You've got to be kidding me ... The Chargers never even won a playoff game under Marty while Norv has taken them to a championship game, and 2 playoff victories over Indy. Marty was terrible at game management and his regular season conservative play became ultra-conservative in the playoffs. I don't like how Norv ran so many plays up the middle, but this one is on Kaeding, Rivers, and boneheaded penalties (which I understand can be attributed to a coach, but we have not seen that all season so I think the moment just got the better of some players) Marty will NEVER win anything meaningful if he ever gets a shot again.
Okay maybe you have something there in this whole Schottenheimer/Turner thing. Nonetheless, the difference is maybe reaching a conference championship game and choking to not reaching one at all but still no Super Bowl and not even close to that. As much as I hate to say it, but if Shanahan had become the Chargers coach and had all that talent, he would be taking that team to the Super Bowl.
He's not the only one to blame, but the decision to kick a 40+ yard FG on 4th and 2, the onsides kick and not calling the timeout on the other side of the 2 minute warning were all boneheaded game management decisions. I'm not saying that makes him worse than Marty, but Norv had a huge impact on the result of this particular game.
So basically, this weekend destroyed all the theories about momentum and resting starters, etc. Indy and New Orleans rested their starters and ended on losing streaks and won easily - no rust or anything of the sort. In fact, they both played substantially better than they had in a while. Meanwhile, teams like San Diego, Dallas and Arizona had all the momentum in the world and flopped miserably.
San Diego? San Diego had their players well rested, had the bye and came out pretty flat against the Jets team who undoubtedly has built up a lot of momentum. Arizona looked tired and losing one of the few decent defenders they have in DRC was the nail in their coffin. Brees looked in MVP form picking them apart like Thanksgiving leftovers. Baltimore played great defensively against Brady and ran the ball well. The Colts caught some breaks in that game, but overall Flacco obviously couldn't get it done out there when they needed plays in the passing game. The Dallas performance was a real stunner. Their Defense had been on fire and Favre ripped them apart almost like they weren't even on the field. Couple that with the sudden ineptitude of their offense and they really stunk it up out there against a Vikings team a lot of people thought showed some vulnerabilities much like New Orleans down the stretch.
On this ... 1) 4th and 2 on the 23 yard line, down by 10, around 6-7 minutes to go, and you have a kicker that hasn't missed from 40 and under prior to this game in years and was statistically the most accurate kicker ever. Sorry but every NFL coach is going to kick that FG to get within 1 score. Kaeding just pulled an absolute choke job 2) The onside kick was a good call IMO. The D hadn't stopped the Jets running game all the 2nd half. This gave them 2 chances to get the ball back, and if they knew Scifres could kick the onside as well as he did, then it was a great call. That was a 50-50 ball being such a great kick. 3) Not calling the Time Out before the 2 min warning. You are absolutely right. That was terrible clock management. Since they gave up the 1st down it didn't matter, but that mistake is inexcusable for a coach. Mistakes like that are what cost Marty his job after the New England playoff game back in '06 4) Norv calling running plays up the middle was another huge mistake by him. The Chargers haven't been able to run up the middle all year so I'm not sure what made him think they were going to do it against that Jets defensive line
I've never understood why more teams don't onside kick in that type of situation. You have to get a 3-and-out whether you kick it deep or fail an onsides kick anyway. If you kick it deep, they probably get it to the 25 or so plus a few yards on the 3 downs. A punt puts you around your own 25. If you onside kick it and fail, they get it around your 40. If you stop them, they either have to take a really long field goal (giving you possession around the 40 if they miss) or punt, in which case half the time it probably goes in the endzone and ends up at the 20. At worst, they pin you deep and you gave up about 15 yards of field position in exchange for a chance to get the ball right away. It seems like a great tradeoff every time. The situation that SD faced where it was 4th & short and they went for it was unfortunate but not a likely scenario. If they get 1 less yard, they probably punt. If they get 1 more, the game is over anyway.
It actually wasn't a good call. They would not have gone for it on 4th down if they were deep in their own territory. Also, it seemed like the Chargers would have saved 5 seconds if they called a timeout before the 2 minute warning.
I said I agreed with the 2 minute warning thing .. As for the onside, I'm sorry, but you can't look at what happened after the onside kick because Norv Turner didn't know they would end up 4th and 1. Prior to the onside kick the Chargers had not stopped the run game AT ALL in the 2nd half and that is all the information Norv had to go by. Doing the onside gave 2 chances to get the ball back which was the most important thing, and I think he made the right call. Not saying kicking off is a bad move, but I think the onside was not a bad call at all.
It was a great kick by Scifres too.. Question is, when you have Vincent Jackson (6'5), Malcolm Floyd (6'5) and Legedu Naane (6'2) wouldn't you have them on that certain play? That's where I question Norv Turner.
