Further Musings

As an addendum to Ben's post, I would like to submit for your review the following post game quote from Norv "I am terrible" Turner regarding his game ending decision to punt from the New England 37 yard line with 9 minutes left to play: "Fourth and 10? Because, again, as I said, they had a pressure package, they came off the edge, they got us on third-and-10, we made the decision with nine minutes - we had the ball against Tennessee (during the regular season) down 14 points with 10 minutes and scored twice."1 This, folks, is why Norvall will not win our Bolts a Super Bowl. I'd like to break this down for a few minutes, if I may...

Now I don't pretend to be a football play calling expert, but I believe I've watched enough to know a few things. Norvall said that the Patriots were bringing pressure, and coming off the edge. Now if you knew this, then there should have been a readily apparent play call there. A screen. When the defense brings pressure, you call a screen. Not that hard to figure out. The Chargers are lucky enough to have one of the faster players in the NFL in Darren Sproles. Give him the ball in space, and let him run. Now the argument could be made, "well, on fourth down you shouldn't throw a pass shorter than 10 yards." Fair enough. Send Vincent Jackson and Chris Chambers on 12 yard out routes and Antonio Gates 12 yards down the middle of the field. It takes them what, 3 seconds to go 12 yards? If you can't protect your quarterback for 3 seconds, you don't deserve to win the game. Now you have three options beyond the first down line. Instead Norvall (if you'll permit a blackjack reference) stayed on 16 with the dealer showing 10, and punted.

Now for the second part of his multi-faceted idiocy-laced quote. "...we had the ball against Tennessee (during the regular season) down 14 points with 10 minutes and scored twice." First of all, Norvy compared the AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots, God's Team, possibly the greatest team in NFL history, to a regular season contest against the Tennessee Titans and their 21st ranked offense. There's so much wrong with this, I don't even know where to start. To coach the AFC Championship game the same way you would coach a regular season game is funny to begin with, and then to compare the Titans (!!!!111!!!) to the Patriots is pure hilarity. As the people who I watched the game with can attest to, as soon as I saw the punt I said "they're not going to get the ball back." And what do you know, they didn't. The Patriots are a professional football team. They know how to do everything well. They are well coached, they execute well, and with the punt they had all the momentum. How did Norvall think they were going to give the ball back to the Chargers not once, but twice, in a 9 minute span?

When you combine the obvious stupidity of his quote with the two blown red-zone timeouts that Ben mentioned, and the other wasted timeout late in the 4th quarter when the Chargers defense was caught out of position even after the Patriots went into a huddle (another mark of bad coaching...), you can see how Norv Turner is not a Super Bowl caliber head coach. His tenure is already reminiscent of Steve Lavin's years as UCLA Men's Basketball coach. High quality, extremely talented players, baffling losses, shocking wins, and the ability to get close (sweet 16 every year for Lavin, AFC Championship game for Norv) and then have all of the coaching mistakes show themselves in a disappointing loss. But of course, Norv, like Lavin did for quite a few years, did enough to save his job. For now. As a Chargers fan, one can only hope he decides to spend more time with his family, because as long as he continues to have teams be good and not great, his buddy A.J. will never fire him. And the less-informed of the Chargers fan base won't care.

1 North County Times -1/21/08

Musings on the game

I suppose if the Chargers had to lose today, that was a good way to go. Brady had a bad game; Rivers valiantly battled on his injured knees; the Bolts played the Pats very evenly. The Chargers were outgained by 36 yards but got one more turnover, and the Patriots also had the only fumble of the game, which they recovered. The Chargers had too many 40 yard drives with field goals or short punts, while the Patriots wisely had either short drives or long touchdown drives. Health was probably the difference in the game. A healthy Rivers could have moved around a little better in the pocket on some of those red zone pass attempts, and a healthy Gates would have been a great red zone target. A completely healthy Jamal Williams maybe limits the Patriots' rushing success in the second half. It was a good game played by both sides, particularly both defenses, and the Patriots did deserve to advance (unlike last year, when the Chargers roundly outplayed them). A great day was had by Quentin Jammer bumping receivers at the line, making the great interception, and deflecting at least one key third down pass attempt. The secondary in general played very well, and the pass rush was solid as well. Rivers played well considering the extent of his injury, and Chris Chambers and Vincent Jackson were both excellent again (with the notable exception of Chambers' play on the first interception).

On less optimistic, more whiny note, Norv Turner continues to not be a very good head coach. In both halves, an early timeout was burned in the red zone, and the resulting play was unsuccessful and ugly. The decision to punt with 9 minutes left inside the Patriot 40 yard line effectively ended the game, even before the Patriots ran the remaining time off the clock. He called a few too many runs right up the gut on first down for minimal gain and not enough short passes designed to put the team in favorable second and short situations. At least there weren't any delay of game, false start, or too many men in the huddle penalties today.

Continuing the whining theme, officials need to start calling holding. I wasn't watching the Chargers' line as intently as I was watching the Patriots', so I can't tell whether or not the Chargers were taking advantage of the officials' leniency as much as the Patriots were, but the number of uncalled holds was ridiculous. Several 10+ gains on wide receiver screens and an end around were set up by holding or blocks in the back by the wide receivers. This issue isn't specific to this particular game though, as throughout the playoffs the refs have been ignoring holds. David Garrard's long run to set up the game winning field goal in Pittsburgh was set up by an obvious hold. So, yes, refs should start calling holds. That would have been helpful for the Chargers' defense today. Whether it would have been the same amount helpful to the Patriots' defense, I cannot say.

Overall, it was a good game. There's always next year. Hopefully next year they can reach the playoffs and face the best teams in the league with their three best players (Rivers, Tomlinson, Gates) healthy.

A postscript: I blame myself for the loss, as I forgot to compose tv network signs for this game. They clearly were the good luck charm that carried them to the win over Indianapolis.