rewatching the week 16 chargers game and you know who might be better than we all think, specifically as a pass rusher... is tyus bowser. in his few snaps im keying in on him, and im seeing some good shit from him, he doesnt time his pass rush moves perfectly, but the moves are there, and the athleticism and the reach is showing up and paying off, and hes far more physical than we seem to realize(hes not a physical rusher by any means but hes not as soft at the arc as we claim he is).
in the third quarter he had what couldve and shouldve been 2 consecutive sacks, first off the strong side where he beat the RT around the arc with a great jump and bend but rivers steps up in the pocket and bowser cuts back across the RTs face, swipes at the ball but rivers tucks, and he then pursues him as rivers climbs the pocket and it becomes a bowser tackle for 1 yard gain rather than a sack. the following play he gets a solid first step and rushes wide, then as he closes the distance between he and the LT he does a double hand swipe, he does it a little early but he also came in with a strong head on engage and put the tackle on his heels, bowser begins to bull the LT and he recovers his arms and blatantly bearhugs bowser as he gets bulled into rivers lap, knocks rivers out of his comfort zone and urban comes in on clean up duty for the sack, but without that blatant bearhug bowser easily gets the sack there.
next series in the fourth, second and 10, only 2 bowser snaps later, he rushes tight, brings the tackle in close and benchpresses him wide, COMPLETE disengage almost instantly, closing in on rivers he puts his hands up and forces rivers to put some air under a quick hitch, ball travels slow enough for humphrey to close in and break it up
late in the fourth, 3rd and 5 chargers driving for the first time all night, defense looks to be breaking, clearly in fg range, bowser splis the B gap and the tackle latches on to drive him all the way across the pocket, leaving his side WIDE open for any potential stunts, urban was actually making his way around to shoot that side. no effect on the end result as zadarius smith just crashed the whole show with a inside rush from the opposite side for a deep sack, but definitely impacted the pocket.
im gonna keep watching the rest of this offseason and see if i can see more examples of bowser being sneaky good. because ive been thoroughly disappointed with bowser thus far, but rewatching an entire game for the first time this year im really liking what i see from him.
