Chargers not ready to put Turner on hot seat
That tick-tick-ticking the San Diego Chargers are hearing is the NFL season winding down. It is not -- as some of their fans might hope -- the clock expiring on the Norv Turner era.
Turner will be the coach in 2009. His boss said so last week.
“Hasn’t been discussed. Ever,” General Manager A.J. Smith said of a potential coaching change. “The man’s a year and a half on the job, and I understand the win-loss record isn’t good this year. We’re disappointed in that, but it’s not over yet with six games to go.”
Despite having one of the league’s most talent-laden rosters, the Chargers are 4-6, two games behind Denver in the AFC West, and haven’t won consecutive games since late September. They play host to Indianapolis tonight.
Smith first confirmed Turner is on solid ground last week, when asked about it by reporters from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“The reason the question was asked was because the community was up in arms with all kinds of e-mails and opinions that the coach has got to go. And we responded to it,” he said in a phone interview. “I thought it was ridiculous. But if you’re asking me the question, I guess I’ll answer it.”
There is a road map back to respectability for the Chargers, although it sounds a lot more simple than it actually is. They just need to repeat what they did last season.
The Chargers were 5-5 at this point last season and coming off a loss at Jacksonville. They returned home to face Baltimore, and on Nov. 25 -- the anniversary is Tuesday -- beat the Ravens for the first victory in an eight-game winning streak that would carry them all the way to the AFC championship game at New England.
So is there a flicker of hope this season’s Chargers can make the same kind of run? To hear Smith tell it, the turnaround has to start with the defense. He said the decision to replace defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell with Ron Rivera is already paying dividends, even though the Chargers are coming off an 11-10 loss to Pittsburgh.
Smith said that after the 37-32 loss to New Orleans in London last month: “I thought the spirit was diminished and the fire was done and the bottom had fallen out. I felt very strongly about that, as did other people.”
Immediately after that loss, Smith had his regular midseason meeting with Chargers owner Dean Spanos, Turner and Ed McGuire, vice president of football operations. That’s when the decision was made to fire Cottrell.
“We would have had a meeting in London even if we were 7-1 and things were going good,” Smith said. “It would have been a short one, but we would have had one. This was longer, and with a more serious tone to the problems that I think we had. So the change was made.”
Rivera, Smith said, has simplified the game plan and instilled a confidence in the players they didn’t have earlier in the season. Regardless, they have a long way to go. The Chargers are giving up a league-worst 267 yards passing a game and are ranked 27th overall.
Yes, they’re missing Pro Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman, but lots of teams have adjusted and thrived without key players. The New York Giants, for instance, haven’t missed a beat -- or a beating -- without bookend pass rushers Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora. And the undefeated Tennessee Titans haven’t had standout defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch for three of the last four games.
Now, the pressure is on the Chargers to contain the Colts and Peyton Manning, who during their current three-game winning streak has passed for seven touchdowns and no interceptions.
San Diego has beaten Indianapolis three consecutive times, including in a divisional playoff game at the RCA Dome last season. When Manning played at Qualcomm Stadium last season, he had a career-high six interceptions . . . and still -- despite 10 players sidelined by injuries -- the Colts lost by only two points.
Over the next 12 days, the Chargers have three home games, against the Colts, Atlanta and Oakland. San Diego’s season hangs in the balance.
“We need to take full opportunity of these three home games, and make the move now,” Smith said. “It’s survival. Our hope is we can get our act together, build and grow, and hope that Denver drops one.”
And the clock keeps ticking . . .
“It’s ticking real loud right now,” he said. “We’re aware of it. We’re not dreamers. We know what we’re up against.”
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