Chargers Not Good Enough

The Charger season has all but officially ended...yes, that was uttered 2 weeks ago when the bolts lost at home to Miami, but beating the previously undefeated Colts the following weekend seemed to signify that the Chargers were a team that had some hope of not only making the playoffs, but also being a team that could pull off an upset or two.

But after the Kansas City Chiefs had their way with the Chargers this past weekend, that all came to a screeching halt. The Chargers, who earned the label of being a team that couldn't finish a game - having blown 4 fourth quarter leads this season - show the ultimate price to pay from that....not making the playoffs.

I do believe I have called for Schottenheimer to be let go last year and will do so again. Yes, he helped rebuild this team into a competitive football team, but his coaching style is exactly what we saw throughout the season. If a lead is attained, then sit on the ball and put pressure on the opposing team's offense, which works about 50% of the time. And if the Chargers need to come from behind, well, you are in a coin-flip because long plays are absent from the playbook.

Tomlinson looked like he was out of gas the last 4 or so games. Not breaking 100 yards, banged up ribs... and really, all season just didn't look like he was running good... slipping and falling on more runs then making long runs...

Gates as well, since his mild ankle injury, seemed to be dropping passes that were routine for him most anytime.

McCardell really stepped up this year and was a great surprise.

Brees looked good most of the time. He did seem to fumble more when sacked this season and did make a couple of really poor decisions/passes. Hopefully he will continue to learn and improve.

Offensive line was abmissal as usual. A reason, I think, one of the best runningbacks in the league didn't have the dominating season he should have. Very rarely was there a hole for Tomlinson to bust through but instead, and oftentimes, defenders often met Tomlinson at the point of exchange. Completely unacceptable.

The defense seemed to get better as the season went on. Rookie Merriman looks like he could be the real deal. But what's odd is that the Charger run defense, which ranked first going into the game against KC, got RAN over. Which adds to my theory that I've had every time the Chargers are 'suppose' to have this good run defense...and that is teams don't need to run on the Chargers when they can pass. The Chiefs didn't want to pass and chose to run the ball and had little to no problems doing so... and that just goes to show that the Chargers were number one against the run on paper only...

Overally I am mostly disappointed with the season. I felt the Chargers were legitimate contenders for the division. Their schedule was brutal, but even more reason to think that they could have really proven something this season but came up short. What really stinks is the first four losses the Chargers could have, should have won and then these last two were simply embarassments...if they would have been the first two losses for the Chargers, then they wouldn't matter so much, but because of the previous four losses they just show that the Chargers are not a good team.

Hopefully the offseason is positive and I look forward to next season when the Chargers can redeem themselves.