Welcome once again to the Hog Molly Report, where winning in the trenches is all that matters. Before we begin, we open with the reciting of our usual motto:

“Big men allow you to compete. We're certainly going to look at the big hog mollies.”

In the spirit of Mr. Gettleman’s words, and the philosophy of building a team from the inside out, my goal will be to watch the hog mollies each game during the season, and give them a grade based on their performance. This week we will look at the redeeming win over the San Diego Chargers and see where the slop monsters excelled, and how they can take the next step.

Offensive Hog Mollies

*Season average in parentheses

Week 14 Yards per carry: 3.3 (3.9, T-23rd NFL)

Third down conversions: 5 out of 15, 33% (40%, T-16th NFL)

Sacks given up: 2 (29, T-15th NFL)

Rating: 4 out of 5 Swine Sockers

While it is true that the running game is still just plain bad, you really can’t be too unhappy with how the offensive line is performing given the circumstances. With the season officially in life preservation mode, I would rather see a team that can preserve the health of Cam Newton than impose their will in the run game (though the latter would be nice too).

As it stands, I only credit one sack on Cam Newton to the offensive line on Sunday. On the other, Cam simply held on to the football for too long, something he has a tendency to do once in awhile. Tyler Larsen has been an excellent backup center, and I feel confident in stating that he is at least a good quality depth option for us for the foreseeable future. He may not be the heir apparent to Ryan Kalil, but I also cannot rule that out. We need more sample data, and he needs more time to gel with his peers. Trai Turner continues to perform about as well as can be expected in an unnatural position at RT. He did allow a sack, but again... what we are dealing with right now is pretty extreme.

Defensive Hog Mollies

Yards per carry allowed: 2.9 (3.7, T-4th NFL)

3rd Down Conversions allowed: 5 out of 13, 38% (39%, T-15th NFL)

Sacks: 5 total with 4 from DL (39, 1st NFL)

Rating: 5 out of 5 Angry Warthogs

It was a performance we have been waiting for all year from this unit, and one that I hope they can continue to repeat. It wasn’t just the front either. In general, it would be hard to hate anything about our total team defensive effort on Sunday. The pressure was consistent and overwhelming, the run defense was suffocating, and when the offense began to stutter in the 2nd half, the unit stepped up and held their ground, essentially securing the game with a late safety on Phillip Rivers. All this accomplished without the help of Luke Kuechly or Charles Johnson, make it even more impressive.

While we should temper the things we take away from this contest, given that the Chargers are not a great team and are dealing with nearly as many injuries as we are, it was nice to see this unit return to last year’s standard.

Kelvin Benjamin

1 reception, 11 yards, 0 touchdowns

Rating: HOG MOLLY STATUS REVOKED.

KB13 has officially had his Hog Molly status revoked as of the time of this writing. Part of being a Hog Molly is putting in work with a blue collar attitude and getting a little dirty when your team needs you. Kelvin Benjamin has shown over the past three weeks that his level of maturity is not on par with that of an NFL professional, and I believe that he should be benched until he can show that he’ll give full effort on every route he runs. Watching him quit on the tackle after that last interception was the nail in the coffin for me. He is very lucky that was called back on the replay. I fully believe that Ron Rivera is shielding him from the media by saying he has no issue with his effort from Sunday, because no coach could watch that film and agree with that statement.

Hog Molly of the Week: Kawann Short

This could have just as easily gone to Mario Addision again for another stellar performance rushing the passer, but I decided to give it to KK this time around since it is his first HMOTW award this season. KK was a force in the middle that the Chargers had no answer for, and thanks to his dominant play Ryan Delaire and the aforementioned Addison both benefited. The team as a whole notched five sacks, but a dropback where Phillip Rivers wasn’t under pressure was a rarity. It wasn’t just impact in the pass game, but also the run game where KK excelled. Losing Melvin Gordon for the day certainly hurt the Chargers, but the real problem was the amount of middle penetration KK was generating off the snap. Overall a very good day for KK and the defense in general.