Fans here in the San Diego area are not giving Norv Turner and his staff a break from criticism for the team’s underperforming season. Although the Chargers are 5-4 and lead their division, they have not played up to expectations, even when you factor in the tougher schedule, the loss of players like Donnie Edwards and the new coaching staff.

The team that sent 11 players to the Pro Bowl last season and retained most of last season’s roster is in the bottom third in the league in defense and offense. Philip Rivers has had a bad season and LaDainian Tomlinson has been frustrated trying to get the running game going. In spite of Antonio Cromartie’s efforts the defense is ineffective and fails to pressure opposing quarterbacks on a regular basis.

The upcoming game against the Jacksonville Jaguars is going to serve as the continental divide to the Chargers’ season. If they can play well and beat the Jaguars, they will have some momentum and their hopes for the playoffs are brighter. On the other hand if they lose, and even play like they did in Minnesota, the morale on this team will go south and they may not be able to recover from it. Several players have commented off the record that they lack faith in the new coaching staff, that they have not put the team in the best position to win.

When you look at this team and compare it to last year’s team, it’s about as close to an ‘all other things being equal’ scenario as you can get. The only major difference is the coaching staff and based on how this team has regressed, it’s hard to argue with those who put the blame in that direction.

The 13th hour decision last week to hold the Chargers-Texans game in Qualcomm Stadium as originally scheduled turned out to the best decision for the team and the locals. It wasn’t only because the Chargers won 35-10. It was more because we needed something else to think about besides the latest fire news. It also gave us a chance to honor the local firefighters and law enforcement for their hard work in fighting the worst fires in the region’s history.

The game itself was full of oddities and anomalies. In spite of the final score, the Chargers were outgained and soundly beaten in time of possession. Their offense only ran 39 plays, and only 11 of those were pass plays. Philip Rivers was incredibly efficient throwing the ball, however as he completed seven passes, three of them touchdowns.

Another efficient player was tight end Antonio Gates. He only had three catches, but that turned out to be the lion’s share of the seven team receptions. Two of the three catches were for touchdowns.

Antonio Cromartie is beginning to emerge as the cornerback the Chargers hoped for after drafting him in 2006. He scored two touchdowns, one of them on a fumble recovery in the end zone, the other on an interception return. A penalty kept him from scoring a third time after his second interception.

LaDainian Tomlinson’s 95 yards on 17 carries was a solid performance despite not finding the end zone.

The biggest question that the win against the Texans raised is how good is this Charger team? It’s nice to beat Denver, Oakland and Houston, but how much are the last three wins a result of playing bad teams versus the Chargers improving as a team. We’ll find out as the schedule gets tougher down the stretch. For right now, it was nice to watch something else on TV besides evacuation notices and to see the home team win.

I want to apologize to all of you for not providing content recently. A combination of things happening made it difficult to maintain this blog at the level that I would like to. My car was totaled in a recent accident and the search for a replacement was extremely time consuming. The wildfires in the area last week also did not help.

I hope that those of you in the San Diego area reading this page were able to stay out of harm’s way.

There will be more commentary on the Texans game from last weekend and this blog will get back on track this week.

 Thanks again for your patience.

 Christopher

Here are the reasons the Chargers won in Denver:

1. Tackling - This improved about 1000%. Once a defender made contact with an opposing player who had the ball, they were almost always wrapped up and brought down. There was a lot of gang tackling and driving the opponent back after initial contact.

2. Simplifying offense - After the loss to the Chiefs, there was a lot of talk about simplifying the offense. At the time, I thought this was another variety of coachspeak, but there seems to be something to it. Philip Rivers was ruthlessly efficient and seemed more confident. The prevailing strategy was to get LaDainian Tomlinson the ball, and it worked. The only three people to catch a pass were L.T., Antonio Gates and Vincent Jackson. Incrementally adding new wrinkles to the offense seems to be the best approach to take with Rivers.

3. Mental preparation - You could tell that the team overall had a lot of fire. Lots of hard hits on defense and special teams. The Bolts forced three turnovers while giving up none.

Here’s what they need to work on:

1. Get to the opposing QB - The Bolts only had one sack on Cutler and very little pressure. This is not the only game this has happened.

2. Open up more holes for L.T. - The Chargers were able to establish a running game, but not as much as they would like. Only in the first half of the Chiefs game and the first quarter of the Broncos game has Tomlinson had the type of success we like to see him have.

3. Don’t give up so much passing yardage - This has been the case for a long time as the Bolt secondary is an Achilles’ Heel. If the Chargers do not get sacks or force turnovers, the secondary gets picked apart. Turnovers and sacks are nice, but so are three-and-outs.

