Important West Coast clash as Chargers travel to Seahawks

SEATTLE (AP) — Games in the second week of the preseason are mostly meaningless and usually a forgettable exercise for veterans.

Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner hasn’t forgotten what happened this past August when the Seahawks were facing the Los Angeles Chargers.

It was late in the first quarter when Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers decided to take a timeout because he didn’t like the play against Seattle’s defensive alignment. But the part that Wagner remembers: Rivers knew the exact name of Seattle’s defensive call.

“He called timeout and was like, ‘Dang, they’re running strong something,’ and I’m like we just changed the name yesterday, how’d you do that?” Wagner recalled. “Maybe he just luckily chose that, I don’t know. It was kind of funny, I’m like how did he know the name? The quarterbacks know the play, they never know the name of the play.”

Knowing the play didn’t really matter back in August, but it will Sunday when the surging Chargers face the equally improving Seahawks. Los Angeles (5-2) has won four straight and is coming off a bye week following its 20-19 win over Tennessee in London. The Seahawks (4-3) have won four of five — including a victory in London — and the game against the Chargers starts a stretch with six of the final nine games at home for Seattle.

And Rivers is the introduction to a challenging month of elite quarterbacks the Seahawks will face and challenge Seattle’s overhauled defense that has climbed its way back to being among the best in the NFL halfway through the season. After Rivers, the Seahawks will face Jared Goff, Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton in consecutive weeks.

“The biggest difference is you used to go in — and this is not by any means slighting the roster, the defensive lineup now — but you used to go into that game, and you could just say, who is on Seattle’s defense, and you could write out every one right because they had been together for so long, back-to-back Super Bowls, won the Super Bowl against Denver,” Rivers said. “Now there’s just been so much change on that defense, but there’s still the same scheme, and there’s plenty of names that you can recognize. So it’s a good group.”

The Chargers should get running back Melvin Gordon back after he missed the win in London with a hamstring injury. Gordon has combined with fellow running back Austin Ekeler to have 1,283 yards from scrimmage and the pair is averaging 6.65 yards per touch.

Seattle’s running backs are providing and equally important contribution to the Seahawks recent success. Chris Carson has become Seattle’s primary runner and posted his third 100-yard game in last week’s win over Detroit. Beginning with Week 3, only the Los Angeles Rams have more carries or yards rushing than the Seahawks — and Los Angeles has played one more game.

“I think they know what’s working. That’s kind of their formula,” Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said. “They have been averaging about 30 rush attempts a game and it’s working.”