No dynamics yet for this duo
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Chargers have every reason to sweat.
They’re 4-4, already having lost twice as many games as they did all last season, and now they’re missing Pro Bowl defensive tackle Luis Castillo. On top of that, the Indianapolis Colts are in town tonight, and the defending Super Bowl champions have the extra incentive of bouncing back from a rare defeat.
The fear that haunted countless Chargers fans -- Coach Norv Turner wasn’t the right man for the job -- seems to be coming true. But the man who hired Turner, General Manager A.J. Smith, is unwavering in his support. And, disappointed as he is with San Diego’s shaky start, Smith still sees a playoff berth there for the taking.
“Everybody’s pointing to him,” Smith said of Turner in a phone interview this week. “Based on what? Based on his record in Washington and Oakland? Based on the fact that this team was 14-2 last season? What does last year mean, except that we were a good football team and our numbers were great?
“I look at Norv Turner as a terrific football coach. I really enjoy working with him with the big picture -- and I’m talking about so many other things than just game day. And what’s his playoff record, 1-1? Well, hopefully we’ll get there again and make some noise.”
The Chargers have one major factor weighing in their favor: they play in the AFC West, the only division in the conference in which no team has a winning record. If the Chargers played in, say, the AFC East, they would already be five games out of first place and teetering on the verge of mathematical elimination. As it stands, San Diego is tied for first place with Kansas City.
Smith looks at the season not as 16 games, but in four-game quarters. The Chargers were 1-3 in the first quarter, and 3-1 in the second.
They were on a roll heading into last weekend but were plastered at Minnesota, 35-17, giving up 528 yards of offense, including an NFL-record 296 yards rushing to rookie running back Adrian Peterson.
Smith called the showing “an absolute nightmare,” and said he’s having a hard time getting a read on how good the team actually is.
“We’re not playing consistent football, for whatever reason,” he said. “We’re up and down, all around, playing in spurts. And that’s not a good thing. It’s going to get you beat or get you in trouble for sure.”
The Chargers won’t get a breather for a while. Their next six opponents all are .500 or better -- Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Kansas City, Tennessee and Detroit. The toughest of those opponents is the one San Diego will face tonight on national television.
The Colts, coming off a 24-20 loss to New England in a game unofficially billed Super Bowl XLI 1/2 , have the league’s third-ranked offense and fifth-ranked defense.
Peyton Manning has beaten the Chargers in three of his four starts against them, and now San Diego is missing Castillo, who was hurt in the Minnesota game and is expected to miss at least six games after ankle surgery. He will be replaced by Jacques Cesaire, the former starter Castillo supplanted in the lineup.
“Losing Luis hurts, really hurts,” Smith said. “Fantastic football player. Now we’re without him. . . . I just feel fortunate that we’ve got someone that’s played the game, rather than some college free agent. We happen to have depth at that particular position, by design, in case things happen.
“Now is he as good as Luis Castillo? Probably not. It’s obvious. And the guy behind Jacques is probably not as good as Jacques. But that’s the layers that you have.”
Even with Castillo hobbled, the memory of an embarrassing loss at Minnesota fresh, and the hopping-mad Colts on the docket, Smith thinks the Chargers are in prime position to make a run for the postseason.
“This division is for anyone at this point in time,” he said. “One of us is going to break out of the pack, and whoever doesn’t is going to be in serious trouble in a month or two. . . . The way it’s going for all of us, you’re going to have a Western Division title and the rest are going home.”
The prospect of a gaudy regular-season record is over. For the Chargers, it’s all about getting slotted in the postseason. And, more than any team, they realize crazy things can happen in the playoffs. After all, it was only last season they had the league’s best record then were one-and-done postseason losers.
“People say you get home-field advantage, go to the playoffs, roll out the red carpet, go to the Super Bowl, just make your reservations if you happen to have home field throughout,” Smith said. “History tells you that’s dead wrong.
“If you’re a pretty good football team that’s struggled throughout the year, got talent, then the lights might come on for three hours in the postseason -- if you get there -- then you just need to stay together as a group. And we are. We’re hanging.”
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