It begins again, just like before, and just like the next time. The Chargers lose, get dominated on national TV, and every Charger fan with an e-mail account, a phone and a Twitter feed uses every avenue available to send out this message: Fire Norv!
To all of you Norv-bashers on this Monday morning, the morning after one of the most embarrassing defensive performances I ever hope to see from a Chargers team, I say this: if you came away from Sunday night’s game against Pittsburgh blaming Norv Turner for this team’s troubles, then that’s a “you” problem.
The issue here is with players. The issue here is a defense that has been assembled at great cost by A.J. Smith, but is filled with guys who don’t defend. The issue is an overrated unit that is full of talk, full of bluster, but woefully short on production. The general manager is the one who has put this team together, his fingerprints are all over it…and if you’re mad about the Chargers performance, you should be all over him, not Norv.If you look around this site a little bit (and naturally, I encourage you to spend a LOT of time here and look at everything), you’ll see we cover sports at every level. This weekend, I saw a high school and college football game live, and watched 3 NFL games on TV. What I saw last night in Pittsburgh was a high-school level mismatch. No amount of coaching could have overcome the dominance the Steelers displayed on offense, and the ineptitude the Chargers revealed on defense.
All you need to know is that in the first half, with the Steelers leading by 14 but facing fourth-and-inches on their OWN 30 yard line, Mike Tomlin didn’t even hesitate in calling on his team to go for it. That’s what Eastlake does when they know that Poway is overmatched. That’s how Cathedral handles Carlsbad. In the NFL? You’ll almost never see it…unless one team is so physically superior to the other, there’s almost no risk in making a risky call. And, naturally, Ben Roethlisberger stepped in behind another dominant push from his center and guard and eased forward for three yards to keep another scoring drive alive.
Roethlisberger had great pockets to work with all night (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Yes, Jamal Williams is gone, and Shawne Merriman is still gimping around. But what Pittsburgh did Sunday night initially would have happened with a healthy Mauler in the middle of the defense too. The Steelers spread out the Chargers, took advantage of a pass rush that almost never gets there, and picked apart the secondary, primarily picking on #31, Antonio Cromartie. One perfect pocket after another developed for Roethlisberger to display his considerable skill. The tight end was uncovered all night long…again. 3rd down was a confused disaster…again.
Once the Chargers get running around confused, once they get pushed down the field a few times and start pointing fingers, they get discouraged. And that’s when teams punish them physically in the run game. The Patriots did this to the Chargers two years ago on national TV and exposed them. The Steelers tore them apart with time of possession drives to eliminate them from the playoffs last year, and then took it to an even higher level on Sunday night. And the next good team to face the Chargers will do the same thing.
So, you want to blame Norv for this? I’ll join you for this much: the Chargers have to find a way to get out of the gates faster, and they haven’t done it under Turner. People throw around stuff like saying his team is “unprepared”, but I doubt that highly. Whatever’s missing, it’s valid to say Norv is a slow starter.
But Turner didn’t build this defense. His offense is pass-heavy but still managed to put 28 on the board, following 24, 26, and 23 point performances the first three weeks. That’s plenty to win in the NFL. Ron Rivera calls the defense and his team is making the same mistakes and giving up the same plays that it did under Ted Cottrell.
That tells me the problem is personnel. And personnel is A.J. Smith. He knows and accepts that, and he’s also pulled the trigger on all of the coaching staff decisions you might be upset with right now. Let the buck rest where it should, on the desk of the man who has assembled the unit which is coming up short.
Of course, if the Norv bashers are right, and Turner is what’s holding back the Bolts from a Super Bowl…well, who hired him? We’re back at Mr. Smith’s office again. All roads lead here.
Norv Turner could only watch and wince as his defense got trampled/(AP Photo)
There is plenty of season yet to come. People who say fire the coach are basically saying pull the plug on 2009. Who’s gonna take over? Rivera? Are you going to jet in Bill Cowher from the CBS set and install him on the sidelines? The NFL’s a little more complicated than that. Jump into the pool and you’ll drown.
Terrible teams without hope switch out their head coach at the first sign of distress. That’s a move for the Rams to make, not the Chargers. So how about just shelving all the negativity and hatred towards the head coach, and instead focusing on the players on the field, and then the guy who put them there?
As a Chargers fan, I’m going to take the crazy step of saying that Norv Turner is in fact a really smart coach who does a lot of stuff well and is unfairly blamed for everything from the weather to injuries. He’s never going to be who you want him to be, but he is who he is. And so’s A.J. Smith.
