Morning Dump: San Diego Chargers News Around the Web

”You know, Philip Rivers gave us a chance to win that game,” Turner said. ”He made so many plays that a lot of guys can’t make. It’s hard for me to answer that question because I just don’t think people have an understanding of what that question means. What you do is you go put together a team, put together a lineup that gives you the best chance to win, OK?”

San Diego’s 4-5 record includes three glaring incompletions — three games in which it held a halftime lead but failed to complete the effort. The latest of the losing trend came Sunday in Tampa, but no letdown was more substantial than an October meeting with the Broncos, with whom the Chargers have a rematch Sunday in Denver.

Turner is under siege by folks both near and far who suggest his run in Southern California is nearing its end. The Chargers dropped to 4-5 Sunday with a mistake-marred loss in Tampa. Another loss this coming Sunday would put the Chargers three games back of the Broncos in the loss column with six to play.

Even though the Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers (4-5) 35-24 five weeks ago, the Chargers aren’t a team you can take lightly. They may have gone 1-2 since their loss to Denver, but they did put up 24 unanswered points in the first half of the first meeting, and they’ve won the last three meetings in Denver.

San Diego is 4-5 and it has been undone by second-half slumps. It has lost four of the past five games. Three of the losses, including a loss at Tampa Bay on Sunday, were fueled by second-half stumbles.

Coach Greg Schiano said Monday Black had no spinal cord damage and has “full function,” but is experiencing complications with his left arm and will have further tests. Schiano all but ruled Black out for Sunday’s game at Carolina.

As they prepared to leave Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, a pall engulfed the Chargers, the gravity of which had not been felt before in at least all the years Norv Turner has been the team’s head coach.

Biggest area to fix: Second-half play. San Diego led, 21-17, at halftime, but was outscored 17-3 by the Buccaneers in the second half. San Diego has given up huge leads in the second half against New Orleans and in Denver. This team has to stop self-destructing.

I wrote this five hours before the Chargers embarrassed the Chiefs two weeks ago: “For those of you who don’t know Danario Alexander, he’s big, athletic and accustomed to making big plays.”

“It was kind of funny,” he said. “I made the tackle and got up and I felt weak.  I thought maybe it had gotten banged up or something, but then it seemed like it was more than that.  I’ve never (experienced) something like this before.  I’m going to leave it in the hands of my training staff. These guys are great at doing (what they do) so I’ll follow the procedures and we’ll see what happens.”

In my mind, it’s not a question who the quarterback should be — but I’ve heard from several Chargers fans who want either to plug in Charlie Whitehurst or draft a quarterback next April.