Hayes Knows What Ails the Chargers . . . : Focus Is on Fouts’ Arm and Anderson’s Role

The questions persist. What’s wrong with the Chargers offense? What’s happened to Dan Fouts?

The basic response from the guys adorned with lightning bolts is, “I dunno.”

In quest of the truth, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, a reporter put some questions to Lester Hayes of the Raiders. No doubt, this will strike some as strange, but Hayes considers himself a student of Air Coryell and the world’s greatest admirer of Dan Fouts outside of San Diego. Hear him out--Lester is as thoughtful as he is entertaining.

“It’s very obvious to me something is bothering Dan physically,” Hayes said. “He just isn’t the same quarterback I’ve watched for the last decade. There has to be a malfunction in his anatomy. He is throwing off his back foot more than he used to, and he seems to be very sack-conscious. I think he’s banged up.”

Hayes seems to be at least partly right. Fouts, who suffered a broken nose in a loss to the Raiders two weeks ago, does appear to have something else wrong with him--a tired arm.

Coach Don Coryell, when asked about his quarterback’s condition, said Fouts may be throwing too much in practice.

“We’ve asked Dan how his arm is,” Coryell said. “He says it’s fine. Heck, he wants to throw every shot. He wants all the looks when we’re working 7-on-7 and 11-on-11.

“In our coaches’ meeting Wednesday night, we got to talking. In the past, we knew that Dan had just blistered the ball in a game after a week when he couldn’t throw in practice. Dan, of course, is the best judge of his arm. We just want him as rested as possible. We just think it might be he’s a little bit tired.”

That’s not to suggest the 35-year-old quarterback is getting too old for the position. Far from it, Hayes said.

“Dan isn’t aging, he’s just getting one step closer to seeing God,” he said. “He won’t be too old to function on the field for three or four more years.

“If any mere mortal can bring the Chargers out of their slump, it’s Dan Fouts. Anyway, it’s only a minute slump.”

Look for the Chargers to burst out of their slump in time for this Sunday’s game against Denver, Hayes said. He certainly doesn’t expect a repeat of Monday night’s 33-7 loss to Seattle.

“Their offense is too potent and too powerful to let what happened at Seattle become a regular thing,” Hayes said. “That had to be embarrassing. The Seahawks’ defensive backs were covering Charlie (Joiner) and Wes (Chandler) man to man, which was shocking to the silver and black (the Raider defensive backs watched the game on TV).

“I couldn’t understand why Dan didn’t pass for 400 yards against Seattle. He normally has a stupendous game against those guys. I really hope he can bring the Chargers out of it this week. It would help us if San Diego beats Denver.”

Fouts needs to get hot and stay hot, Hayes suggested. Normally, that’s no problem for the Charger quarterback. But, in his four-game slump, Fouts has played well for only a few series at a time--most uncharacteristic, as Hayes said.

“That’s what makes me think something is wrong with Dan,” Hayes said. “Deep down in his soul, something has to be troubling him.”

Hayes went deeper in his exploration of Air Coryell’s problems.

To isolate on Fouts alone is a mistake because the focus of the Charger offense has changed dramatically this year, the Raider said.

Gary Anderson, whom Hayes referred to only as “No. 40”, has become the focal point, both as runner and receiver.

“With No. 40 as the focal point, that takes the ball out of the hands of other players, like Wes, Charlie and Kellen Winslow,” Hayes said. “I don’t want to second-guess Don Coryell, but they’ve put a lot of pressure on No. 40 to be a success. If he doesn’t procure yardage consistently, it’s very difficult going to Phase 2 (Chandler, Joiner and Winslow.) Those guys always were Phase 1.

“What the Chargers are doing with No. 40 is they’re using him like we use Marcus Allen, on screens, traps and draws, a little of everything.”

Hayes doesn’t think it’s wrong to count so heavily on Anderson.

“No, my man, it’s academic,” he said. “No. 40 is the second coming of Gale Sayers.”

The Chargers think the same way. In the exhibition season, assistant coach Al Saunders predicted Anderson would be the single most exciting player in pro football this year.

Anderson was just that in the season opener against Miami, particularly on a memorable play when he soared over a Dolphin defensive back from five yards outside the end zone. He has been less spectacular in the last month, in part because of a hip pointer that forced him to miss a week of practice leading up to the Raider game.

