Chargers Continue to Disappoint In Close Win

Jul 25, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Chargers head coach Mike McCoy and quarterback Philip Rivers (17) watch during receiver drills during training camp at Chargers Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Somebody had to win today, I guess.

“That’s the end of the game”. Some beautiful words for Chargers fans. I’m not sure the defense could have held on much longer.

The San Diego Chargers defense was great today.. minus Marcus Gilchrist, and Shareece Wright, who continue to get beaten in coverage routinely. Pagano & the rest of the boys kept the Chargers offensive coaching staff from being completely embarrassed today, in front of their home crowd.

There were a few notable players on offense. Gates made a ridiculous catch. Floyd caught the only TD. Allen had some good catches, and punt returns, despite looking somewhat unenthusiastic at times. Ryan Mathews & Brandon Oliver did their part. Royal had a nice trick run, and an important catch to move the chains. Even Green got a little more involved, despite not having accurate passes thrown to him. The offensive line continued to be a liability, as Rich Ohrnberger went to the locker room, and Chris Watt was put into the “center carousel of 2014”. Ohrnberger is hurt, and I applaud him. But, I think it’s time to put him on the bench for a while.. if not IR.

Despite the offensive line woes, I cannot give Philip Rivers a pass here. He played as badly as he was playing in 2012. The fact that we went home with a win does not mask the fact that he is has gone from MVP pro-bowl form, to dark ages Norv Turner days football. Numerous times I saw him make inexplicably bad decisions. Even when they went well (as was the case when Antonio Gates made a circus catch to basically ice the game, from an offensive standpoint), he was off target all day.

Philip Rivers was just plain careless today. Every QB has “that kind of day”. But, watching him in this game… you would never think that he just came off of a shutout loss, where he made the most negligent decisions of his life. You can try to blame it on the o-line, the coaches… say that the Raider defense was “playing a really great game”. Any of that may be somewhat true, but there were too many times when he played like a back-up QB would. Never in his career have I hinted that it might be a good idea to put a back-up QB in. Not even in 2012. Especially not two games in a row. Had we been playing a more high powered offense, and a better defense… he would have been benched again. If not just to get through to him, it would have been to save him from himself. If McCoy wouldn’t have pulled the trigger on that, he should have… hypothetically. But, we won today, so I guess it’s “OK”.

Philip is not totally to blame, but he is a big part of it. I don’t know what his problem is, but he needs to get his mojo back. The bigger problem is Mike McCoy. I don’t pretend to know the dynamics of the offensive playcalling. They are very vague about it. Sometimes we see snippets of Reich being “handed the keyys”. Other times you can tell he is not driving the team. Reich is new, McCoy may possibly be interfering, and Rivers has the power to change the play at the line. Whatever is going on, I am getting sick and tired of McCoy totally ignoring obvious signs that something is not working.

Too many times, we have seen McCoy “stick to the game plan” when it is clearly not working. I used to think it was Whisenhunt, but he is no longer here to take the blame. It’s the kind of stubbornness that this team does NOT need. We have gone from a coach that has no backbone whatsoever, and lets the crew run the ship… to a coach that is an immovable rock, and completely unwilling to accept the reality that his game plan sucks, and makes no sense. Either way, it’s the same result… inexplicably bad game-time decisions.

What makes a coach run the ball up the middle, to the point where you can see it coming from a mile away, when it almost always has a negative result? It is ridiculous, when the  odds of it working have proven hopeless, over and over again! It’s gotten to the point of madness… especially when they are running the ball behind the weakest part of the line,, the interior. Then, not running it to the outside for the rest of the game, when it worked amazingly on the previous play.

I am glad they won this game today. They had to win today, or there was little hope moving forward. But, I have absolutely zero confidence that Mike McCoy can drop his egotistically offensive post-game rhetoric, and horrible in-game decisions, to make this team a true contender. I know that he is new to the head coaching game. But, he has seen more than enough of his dumb decisions backfire, to be able to make the necessary adjustments. I have seen him continue to make the same mistakes that Norv made, without giving a single thought of deviating from it. I almost wonder if he has ever taken the time to understand what got Norv fired? He seems to be doing the same things. Shooting yourself in the continuously, and moving on to the next bad play as if nothing happened. Then, giving a press conference about how the “team” needs to execute better.

No Mike…. It’s YOU who needs to execute better. It’s you, dude. After having two weeks off, and getting numerous injured players back… you & Philip were the ones who looked least prepared out there today. I hope TT can sleep good tonight after “winning”. Because, that was as embarrassing a win as I’ve seen since the last Raider game.

As for the fans… you rawk!!! Way to hang in there, when the coaching staff takes weeks to make basic adjustments. Keep Bolting Toward Excellence!

Peter Thompson