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Post by afboltfan on Dec 7, 2020 7:21:04 GMT -7
I'm looking forward to what Popper says this morning.
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Post by lightsout42 on Dec 7, 2020 7:58:05 GMT -7
Popper: How can the Spanos family not overhaul the Chargers now?
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The Chargers showed up for a professional football game Sunday at their fancy new stadium wearing their fancy new uniforms.
And I write “showed up” because using the word “played” to describe what the Chargers did against the Patriots would be unfair to the 23 other teams, New England included, that took the field in Week 13.
The Chargers looked dashing in pregame warmups in their powder blue jerseys and yellow pants, the marquee uniform combination from an offseason rebrand acclaimed far and wide. SoFi Stadium, a dream home they moved into this year after three seasons in a soccer complex, is sprawling and sparkling, practically begging — if stadiums can do such a thing — to be packed to the gills with screaming fans.
The Chargers wanted 2020 to start a new era for their franchise. The first step in a surge to the future. They were going to succeed in Los Angeles, a fresh market with so much opportunity, and this season was going to be the foundation. They did everything they could to create that appearance — the uniforms, the stadium, the exciting rookie quarterback.
But they are stuck. So very stuck. They are as much of a league laughingstock now as they were when opposing fans were overrunning their home stands week after week at Dignity Health Sports Park.
The Chargers lost to the Patriots, 45-0, in a historic drubbing, and somehow the final score did not do this embarrassment justice. They were the younger brother playing one-on-one hoops against the older brother in the driveway. They were the junior varsity team scrimmaging varsity. They did not stand a chance. They did not belong on the same field. They were dominated in every facet. And this game, more than anything else this season, is the perfect example of just how outclassed the organization is from the top down.
If you are the Spanos family, how can you have any faith that this franchise is headed in the right direction? How can you believe that this football operation, as currently constructed, can build a winner that will get needed butts in seats? Even if fans had been allowed in SoFi Stadium on Sunday, it would have been just as empty in the fourth quarter. No one would have wasted their time watching that slop. Sitting in traffic would have been a much less masochistic endeavor.
The Chargers (3-9) became only the third home team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to be shut out in a loss of 45 points or more.
I will let that sink in.
The last time it happened was 1989.
You do not come back from a loss like this. You do not chalk it up to one bad week — certainly not after the repeated failures of this season.
“That was one of the worst football games I’ve ever been a part of in my 30 years in the National Football League as a player and a coach,” head coach Anthony Lynn said.
I honestly would like to know what other games are in contention.
This debacle starts with Lynn. The special teams were comically bad. Lynn took on more responsibility with that unit after the team reassigned coordinator George Stewart. Somehow, it got worse. The Chargers could not even get the correct number of players on the field. This is an issue you deal with coaching Pop Warner. Not professional football.
The Patriots lined up for five punts in this game. The Chargers had the wrong number of players on the field for three of them. They had 10 players on the field for a punt in the second quarter. They had 12 for a punt in the third quarter and were called for a penalty that gave New England a first down. Three snaps later, the Patriots lined up to punt again, and this time the Chargers had 10 players on the field.
Bill Belichick must have spent all week looking for ways to exploit the Chargers’ league-worst special teams. Not in his wildest dreams could he have imagined a team unable to get 11 players on the field.
And that is before we get to the actual special teams gaffes. A missed field goal from kicker Michael Badgley in the first quarter. A punt-return touchdown allowed in the second quarter. A blocked field goal returned for a touchdown on the final play of the first half. A 61-yard punt return allowed in the fourth quarter.
What more do the Chargers’ decision-makers have to see? Lynn is a week removed from a truly disastrous game-management performance. His calling card is his ability to motivate his players. The Chargers always play hard for Anthony Lynn. What was this then? How do you explain this away? The Chargers, simply put, were not prepared to play a football game Sunday. And it showed.
I am not here to beat a dead horse. But as long as the Chargers continue to employ Lynn, his limitations need to be highlighted. Not doing so would be a disservice to this fan base.
The only good thing the Chargers have going for them now is rookie Justin Herbert, and they are somehow botching that as well. Despite trailing 38-0 early in the fourth quarter, Lynn kept the Chargers’ prized franchise quarterback in the game, and Herbert continued to take a beating. At 45-0, Herbert stayed in the game. He nearly got decapitated on the Chargers’ final drive when a free blitzer came sprinting through the Chargers’ Swiss-cheese offensive line.
There is no explanation for this decision. Keeping Herbert in the game was organizational malpractice. He took 11 recorded hits, including three sacks. The Patriots took Cam Newton out of the game early in the fourth quarter. They have Newton on a one-year deal. He is a stopgap. Herbert is the future. The Chargers put that future — the one they are so hopeful about — in major jeopardy.
“You’re going to have some rough patches throughout a season,” Lynn said about keeping Herbert in the game. “I didn’t want to pull him out when things were getting bad. I wanted him to be able to play through it and turn things around.”
This all does not fall solely on Lynn, however. As I said, this performance — if you want to call it that — laid bare the deficiencies of all parts of this operation. There is a distinct lack of depth on the Chargers’ roster. That falls on general manager Tom Telesco. When you have practice-squad players manning your special teams units, you should expect this level of ineptitude. When you fail to draft and develop offensive linemen, you should expect your quarterback to be running for his life against any functional defense. When you miss on defensive draft picks, you should expect those players to be exposed when called into action because of injuries.
Lynn is a good man. He is respected and is an inspirational figure for his players. He is a hell of a running backs coach. He can identify running back talent and develop it as well as any coach in football. But he is not a good head coach.
Telesco is a solid general manager. He has pragmatically established his culture and built a lot of solid rosters with talent at key positions. I am not detracting from the successes he has willed into fruition. But when a team suffers a loss like this in a GM’s eighth season, you have to question if that GM is the right man to lead the football operations department.
The Spanos family needs to send a message to the fan base.
If they decide to maintain the status quo, they risk losing the support they desperately need. They risk turning off the loads of prospective fans in Los Angeles. They risk staying stuck.
Right now, the new uniforms and new stadium amount to just colorful window dressing on a shattered window.
The league is laughing at the Chargers. What else is new.
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Post by frozendisc on Dec 7, 2020 9:24:04 GMT -7
Popper joins the crowd with pitchforks in hand......
Three things:
The roster has solid talent at the starting levels, except the OL group.
Spanos owns the failure in Lynn, should have made the change at last season end.
In the NFL the desperately needed support comes from broadcasting revenues, which seem pretty assured.
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Post by lightsout42 on Dec 7, 2020 11:50:29 GMT -7
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Post by afboltfan on Dec 7, 2020 11:57:55 GMT -7
This is the bottom line... Spot on. Time for the passive aggressiveness to stop and call it like it is... No pitchforks, just failed expectation and reality in the business of football.
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Post by lightsout42 on Dec 7, 2020 13:29:46 GMT -7
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Post by afboltfan on Dec 7, 2020 15:17:41 GMT -7
That is just embarrassing...
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Post by lightsout42 on Dec 7, 2020 19:50:02 GMT -7
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Post by moekid on Dec 10, 2020 19:18:57 GMT -7
4 days later Pats are playing a real NFL team and getting blasted
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Post by frozendisc on Dec 11, 2020 7:53:40 GMT -7
4 days later Pats are playing a real NFL team and getting blasted To be fair: Rams are in first place, well coached, and true believers in their football future. Bolts are in last place, poorly coached, and have zero belief in their football future.
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