Norv Turner's bonehead move(s)..

[skibrett15]

I don't understand where the "playcalling too conservative" comes from. He almost blew the game by passing too much. He blew the game along with rivers when they passed from their own 4 and fumbled. He blew the game by passing on 3 consecutive downs when up by 11 in the 4th which also led to an interception.

[SniperShot]

I don't understand where the "playcalling too conservative" comes from. He almost blew the game by passing too much. He blew the game along with rivers when they passed from their own 4 and fumbled. He blew the game by passing on 3 consecutive downs when up by 11 in the 4th which also led to an interception.

Maybe there were mostly little dink and dunk passes that seemed to have everyone but Gates and LT as the primary target. Maybe some credit should be given to the Colts D, I know they like to play a cover-2 defense and avoid giving up the big play. They pretty much held New England down for 3 and 3/4 quarters a couple weeks ago.

I dunno now though, the game was a while ago now and is a little less fresh in memory but my original post was the morning after the game so obviously after watching the game I felt things were played more conservatively than they should have been. (IN my opinion!)

It is very possible to have conservative passing plays as well, short little dumps to a full back, quick slants, all I'm saying is the Chargers didn't have an offensive play over 20 yards and it felt like they were scared and conservative after building a large lead.

[zevon]

I never understood why they fired Schottenheimer. People who are bums as coaches don't go 14-2, I don't care how much talent the players have. And if you fire someone like Schottenheimer you'd by God better have a replacement in mind that is going to be at least AS GOOD if not better than Schottenheimer. And what do they do? They go out and hire a head coach with a proven record of LOSING. Makes no sense.

I remember when Bill Parcells retired and Jerry Jones was talking about hiring Turner. Oh I'm so glad they didn't! I knew it would be disastrous if they did. Turner's good at creating a good running game, but he has no clue about the passing game or defense. He needs to be an Offensive coordinator at best, or maybe an OL or RB coach.

Marty was run out of town for at least 3 reasons, none of which I would consider a good reason.

He and Smith can't work together. While Smith has brought great talent into the organization, Norv is now proving that just because you have the fastest car in a race, you still need someone who can drive behind the wheel.

After Cameron and Phillips left, Marty wanted to hire his brother as D Coordinator. He was shot down, and I doubt he took it well. I also doubt he held his tongue.

The first round loss to the Pats.

I'm not a huge fan of Marty, but he does have a proven track record of taking so so teams and turning them into playoff contenders. Yeah, his playoff record is abysmal, and the Bolts should have beaten the Pats on paper.

Did Marty take a 15 yard personal foul to give the Pats a first down and eventual score, or was that Florence?
Did Marty intercept that 4th down pass instead of knocking it down, then fumble the ball away to the Pats leading to another score? I seem to remember it was McCree.
We can say it's an example of a coach not having his players under control, but I think if you look at the San Diego sideline today you'll see a much better example.

[daj88]

I'm a little confused by the following posting by davidmarver

"If by 'dismantling' you mean 'building', then I agree. And while Norv has certainly had his downfalls (no one pointed out that the timeouts he used with 2:50 remaining led to the Colts getting the ball back with 20 seconds and, had they scored, would have restricted to our two-minute drill to plays near the sidelines, instead of over the middle with those two extra timeouts), the Chargers weren't going to win a playoff game with Marty as their head coach; no team is. He's proven time, and time again that he's not able to; so even if we don't win this season, it's no loss compared to the result if Marty was coaching.

That said, no team has ever had a better record the season after Norv left."

Are you saying that you would rather your team not make the playoffs than go to the playoffs and lose?

[steelerfan513]

Smith has done a great job of dismantling the Chargers. As a Patriots fan, I'd like to see him get a job in Indy next

If by 'dismantling' you mean 'building', then I agree. And while Norv has certainly had his downfalls (no one pointed out that the timeouts he used with 2:50 remaining led to the Colts getting the ball back with 20 seconds and, had they scored, would have restricted to our two-minute drill to plays near the sidelines, instead of over the middle with those two extra timeouts), the Chargers weren't going to win a playoff game with Marty as their head coach; no team is. He's proven time, and time again that he's not able to; so even if we don't win this season, it's no loss compared to the result if Marty was coaching.

That said, no team has ever had a better record the season after Norv left.

AJ Smith completely botched the handling of the head coaching position this off-season; the only reason he still has his job is because he generally does a good job in the draft (LT, Merriman, Gates, McNeill, Merriman, Cromartie, etc.). I understand the reasoning behind firing Schottenheimer, but Smith needed to make that decision before other teams snatched up all the good head coaching candidates. Instead, he fired him long after all other teams had filled their vacancies, and he was forced to go with Norv Turner, who has led only one team to the playoffs in his head coaching career and whose career record as a head coach coming into this year was 57-82-1. The result when Marty was coaching was that he made the playoffs then lost. That's better than not making the playoffs at all, which is what teams get under Turner (as daj88 said). Turner had seven years to make the Redskins a winning team, and he failed to do so.

The fact that no team has had a better record when Turner has left means absolutely nothing; usually teams don't see significant improvements following the firing of a head coach. Head coaches are fired for the reason that their team isn't good, and coaches sometimes need time to implement their plan to make the team a winner. The Redskins actually finished with the same record the year after Turner's firing, and the Raiders made the idiotic decision of hiring Art Shell to run their team. Teams not improving or getting worse after Turner leaves is not a reflection on Turner; it's a reflection on the team.

[zevon]

Nailed it right on the head on all fronts, Steelerfan.