4. Special teams - Although one of the Bolts’ touchdowns was from a special teams turnover, there were some mistakes that need to be corrected. A Mike Scifres’ punt was blocked and the team gave up a big punt return, which allowed the Broncos to drive for a field goal.

Although this is a blog about Chargers football, a number of things happened in the San Diego sports world last week that it deserves its own story.

One thing that was unusual was that all three major San Diego sports teams played road games in the state of Colorado in the same week. I don’t have the data to confirm it, but I don’t think it’s ever happened before.

About a week ago, the morale of most area sports fans was about as close to rock bottom as Britney Spears is. The Padres lost 9-8 to the Rockies in 13 innings a week ago Monday. The most dependable pitchers on the Friars’ roster, Jake Peavy and Trevor Hoffman had a night they’d rather forget.

The baseball team’s loss was preceded by one of the Chargers’ worst games in a long time. The Bolts’ 30-16 loss at home to a Kansas Ciy Chiefs team they should have beaten angered home fans to the point of chanting for Marty and storming the talk shows.

Like the Chargers, the San Diego State Aztecs’ football team was off to a 1-3 start. If that wasn’t bad enough, several faculty members at SDSU called for the school to drop its football program. Head coach Chuck Long has not been the magic solution to the team’s problems and attendence has dropped drastically compared to past seasons.

If you rooted for all three teams last week, you got a triple dose of disappointment. If that wasn’t bad enough, the fact that the Chargers were going to play in Denver dampened hopes of a quick fix. San Diego only had two wins in the Mile High City in the last decade, and the way they played against the Chiefs left most feeling less than optimistic. Even after the loss to the Niners in Super Bowl XXIX the locals were not this down on the team.

The day before the Chargers’ game against the Broncos, beleagured Aztecs fans got some relief in SDSU’s 24-20 win over Colorado State in Fort Collins. It was nice to have a win, but the victory was hardly earth-shattering as CSU has not won a game in almost a year. Considering the low attendence at SDSU games, the victory did little to placate most of the locals.

So what does an almost unprecedented 41-3 win against the Broncos mean? The Bolts were back to being like the 2006 team in many ways. They forced turnovers, established the running game and Philip Rivers was back to the efficiency that gave him Pro Bowl honors a year ago. The team played with a confidence that was previously missing.

Most important was that the Bolts showed some sign of life. It’s too soon to start talking about the post season again and the team has a lot to work on. LaDainian Tomlinson has still not been unleashed other than one half of one game and the defense is not getting to the quarterback. Still, the team has something to build on, they have some of their swagger, and the locals finally have something to cheer about. The October weather is nice and the tourists are scarce. Life is good in San Diego. How long will it continue?

The last three weeks have been a living hell for Chargers fans. In no way, shape or form have the 2007 Chargers resembled last year’s team that went 14-2. The way this team laid an egg and gave up 24 unanswered points against the Kansas City Chiefs shows that there is something profoundly wrong with the Bolts.

So far the Randy Moss Experience has worked for New England and Green Bay’s Brett Favre suddenly is playing like he’s 25 again. Both the Patriots and Packers are playing great football, so you have to give them credit for beating the Chargers, but that’s not the whole story either.

After all the talk about continuity with the hiring of Norv Turner and Ted Cottrell and the implication that the team would not miss a beat, Chargers fans have to feel like they have been sold a bill of goods. The offense looks brilliant on some drives, but out of sync on others. Supposedly it’s because Turner made the exisiting offense more complex and that Rivers has not been able to adjust. All that has to be done is to simplify the offense. It’s a plausible explanation, but then again, so was the one on continuity.

 The concerns about the offense pale in comparison to those about the defense. It’s one thing to have a secondary that is suspect, but right now, the defense isn’t stopping anyone. When you give the opposing offense all day to throw, you won’t beat the Patriots of Patrick Henry High, let alone those of New England. You have to be concerned if Cottrell really can run the 3-4. Whatever he’s doing ain’t working.

You also have to worry about the team’s intangibles. They are coming out flat in these games when they were expected to contend for a title. After four games, the fans have chanted for Marty Schottenheimer, when eight months ago, they were glad to see him leave. Many believe the new coaching staff isn’t reaching the players. If the team doesn’t start to turn things around, some coaches and management may find themselves looking for a new job.

I remember watching a college game between two teams that was so awful that at halftime, one of the studio analysts said something like, “We wanted to bring you the first-half highlights of this game, but there weren’t any.”

You could have said the same thing about last night’s Chargers-Patriots game–as long as you were speaking from the perspective of a Chargers fan.

