Robin Miller
10-07-2008, 03:17 PM
Disappointed Chargers fans are preaching to the choir
Nick Canepa
Sunday, October 5, 2008
MIAMI - To the thousands of fans who chose AC, to leave their chairs empty
and not take their Sunday afternoon sauna in Dolphins Stadium, we salute
your cool judgment. For the Chargers players and coaches who also declined
to attend en masse, we only can ask: What the hell is wrong with you?
Don't look at me. In this one, I'm the choir and you're Martin Luther King.
It's the Chargers who need preaching to. Either that, or a pyromaniac should
be hired to run through their locker room to light fires beneath their
behinds.
It wasn't just their 17-10 loss to Miami, which won one game a year ago, and
while better, well, how can't it be? It wasn't the heat and humidity. It
wasn't the intermittent rain. It certainly wasn't the crowd noise. It wasn't
the Dolphins' collegiate "Wildcat" offense, which good NFL defenses
eventually will stuff like a Christmas goose.
It was more about the 2008 San Diego Chargers and who they are - or who they
aren't. It was more how they lost - or what they didn't do, that careened
their season into a messy 2-3 hole.
They didn't play football.
They haven't been doing all that much of it, really, but this was
ridiculous. It simply was one of their worst overall efforts since the bad
old days, when everyone knew they were awful, so it didn't quite nestle
under the skin like a tick.
But a whole lot more people care now. So a whole lot of people don't
understand. We have a genuine enigma on our hands. I've read hundreds of
mysteries and guessed my share of denouements, but this is a whodunit put
together by Joyce and Faulkner.
I don't get it. If you do, you're Agatha Christie. Congratulations, but she
no longer is with us.
The Chargers got eye-poked Stooges-style by a lesser team, true. It happens
in the NFL. If the better team won every game, New England would be world
champion. It also rings correct that the Chargers had lost two games they
very easily could have won, although they didn't play particularly well in
either defeat - or their two wins, for that matter.
But not Sunday. No, everything wilted in the South Florida Turkish bath.
Miami wasn't lucky. Miami took them to the woodshed.
The Dolphins aren't nearly good enough to be good. But they certainly proved
capable of handling a team that could have been arrested for loitering. Why,
the Fish didn't even have to score in the second half. The Chargers were
nothing but chum, chums.
At times they appeared to be wandering about aimlessly. Intensity was
lacking. They couldn't throw. They couldn't run. They couldn't block. They
couldn't get open. They couldn't tackle. They couldn't cover. They couldn't
adjust.
So they were outcoached. This was not Norv Turner's finest 60 minutes. I
won't say this entire season has been his finest five hours. His team, which
is not good - certainly not close to as advertised, and that's championship
caliber - can't continue to start slowly and expect to be playing in
January.
This remains professional football, which means everyone gets paid. Allowing
a team of the Dolphins' caliber to get up 17-3 at the half - it was 15-0
last week in Oakland, when the Chargers managed to dig out - is inexcusable.
If nothing else, they are better than this.
The Chargers' offense is far too talented for Philip Rivers and LaDainian
Tomlinson never to find their rhythm, for the receivers to remain tightly
covered all afternoon, for the line's inconsistency in both the run and
passing game.
To get down is one thing. But there was no fire in this hole. It shouldn't
take that long to open your nostrils and take a whiff.
"The first thing we have to address is going out early," defensive end Luis
Castillo was saying. "We can't continue to put ourselves in these
situations. If we start fast, everything will take care of itself. It's all
highlighted by the holes we're trying to get out of.
"It's a test, an obvious challenge. Are we going to do this as a team?"
The defense didn't give up a second-half point, but it still allowed Miami
to rush for 167 yards on the afternoon. It allowed the Dolphins 23 first
downs. It let the Fish run the final 5:55 off the clock.
The offense had 19 tries on first downs, seven of them passing plays, one
complete. On them, it gained 35 total yards. Overall, it ran up 202 yards,
60 on the ground. LT, clearly not himself as a runner, receiver or pass
protector, had 35 rushing yards. The Chargers were 3-for-12 on third downs.
On the first play of the final quarter, they had a fourth-and-1 at the
Dolphins' 1. LT tried and failed. It was the right call, going for the tie.
They didn't block the play.
Nothing they did seemed to work. They appeared hopeless.
Later, Turner tried his best to praise the Dolphins, but, once again, the
Canepa Tabernacle Choir was listening.
Last week, General Manager A.J. Smith said his players know they're good.
Right now, they're lying to themselves.
