Getty Melvin Gordon of the Los Angeles Chargers sat out Week 7 with a hamstring injury.
Melvin Gordon fantasy owners and Los Angeles Chargers fans can breathe a sigh of relief after the star running back missed the team’s 20-19 victory over the Tennessee Titans in London in Week 7.
Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn erred on the side of caution when he held the star running back out of the contest with a hamstring injury, and hopes to have him back in the lineup following the team’s Week 8 bye.
“I felt like I had to protect him today,” Lynn said, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. “I don’t want this to be a lingering thing. I want to get him back for Seattle. He’s got a bye week off. He can get healthy, and hopefully we’ll have a full-speed Melvin back in a couple weeks.”
Chargers Pull Out Win Without Gordon
Gordon missed the team’s Friday practice in London, but didn’t carry an injury designation for the Week 7 matchup. The hamstring injury got worse on Saturday, however, prompting the team to list him as questionable.
Early on Sunday, Gordon jogged across the Wembley Stadium pitch before frustratedly pulling up, and the team held him out of the game.
Los Angeles’ running game struggled without their star back, gaining just 49 yards on 16 rushing attempts. Austin Ekeler had 12 rushes, but carried just four times in the second half as the Chargers ditched the ground game.
“Any time you don’t have your horse in there, it’s not going to be the same,” Lynn said.
Quarterback Philip Rivers connected on 19 of his 26 passing attempts for 306 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions.
A one-yard touchdown pass from Marcus Mariota to Luke Stocker in the final minute gave Tennessee a chance to tie or take the lead, but the Titans’ two-point conversion failed when Adrian Phillips batted the quarterback’s pass away.
“This team has a lot of grit,” Lynn said, according to Chargers.com. “This is a tough football team. We emphasize it and these guys go out and execute it. They demonstrate it I feel like every single week.”