The Chargers, who still are counting on Anderson to be their primary weapon as a runner and receiver, may have been slightly misled by Anderson’s work in training camp. Anderson seemed comfortable with a crash course to make him fluent with all the nuances of the offense, some of which evaded him last year, his first with the team.

“We’ve tried to move him around an awful lot,” offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese said. “We have to be careful not to give him too many things to do, where he’s thinking instead of reacting aggressively. We may have done that with Gary. If so, it’s my fault.”

At times, Anderson says he has been a bit confused.

“They give me stuff to do and I have to think about it,” he said. “Sometimes I’m not totally confident when I get in my stance. I look at the defense and I have to make an adjustment. That might slow me down a little coming off the snap.”

Coryell doesn’t think it’s a problem.

“It’s extra work for Gary (to be used as running back and wide receiver), but he’s just been super,” Coryell said. “He’s very efficient. We’ll use him any way we can to get the ball to him.”

The emphasis on Anderson should not be viewed as a sign that the older Charger receivers have slowed down, according to Hayes.

“Wes hasn’t lost anything,” Hayes said. “He still gives me plenty of trouble, he’s so deceptive.

“Charlie, I can jam him all day, and he’s still fighting me. I cannot instill fear in Charlie Joiner. I’ve blackened his eyes and bloodied his nose, and it just makes him tougher. He is just fearless.”

Hayes speaks less glowingly of the Charger defense. Despite the improvement of the San Diego pass rush, the Chargers are still giving up too many points, Hayes said.

More specifically, he believes it was a mistake for the Chargers to bench cornerback Wayne Davis this week and award the starting job to Ken Taylor.

“No. 20 (Davis) won’t be functional the rest of the year,” Hayes said, a sentiment that might be shared by Charger coaches. “His confidence will be shattered by going to the bench. It’s only human that the man is going to pout.

“When he plays, he will be too self-conscious, thinking too much. It’s not fair to No. 20. Hey, every cornerback in this league gets beat in man-to-man coverage. There are no more invincible cornerbacks since they took away the bump and run in 1978. The invincible cornerback is null and void.”

So, too, is the world’s most flamboyant offense, judging from the past four games.

With apologies to Hayes, it’s time to let the Charger coaches share the floor in groping for some answers.

One of the criticisms that has been leveled is that Air Coryell lacks a vertical dimension. All the passing seems directed at the flanks. What gives?

“Well, we never did try to go deep very much in the past,” Zampese said. “We never were that type of team. It wasn’t what we did best. We never searched for the deep threat. We’ve been content with the pattern runners.”

Little can be done to rectify the lack of a deep threat until next year’s draft, when the Chargers may look for a speedy receiver , according to Saunders.

“We’ve never had the sprinter with Olympic speed, but we might think about one,” Saunders said. “We’ve been the best offense in football without one for six of the past seven years. With the exception of Bobby Duckworth (traded to the Rams last year), we haven’t had that element in our offense. But there is no question more speed would help us in the future.”

Saunders believes there are more urgent problems. The Chargers have made too many turnovers and not enough big plays. Their longest pass has been 34 yards to Pete Holohan. Their longest run was 25 yards by Lionel James.

“Historically we always had the big plays to put us in instant position to score,” Saunders said. “The impetus of the offense is greatly enhanced when you make those plays.”

The absence of big gainers stems from little failures, according to Saunders. A blocker fails by half a second to hold his man out and Fouts has to hurry a throw. A pass bounces off a receiver’s hands and is intercepted. On such plays rests the outcome of a game.

But that’s not to suggest that there are fatal flaws in Air Coryell. Patience is required.

“We can’t just turn around and say our scheme is no good anymore,” Zampese said. “The whole thing blows up in your face if you panic. Maybe I’m just not hitting the right play-calling sequence. Sometimes you get in the rhythm of guessing the coverages. I must be guessing wrong, because we sure aren’t scoring the points.”

Zampese conceded that the Chargers may be throwing more in a horizontal plane than in a vertical plane, but he defended that practice.

“Sure, we have tendencies,” he said. “We repeat what we do well. You’re foolish not to. We’re trying to research all this without panic. It’s not any one thing you can put your finger on.”

Saunders provided a figure of speech for what Zampese was saying.

“We’re not winning and we’re under the microscope,” Saunders said. “We’ve thrown a few sparkplugs, and a couple of wheels have come off the cart. But we have the tools to put ‘em back on. I hope we can get the job done by Sunday.”