Somehow Norv Turner Still Coaches the San Diego Chargers

The fact that Norv Turner is still the head coach of the San Diego Chargers is befuddling to say the least. Perhaps part of the reason is the fact that the team is on a short week following their inexcusable loss to the Cleveland Browns with the Kansas City Chiefs on the schedule for Thursday night. If the team loses again against the Chiefs for the fourth straight game, will the organization finally concede that Turner isn’t the right man for the job and give him the axe with 10 days before the next scheduled contest?

Normally the answer would be a quick ‘no’ to this question given the club’s track record, but the fashion in which this team has been losing is the reason this time might be different. The Bolts’ collapses on national television in consecutive weeks against the New Orleans Saints and the Denver Broncos fired up the calls for Turner’s job, but the touchdown-less effort against the Browns only further intensified those pleas.

When a team loses games in this manner, the only real explanation is that the coach isn’t getting all of his players to buy into what he is selling. Blowing one double-digit lead in a single season can be a devastating experience, but doing so in back-to-back weeks can emotionally destroy a group. The disinterested effort that the Chargers gave in Cleveland suggested that the team may be trending in that direction.

What has always been the knock on Turner as a head coach is his lack of motivational skills. Turner is a tactician who is (was) incredibly skilled at drawing up an offensive gameplan, but he lacks that ‘it’ factor to get a team ready to run through a brick wall. In fact, Turner might have trouble getting a squad to run through a paper banner for homecoming.

So now the question remains just how attached is team management to Turner as the head coach? That answer seems to be changing as the weeks move on and the disappointing losses add up. The fan base is restless and for a team that already has difficulty selling tickets that may be the final straw to earn Turner his pink slip.

Follow Anthony Blake on Twitter @AnthonyMBlake or on Facebook at Anthony Mizarkus Blake