The one thing that made this game so hard to take is that it reminded me an awful lot of Super Bowl XXIX where the San Francisco 49ers routed the Chargers 49-26. That game was not as close as the final score would indicate. Brady and Co. did not score as quickly as Steve Young and Co. did thirteen years ago, but last night’s game had the same look and feel.

This game was worse in several ways. Thirteen years ago, the Bolts only spotted the Niners 14 points; last night the Bolts spotted the Pats 24 points. With 11 Pro-Bowlers from last season, this year’s Chargers team is much better talent-wise than the 1994 team led by Boss Ross.

What has become a disturbing trend the last two weeks is that the Chargers have not scored in the first half in 2007. You can get away with doing that against Rex Grossman, but not Tom Brady. Against the Bears, the conventional wisdom said that the Chargers did not come out flat so much as the Bears defense dominated in the first half. After seeing the Bolts come out so flat against New England, you have to wonder if they weren’t coming out flat in both games.

Chargers definitely did not win in the trenches on either side of the ball. For the most part, Brady enjoyed great protection while Philip Rivers was under almost constant pressure. Most people would choose L.T. to be on their fantasy team over Laurence Maroney or Sammy Morris, but both Patriot backs averaged over five yards per carry last night, while L.T. had about half that.

In this morning’s Union-Tribune the Chargers were evaluated in every aspect of the game (defense, offense, special teams etc.) and in a report card format and received Fs and Ds across the board. It was an apt way of describing how they did about everything wrong that you can think of. The best the team can do is learn from the mistakes without getting down on themselves too much for it.

Besides, an embarrasing loss in September means nothing in January. The 49ers of the 1994 season were trounced 40-8 by Philadelphia in September and we all know how their season went.

Although the Chargers were unable to establish the running game with star tailback LaDainian Tomlinson, they did many of the things you need to do to beat the Bears last Sunday in their 14-3 win.

Part of beating Chicago is to not beat yourself. Although the Bolts were not turnover-free, they won the turnover battle by forcing four turnovers while only giving up two. Since all 17 points in this game were set up by turnovers, this was huge for San Diego. On both touchdowns, the Chargers had a short field to work with, recovering one fumble on the Bears’ 29 yard line; the other on their own 44 yard line.

The always dangerous Devin Hester can change any game with a big return. Chargers’ punter Mike Scifres took the return game away from the Bears by not allowing Hester to return a single punt. The kickoff team for the Bolts also kept Hester from having a big day.

Any coach who faces the Bears has to have last year’s Bears-Cardinals game in the back of their mind. The Cardinals had a 20 point lead and suffered a complete meltdown, giving up punt returns and turnovers for scores that led to a Bear win. No coach wants to be put in the position of having to acknowledge that the Bears Are Who We Thought They Were.

Once the Chargers kept Hester and the Bears defense from winning the game, the onus was on the Chicago offense to win the game. Bears’ quarterback Rex Grossman did not have a horrible game, but was not stellar either, nor could Chicago establish the running game. The Charger defense was stellar and limited Chicago to a field goal.

Chicago learned that you can contain Tomlinson, but he can beat you in different ways and if you give him extra chances, sooner or later he will. Tomlinson’s 17 yard touchdown pass to Antonio Gates was in response to the Bears commitment to stopping the Charger running game.

The Chargers dominated in time of possession as they kept the ball for over 37 minutes. On the Bolts’ last scoring drive, the Bear defense seemed to wear down as the running game opened up and Tomlinson eventually scored on a 7 yard run. On their next possession, the Bolts took possession with 6:02 left in the game and were able to run out the clock.

So far, so good for the Bolts. It only gets tougher as the team faces the Patriots, and an offense much more explosive than the Bears’.

After four meaningless pre-season games, I am ready for the season to begin. Seeing the Chargers play with L.T. wearing the latest NFL approved clothing on the sideline is something I don’t enjoy. Of course I don’t want L.T. to become the next Ki-Jana Carter, but I think we are all eager to see the defending NFL NVP take the field.

Another reason I am glad pre-season is over: no more vanilla play calling.  Norv Turner has been criticized for his track record as an NFL head coach, but one thing you can’t deny is that he is a great offensive mind. It will be exciting to see what new twists he will add to the playbook and with Vincent Jackson maturing at wide receiver.  Buster Davis, Darren Sproles and Legedu Naanee will also make the offense interesting.

Against the Bears today, the Chargers need to protect the ball and not give up any big returns by Hester. If they do that, I like their chances.

Last night I was like a kid on Christmas Eve and could not get any sleep. I had to get a quad espresso this morning just to stay awake. I know I’m going to crash the minute the Chargers-Bears game ends. Hopefully I’ll have a smile on my face before I do.

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