The LA Chargers were embarrassed by the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 3. While the Chargers were already fighting an uphill battle with all of the injuries they were dealing with, there is no excuse for the way they came out and played in Week 3.
It would be one thing if the team battled and was simply outmatched because of all the injuries that piled up. That is not what happened in this game. Doug Pederson coached circles around Brandon Staley and the Chargers coaching staff. Whether it be offensive play-calling, personnel decisions on defense or the decision to keep Justin Herbert in a blowout game with fractured rib cartilage, this was coaching malpractice.
Not to mention that the Chargers were at home and had 10 days to prepare for this matchup. This was not a short week. They were not on the road. While Jacksonville is a much better team than most NFL fans are ready to admit, the way the Chargers came out flat and uninspired is a slap in the face to every fan that showed up on Sunday.
And it all starts with Brandon Staley. We are now 20 games into Brandon Staley's professional career and there are no longer any excuses to make. It is time to have a conversation about Brandon Staley and his place on the Chargers.
Brandon Staley simply has to be better for the Chargers, or he has to be fired.
Firing Staley in-season is not what the team should do at all, especially as an overreaction after a Week 3 loss. Staley's fingerprints are all over this entire team and if you fire him midseason you are essentially admitting defeat. The Bolts would have to be around 2-6 or so for them to make that decision.
Staley will last the entire season. But if the Chargers continue to play uninspired football in certain games and miss the playoffs then he has to get the boot. This team is far too talented to miss the playoffs.
Through 20 games coached Staley has a 10-10 record and to be fair, he had a very bad defensive unit last season. That being said, he also has one of the five-best quarterbacks in the entire league. That alone is enough to carry most teams.
Sure, the Chargers were a play or two away from making the playoffs last year but they also would have made the playoffs if they didn't have games where the team showed up and were completely outmatched. Through Staley's first 20 games, there have been at least five in which the team showed up completely flat and were outcoached.
There is this game and last year there was the Baltimore game, the New England game, the first Denver game and the Houston game. Those five games were lost because Staley was simply outmatched as a coach and did not have his team ready. That is 25% of his total games coached.
That can't happen, especially this year when you have a roster as talented as it is. Yes, there were a lot of injuries and the deck was stacked against them, but to not even be competitive? Great coaches win when their backs are against the wall. Staley and the Chargers couldn't even be competitive.
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The Chargers should not fire Brandon Staley. The second-year head coach simply has to figure it out. If he doesn't, and the Bolts miss the playoffs this year, Sean Payton might end up being the head coach of the team next season.