it takes to stop the run, build a lead, make the Chiefs pass and beat the hell out of the quarterback every time he drops back.

Every team knows the formula to beat the Chiefs. Some are successful and some aren't. On Sunday, the Chargers put on a clinic for every other team in the league on how to beat up the Chiefs.