Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE
The bulk of the blame for any loss falls on the shoulders of the team’s head coach and the quarterback. For the San Diego Chargers, those two seem the most culpable for the team’s epic collapse against the Denver Broncos on Monday night. Let’s take a closer look to determine just why Norv Turner and Philip Rivers are on the hook for the club’s meltdown.
In a chain of command, everything moves from the top down so Turner is the first to face the guillotine. His play-calling and lack of discipline to prepare his team for a second half surge from the Broncos were both inexcusable. The Bolts had to know that a Peyton Manning led team was not just going to fade away into the night. Still they came out with a gameplan that insinuated that the game was in hand, the outcome had been decided, and there was nothing left to play for. That attitude clearly comes from the top down.
As for Rivers, five of the team’s six drives in the second half ended with a turnover. Every single one of those giveaways was credited to him in the form of a fumble or an interception. He was forcing the ball into areas he had no business looking and just didn’t have the kind of protection that should have been provided.
Much of this falls onto Turner as well for his plan of attack by continuing to throw the ball with a 24-point cushion when the team should have been running the rock to bleed the clock. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor when playing with the lead and it seems to be a recurring theme for Turner-led teams to misunderstand this concept.
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