The Chargers Won?

It's been a good day and half since the Chargers made their 2009-10 regular season debut in which they had a last minute drive to beat their divisional rival, the Oakland Raiders...after reading and hearing many of the sports pundits it sounds, to me, like the Chargers actually lost the game even though the scoreboard says otherwise. What's odd about this tact on the Chargers is that the New England Patriots were, literally, handed a win from Buffalo just a few hours before the Chargers-Raiders game even started and there isn't nearly the questioning or negativity regarding the Patriots as there is towards the Chargers. It really seems odd to me but I know that the media can and will forgive the Patriots and will have plenty of "valid" excuses as to why they weren't able to crush the visiting Bills. These same media types will then quickly turn their focus towards the Chargers and exclaim how the Bolts' performance was inexcusable and the team is destined to flail all season long...

Well let's make sure everything remains in perspective regarding the Chargers to date...

Most important, which is quickly forgotten from all these "experts," is that this was the first f'ing game of the season. I put little stock in the first four games of the regular season. Sure, it is always great to have a good start to the season but starting 0-4 does not mean the end of the world...oh sure you will have all the Mike Greenberg's of the world where all of sports is a stat and will be quick to rattle off percentages of teams that make the playoffs after starting 0-1, 0-2, 0-3 and so on but the fact is, a team controls it's own destiny not stats from the past.

Next, is it even remotely possible the Raiders are a better team this season then last season? Again, these pundits that are quick to criticize the Chargers seem to give little or no credit to the Raiders because their recent history is that of complete ineptness...well, one would have to think the law of averages would have the Raiders improving, even if slightly, from year-to-year. And then lets say, just for the sake of argument, that the Raiders are indeed going to end up as crappy as they were last season...one can not forget that this was an opening day game in Oakland. Say what you want about the team but Raider fans are a faithful bunch. Anyone that watched the game saw the crowd at full volume for the entire game and did their best to aid their team...again, another fact that is quickly dismissed and discounted.

And finally the injuries...yes every team has them we all know...but does every team have their virtually their entire offensive line get carted off in one game along with their starting runningback sidelined by halftime? So to even overcome those obstacles during a game I say does say something about this team...

I, for one, would rather have the Chargers face some adversity in the early part of the season, see them overcome it and as the season progresses I would like to see the Chargers improve with the hopes that they will be peaking at playoff time.

Did the Chargers look like a dominant team on Monday night? Absolutely not and many did not expect that but what was expected was that the Chargers be ontop of the AFC West standings afterwords and that is exactly where they are.