Melvin Gordon wants to suit up for the Los Angeles Charger

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s' biggest game of the season Thursday night at Kansas City Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys Stitched , but he says his status will likely not be decided until 90 minutes before kickoff.The fourth-year running back has missed the past two games after spraining the MCL in his right knee during the second half of the Chargers' Nov. 26 win against Arizona. He is sixth in the AFC in rushing with 802 yards despite missing three games and leads the conference in rushing average per game (80.2).Gordon said he is stronger and confident about the knee, but he acknowledges that it will not be 100 percent if he plays against the Chiefs. He was listed as limited on the team's Tuesday practice report, which was the first time he has participated in a practice since the injury."We need all the playmakers we need to beat KC," he said. "We have so much at stake right now and I want to help I can. If I can't go out there and be me and can't make my cuts I don't want to be out there."The Chargers (10-3) can clinch their first playoff spot since 2013 with a win against the Chiefs (11-2). It would also move them into a tie with Kansas City atop the AFC West, but the Chiefs would hold the tiebreaker due to a better division record.Los Angeles will need to win out if it has any hopes of winning the division and then hope Kansas City drops one of its final two games, which are at Seattle and home to Oakland.Gordon is averaging 3.7 yards per carry in six games against the Chiefs, which is below his career average of 4.1. He has made a bigger impact as a receiver in the past two meetings with 15 receptions for 193 yards. He had nine catches for 102 yards in the Sept. 9 loss to the Chiefs."If I sat out until the playoffs. I could wait and know I would be full go. It's just being smart and not prolonging injury," Gordon said.Gordon's status is more complicated with backup Austin Ekeler in concussion protocol and dealing with a bruised nerve in his neck, which occurred late in Sunday's 26-21 win over Cincinnati. That could leave the Chargers relying on a pair of rookies. Justin Jackson will see a bigger role 鈥?either getting his first career start or as the backup 鈥?and Detrez Newsome could see his first significant action at running back.Another factor is that the Chargers are not having full practices due to the short week. Coach Anthony Lynn said they can get a lot accomplished during walkthroughs."I really think if you focus and lock in in the meeting room like you should, you come out on the field and you go at a slower tempo but mentally you're there and you're in the present moment," he said. "I think you can get just as good of work done as full speed without the collisions and injury. There's a skill and an art to practicing without the pads and walking through, and I think this club is getting better at that."Philip Rivers has confidence in the two rookies if Gordon and Ekeler are unable to go."They are two young guys who are sharp. There will be added emphasis on my part to communicate, especially with the crowd noise, so that they can play fast," Rivers said. "If that's the case Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys 2019 , we'll just roll and go." The head-spinning offenses NFL fans are enamored of and will watch in the Super Bowl in Atlanta share their explosiveness with the previous team to win the big game in the ATL.The Greatest Show On Turf.Yes, at the turn of the century, there was a group that shared so many light-em-up traits with these Rams and Patriots. The St. Louis Rams under of all people, Dick Vermeil — for decades a defense-minded coach —employed a quick-strike scheme with a resourceful quarterback, game-breaking receivers, a Hall of Fame running back and an offensive line that could dominate while blocking in the ground game or protecting the passer.Most of all, that team starring Marshall Faulk, Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt and a group of lesser knowns embraced the attitude of attacking a defense from the first snap until the last.They weren’t as workmanlike as the Patriots can be, and they didn’t have a rising star overseeing it such as Sean McVay with the current Rams. What the 1999 Rams brought to the Super Bowl in early 2000 was a killer instinct when they had the ball that both of the teams who will meet on Feb. 3 also possess — though not as spectacularly.“That team and that era, football kind of saw everyone with a mindset of 3 yards and a cloud of dust in December and January, and you had to be able to run the football to win was kind of the mantra,” says Warner, who entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017. “We were one of the first to show you can win throwing first. I guess that is all relative with such an extremely talented team because Marshall ran for almost 1 Juan Thornhill black jersey ,400 yards.“But if you think about it, we sort of started to usher in the new age, and fantasy football, and the fan bases of not just die-hards. I think it became a new era of what the NFL would be about and what people would be seeing. That led to where we are at: people love offense and love to see scoring. Even a lot of the rules are kind of catered to allowing a little more freedom to do that.”The freedom is so, well, free that this year, the NFL set records for touchdowns with 1,371, beating the previous mark in 2013 by 33; and was second to 2013 in points with 11,952.Three teams — the Chiefs (35.3, the Rams (32.9) and the Saints (31.5) — averaged at least 30 points per game. Kansas City scored 565 points, third most in NFL history.When the St. Louis Rams were partying like it was 1999, they scored 526 points; ranked first in yards, yards passing, and TD passes; and were second in yards rushing per attempt. Faulk rushed for 1 Juan Thornhill Jersey Mens ,381 yards and seven touchdowns, caught 87 balls for 1,087 yards, with five more TDs, and was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year for the first of three straight seasons.All Warner did was win the first of his two league MVP honors. Previously an obscure backup whose best work had come in Arena Football, Warner stepped in when starter Trent Green tore up his knee in the preseason. His rise to prominence wasn’t exactly projected at that point.“In college at Northern Iowa, we played a wide-open offense a lot, which played into my skillset,” Warner says. “When I played Arena Football, we scored 60 to 70 points a game. So my mindset in the NFL was not we are going to score 25 or 30 points, but every time we touch the ball we are supposed to score. Why do we have to punt? If we punt, what are we doing wrong?”That philosophy certainly contradicted Vermeil’s previous approach. To his everlasting credit, though, Vermeil recognized what he had on offense. And he also went 5-11, then 4-12 in his previous two years in charge in St. Louis. So winning immediately was a priority for the veteran coach to keep his job.So he turned loose coordinator Mike Martz and the rest of the offense.“The talent might have been a bit unrefined Bashaud Breeland Jersey , but it was there,” Vermeil has said. “It was our belief we could be productive on offense, but does anyone really expect to be that productive? I am not sure of that.”Well, Warner did.“I never really saw the game a whole lot differently,” he says. “I was so used to going on offense and throw the ball and score and throw some more and score. It kind of led right into what we did with the Rams and what we accomplished.”What they accomplished was the forerunner of what we see now week in and week out in the NFL. You know, 5,000-yard passers, 50-TD QBs, and the kind of numbers that thrill fantasy players everywhere.“We had success early, and any time you want to change something …what do you do if you do not have success right away? That success allows you that ability to keep going, to say, ‘Let’s see how sustainable this can be.'”It’s lasted nearly two decades, with no signs of abating.