Chargers – Haunting Similarities to Last Season

The Chargers 2014 campaign ended in disappointment, where quite honestly it felt like they ran out of athletic tape. Seriously. I was watching the Chargers last game of the season and part of me was going to feel bad if they won.  The team was so banged up and injured I was not sure that I could ask them to go out and play one more and feel good about it.

quite honestly it felt like they ran out of athletic tape.

We had expected a better season from the Chargers.  The question is… what went wrong?  The answer is… the same thing that went wrong in 2013.

We left games on the field that we should have won.

• Blowing leads – In 2013 it was the opener to Houston.  The Chargers were up big and we let it fizzle away.  The 2014 version was the game in Arizona where we let a big lead dissolve on a night where it looked like the offense was not ready for the first game of the season.
• Making mistakes – In 2013 it was Washington on the road.  First and goal on the 1 yard line with less than a minute to play and you don’t run it in?  Ugh.  We lost in OT.  The 2014 version was the KC game in San Diego.  I counted at least a dozen mental mistakes that the Chargers made in that game.  We lost on a last second FG.

Not showing up.

• Last year was Oakland.  This year was Miami.

Injuries.

• This quite frankly is the headline for 2014.  So many players either played the season hurt and underperformed (Donald Butler, I hope. Rivers with his substantial rib injury) or did not see the field enough.  Hardwick, Clary, Melvin, Attachou, Verret, Allen, Teo, just to name a few.  Lots of starters missed serious time.  Its hard to win games when the majority of the roster is 2nd and 3rd stringers.
• The 2013 version of this was the playoff game in Denver when Clary and Mathews were on the sideline.  I still think if those two guys are healthy for that one the Chargers would have won.  Nuts!

So, will 2015 be any different.  Will we leave games on the field.  Will we not show up for one of them?  This seems to be the difference between good teams and great teams.  We need to take back those ones that get away.  Two more wins would have easily put us in the playoffs, probably with home field.

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I don’t know how to solve the injury problem.  I know people will say injuries are part of the game, but last year was ridiculous.  Are the Chargers not drafting durable guys?  Is the guy in charge of conditioning not getting these guys ready for the beating you take in the NFL?  Melvin is a good example here.  He is a presence on the field.  When he played he made an impact.  The problem is he only played in 9 games.  Matthews played 6, Danny played 3, Verrett played 6, Teo 10, Flowers missed 2 and Hardwick played 0… or did he play in the first game?  Either way that’s a lot of time that key players spent on the bench when they could have been influencing the outcome of games.

I think McCoy needs to solve these problems.  2015 can’t have these problems.  If it does I am going to start wondering about McCoy and his ability to get this thing to the next level.