San Diego Chargers Keenan Allen our Player of the Week

Based on the fact that he had a 166-yard and 133-yard performance earlier this season, as well as the fact that the Green Bay Packers basically let No. 1 receivers wreak havoc on them, I predicted that San Diego Chargers star wide receiver Keenan Allen would have a big Week 6. That’s exactly what transpired on Sunday, but not even the biggest Chargers homer, Cal fan, or most bullish Allen prognosticator could have expected him to put up 14 receptions for 157 yards.

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That’s an absolutely astonishing stat-line without context, but what makes it almost legendarily good is the fact that he left the game with a hip injury in the third quarter. He tried to return, but Allen’s hip injury bothered him too much, and you can only wonder if this game would have been different if he didn’t suffer the injury. Even without Allen, the Chargers barely lost this down-to-the-wire game 27-20, and Allen, who was impossible to cover, could have easily been the difference.

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Philip Rivers had a strong game with over 500 passing yards and 62 pass attempts against an excellent pass defense that benefited from a non-existent Chargers rushing attack, but it would have been just about blasphemous for me to give this “Player of the Week” award to anyone other than Allen. The likes of J.J. Watt, Cameron Wake, Chris Ivory, Tom Brady, Malcolm Butler, John Brown, Martavis Bryant, and Earl Thomas all had strong weeks, but Allen’s 14 receptions for 157 yards in less than a full game stand out above the rest.

Almost impossibly, however, it gets even better for Allen, because those 14 receptions came on just 15 targets. 93.3% of Rivers’s passes to his top target were completed, and the lone target that didn’t go for a reception cannot be pinned on Allen in anyway. Essentially, as long as Rivers threw it into his area code, Allen would find a way to get the ball.

In the Chargers intermediate-heavy passing attack that is based off of timing and Rivers’s accuracy, top-notch route-running skills are indispensable. Veteran free agent signing Stevie Johnson, whose injury-induced absence in Week 6 helped Allen hoard targets, is a great route-runner in his own right, but Allen continues to cement his status as one of the NFL’s elite players at getting open.

That’s been a strength of his ever since he caught passes from his well below-average half-brother Zach Maynard at QB while at Cal, and, with double-digit receptions in exactly half of his games in 2015, he’s only become even more difficult to contain.

Sep 13, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen (13) reacts after a reception during the second half of the game against the Detroit Lions at Qualcomm Stadium. San Diego won 33-28. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

At this point, Allen is easily one of the NFL’s premier possession receivers, and his 10.5-yard-per-target game on 15 targets against the Packers in three quarters only adds to that lore.

The Packers have never seemed to be overly committed to taking away the opposition’s top receiving target this season and are more than happy with the fact that they are still undefeated, again.

However, the one-score margin makes us all wonder if the Chargers would have pulled this one out with a healthy Allen on their side (after all, they were already missing Johnson).

Thankfully, the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Allen’s hip injury is only a sprain, meaning that he’s expected to suit up next week against the rival Oakland Raiders.

Given how well he’s played this season, it would be surprising if Allen didn’t come up with a huge Week 7.

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