SAN DIEGO – It can be a simple command, yet students from grammar school to graduate school often consider it the bane of their existence.
“Compare and contrast…”
Right now, that is a self-examination the San Diego Chargers are loath to undergo. Compare how a team that was 14-2 a year ago, with 11 Pro Bowl players, could begin the 2007 NFL season with a 1-3 record. Contrast the optimism that imbued the franchise throughout training camp and into a season-opening beatdown of the defending NFC champion Chicago Bears with the befuddled looks and uncertainty found on the faces and in the words of virtually every player and coach after Sunday’s 30-16 loss to Kansas City at Qualcomm Stadium.
And that, speaking of differences, was the Bolts’ first home regular-season loss since 2005.
In the waning stages of Sunday’s contest, about 65,000 fans provided their own twist to the query, beginning a chant of “Marty, Marty, Marty” – as in former coach Marty Schottenheimer, who was deposed during the offseason after a long-term feud with general manager A.J. Smith.
As Schottenheimer’s replacement, Norv Turner, left the field at game’s end, the derisive ditty grew louder. Perhaps the only thing preventing it from beginning anew this weekend is that the team’s next game is on the road, at Invesco Field at Mile High against the Broncos. However, should they fall short again, it’s entirely possible the Chargers, currently in last place in the AFC West, will be singing their own swan song.
“We need to win a game – bad,” running back LaDainian Tomlinson said.
Right now, the Chargers, seemingly unsure of what sort of test is being proffered, don’t seem to know the best way of going about it. For the past four seasons, Tomlinson, the incomparable running back, and Lorenzo Neal, the blocking fullback who has opened up so many of L.T.’s running lanes, have been as close as any two teammates could be.
Venting his frustrations after Sunday’s game, Neal ended a long rant by insisting that “someone has got to step up and say it has to stop now.”
However, Tomlinson felt certain that the time for talking is through.
“There’s only so much talking you can do,” he said. “You can talk to guys until you’re blue in the face, but at some point you have to go out and play football, go out there and prove it. What defines a leader? Is it someone who’s going out there, talking to guys every day telling them what they should be doing, or is it someone who goes out there every day and just does the right things?”
Right man for the job?
Thus far, the Chargers haven’t been making the grade in either area. When he was feeling more loquacious, Tomlinson expressed his frustrations with the comparisons to 2006, saying this was a different team. That’s true on any number of levels. Yearly change is an unavoidable part of the free agency, salary cap-driven NFL, but San Diego weathered that storm better than most teams do, going so far as to give a big contract to Tomlinson’s backup, Michael Turner, just to keep him around.
Of course, the biggest change took place off the field, when Schottenheimer was fired. While Sunday’s nostalgic outreach by the fans might have been revisionist romanticism – one can imagine what they were saying when the Chargers lost at home to New England in the 2006 divisional playoffs, another chapter in the former coach’s legendary inability to win in the postseason – it didn’t fall on deaf ears.
While his career record as a head coach entering this season was a tepid 58-82, Turner was thought to be the perfect coach – or at least the perfect caretaker – to replace Schottenheimer. But Turner, who initially made his reputation behind the scenes as an offensive coordinator for Dallas during the Troy Aikman/Emmitt Smith/Michael Irvin glory days, never has been a charismatic dynamo. And while his shortcomings in Oakland as the Raiders coach, a 9-23 record in 2004-05, might have been laid off on that franchise’s noted undisciplined ways, questions are being raised as to whether the unfailingly decent Turner is demanding enough as a coach.
“Norv and the coaches aren’t the ones who are playing; we are,” tight end Antonio Gates said. “That’s the most frustrating part about this. We’re putting in the extra time to study, we’re putting in the extra time to prepare. We’re working hard in the weight room. But then you come out on Sunday and you fall short.
“We have to look in the mirror first, we have to do better. I hear the fans booing, I hear the chants for Marty, but what they don’t understand is that it’s the little things – one little thing can make the picture look a lot different.”
By the numbers
There was a lot of that sort of talk in the aftermath of Sunday’s loss, hand-wringing about opportunities that dissipated in the matter of milliseconds. In the second quarter, for example, Turner and the Chargers felt they had rookie wide receiver Buster Davis wide open for a touchdown, but quarterback Philip Rivers was hit just as he released the pass. The quick six instead became a turnover when the toss fluttered well short of the target and was intercepted.
Trying to rally in the fourth quarter, San Diego faced a third-and-5 from the Kansas City 5-yard-line. Rivers seemed to have Tomlinson open in the flat, exactly the kind of play the team wanted to emphasize as a way of getting the football to its premier talent. But Rivers didn’t make the throw, later saying he felt Chiefs defensive back Ty Law was “playing cat-and-mouse, trying to bait me.” Instead, Rivers threw into the end zone, where the pass was incomplete. One play later the Chargers turned the ball over on downs and the visitors ran out the clock.
A season ago, Rivers probably makes the throw anyway. Even if Law had been in the vicinity, he likely would have whiffed on the interception attempt, watching helplessly as Tomlinson trotted into the end zone. After all, when you’re in the midst of a season like the Chargers had in 2006, almost everything goes right. When the coin flips the other way, as teams like San Diego, Chicago and New Orleans can attest, you become road kill.
On another play, a third-and-1 in the second quarter, Neal was stopped for a 1-yard loss. Happens all the time, right? Not really. Before the play, Neal had gone 120 consecutive carries without a loss. The Chargers were 24-for-28 on similar plays in 2006. This season, they have converted just 3-of-6 attempts.
The 2007 Chargers come out on the short end in field position, getting the defense off the field – and any other number of comparisons to a year ago. But while that might make fans long for the good old days of Marty Ball, Schottenheimer isn’t coming back.
And Turner isn’t going anywhere, although the coach realizes that in the NFL, too many F’s on Sunday often necessitate a transfer – to the unemployment line.
“We’re preparing and competing, it’s just the inconsistency,” Turner said Monday. “We’re doing a number of things well, but one bad set, one negative play can bring great consequences.
“I understand the responsibility of the job I have. Ultimately, I’m the one responsible. It’s up to me to get the job done. The inconsistency, the problems we’re having, it’s up to me to get them eliminated.”
Not-so-Super Chargers
San Diego has suffered this season in comparison to the 2006 team that went 14-2 for the best regular-season record in the NFL. Some of the numbers:
[Category || 2006 (rank) || 2007 (rank)]Total offense 365.0 (4th) 290.2 (26th)
Rushing 161.1 (2nd) 83.8 (24th)
INTs thrown 9 (2nd) 6 (25th)
Def. sacks 61 (1st) 9 (13th)
Total defense 301.6 (10th) 351.0 (25th)
Scoring defense 18.9 (7th) 25.5 (25th)
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