Find this article at:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2008/oct/05/chargers-s6canepa203420/?chargers
Nick Canepa
Sunday, October 5, 2008
MIAMI - To the thousands of fans who chose AC, to leave their chairs empty
and not take their Sunday afternoon sauna in Dolphins Stadium, we salute
your cool judgment. For the Chargers players and coaches who also declined
to attend en masse, we only can ask: What the hell is wrong with you?
Don't look at me. In this one, I'm the choir and you're Martin Luther King.
It's the Chargers who need preaching to. Either that, or a pyromaniac should
be hired to run through their locker room to light fires beneath their
behinds.
It wasn't just their 17-10 loss to Miami, which won one game a year ago, and
while better, well, how can't it be? It wasn't the heat and humidity. It
wasn't the intermittent rain. It certainly wasn't the crowd noise. It wasn't
the Dolphins' collegiate "Wildcat" offense, which good NFL defenses
eventually will stuff like a Christmas goose.
It was more about the 2008 San Diego Chargers and who they are - or who they
aren't. It was more how they lost - or what they didn't do, that careened
their season into a messy 2-3 hole.
They didn't play football.
They haven't been doing all that much of it, really, but this was
ridiculous. It simply was one of their worst overall efforts since the bad
old days, when everyone knew they were awful, so it didn't quite nestle
under the skin like a tick.
But a whole lot more people care now. So a whole lot of people don't
understand. We have a genuine enigma on our hands. I've read hundreds of
mysteries and guessed my share of denouements, but this is a whodunit put
together by Joyce and Faulkner.
I don't get it. If you do, you're Agatha Christie. Congratulations, but she
no longer is with us.
The Chargers got eye-poked Stooges-style by a lesser team, true. It happens
in the NFL. If the better team won every game, New England would be world
champion. It also rings correct that the Chargers had lost two games they
very easily could have won, although they didn't play particularly well in
either defeat - or their two wins, for that matter.
But not Sunday. No, everything wilted in the South Florida Turkish bath.
Miami wasn't lucky. Miami took them to the woodshed.
The Dolphins aren't nearly good enough to be good. But they certainly proved
capable of handling a team that could have been arrested for loitering. Why,
the Fish didn't even have to score in the second half. The Chargers were
nothing but chum, chums.
At times they appeared to be wandering about aimlessly. Intensity was
lacking. They couldn't throw. They couldn't run. They couldn't block. They
couldn't get open. They couldn't tackle. They couldn't cover. They couldn't
adjust.
So they were outcoached. This was not Norv Turner's finest 60 minutes. I
won't say this entire season has been his finest five hours. His team, which
is not good - certainly not close to as advertised, and that's championship
caliber - can't continue to start slowly and expect to be playing in
January.
This remains professional football, which means everyone gets paid. Allowing
a team of the Dolphins' caliber to get up 17-3 at the half - it was 15-0
last week in Oakland, when the Chargers managed to dig out - is inexcusable.
If nothing else, they are better than this.
The Chargers' offense is far too talented for Philip Rivers and LaDainian
Tomlinson never to find their rhythm, for the receivers to remain tightly
covered all afternoon, for the line's inconsistency in both the run and
passing game.
To get down is one thing. But there was no fire in this hole. It shouldn't
take that long to open your nostrils and take a whiff.
"The first thing we have to address is going out early," defensive end Luis
Castillo was saying. "We can't continue to put ourselves in these
situations. If we start fast, everything will take care of itself. It's all
highlighted by the holes we're trying to get out of.
"It's a test, an obvious challenge. Are we going to do this as a team?"
The defense didn't give up a second-half point, but it still allowed Miami
to rush for 167 yards on the afternoon. It allowed the Dolphins 23 first
downs. It let the Fish run the final 5:55 off the clock.
The offense had 19 tries on first downs, seven of them passing plays, one
complete. On them, it gained 35 total yards. Overall, it ran up 202 yards,
60 on the ground. LT, clearly not himself as a runner, receiver or pass
protector, had 35 rushing yards. The Chargers were 3-for-12 on third downs.
On the first play of the final quarter, they had a fourth-and-1 at the
Dolphins' 1. LT tried and failed. It was the right call, going for the tie.
They didn't block the play.
Nothing they did seemed to work. They appeared hopeless.
Later, Turner tried his best to praise the Dolphins, but, once again, the
Canepa Tabernacle Choir was listening.
Last week, General Manager A.J. Smith said his players know they're good.
Right now, they're lying to themselves.
Find this article at:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2008/oct/05/chargers-s6canepa203420/?chargers