BOLT ANALYSIS: AT LEAST WE AIN'T THE JETS

Hope you all had (or are having) a great holiday. At the beginning of each season, it is a fan’s rite of passage to look over the upcoming schedule and make some predictions about the games. The only thing consistent about these preseason prognostications are how inaccurate they usually area. A few years ago, the Chargers looked weak coming into the season and faced the then-powerful NFC East. They proceeded to beat the Giants, Cowboys, Eagles, and Redskins that year. Who knew? This year, when the schedule came out, you saw late season road games against the Steelers and the Jets and you figured those would be two tough losses. Well, who could have predicted that both these teams would have tanked massively and would lose to the hapless Chargers? But, it happened. Yes, Virginia, the same Charger team that was demolished at home by Carolina a week ago. That is why we watch sports I suppose.

The Jets are clearly the most dysfunctional team in football.  The Tim Tebow experiment was a joke. Either let the guy play or don’t. They kept him as a high-priced distraction to mentally fragile Mark Sanchez and truly screwed both players up. A few years ago, the Jets were the chosen team...with a brash head coach and a room full of ballplayers. Well, they are in utter disarray now. We think we have it bad....not quite this bad. The Chargers had 11 sacks last Sunday! 11! That is truly an amazing stat. But it also shows you how much of a collective head game football is. There are two pro-Bowlers on the Jets O-Line. The Chargers were starting three rookies and a second year guy on defense. Yet...there it is...11 sacks.  Rookie Kendall Reyes had 3.5 by himself. But, sacks come in bunches. When the defense is teeing off like that, it can get ugly and spiral out of control. That is what happened to the Jets and their rookie QB from Alabama.  

The Chargers did not really move the ball well, did not run well, only attempted 22 passes and completed 11 of them. Their only score in the first quarter was a punt return for a TD by Michael Spurlock. After some mishaps, they found themselves down 14-7. Ryan Mathews broke his other clavicle and is out for the year. This former first round draft pick’s career is on the edge folks. He regressed tremendously this year, and I think the high hopes for him are pretty much gone. But, with the defense playing so well, it just took a couple of breaks and a couple of turnovers and the Boyz turned a 14-7 deficit into a 27-14 lead. A pair of touchdown passes (to Alexander and Gates) and the Bolts put away the Jets. It was nice to see Alexander beat Antonio Cromartie for the score. All the bad taste you had in your mouth related to the Jets (LT and Cromartie going to them...the playoff losses to them) kind of just have fizzled away. This is just a bad team now, LT has retired in a sad way, and all of their previous swagger has dissolved.

But, we are not here to talk about the Jets. What does this game mean to us? Realistically, it probably did not help us much. Now, we face the prospect of a season closing game (blacked out for sure) against the hopeless Raiders. We will likely win this game. That will put us at 7-9 to end the season. 7-9....all that gets us is a kick in the ass home for the playoffs and a bad draft pick. Had we lost to the Jets and Raiders...we would likely be in the top 5 at the end of the year, with a chance to get a real difference maker. Maybe a left tackle who could block? Now we are in the middle of the draft. Oh well. Cannot worry too much about Draft picks in December. As you all know, we are looking at a new coach. The rumor mill has been beefing up that our pick may be Bruce Arians from Indianapolis. Arians was Pittsburgh’s coordinator for years before moving over to the Colts to work for Pagano. When Pagano was diagnosed with cancer and stepped down for most of the season, Arians has run the team. Well, they just made the playoffs, are 10-5, and are playing great. How much of this is Andrew Luck? Don’t know. But I do know that the Colts were 1-15 last year. That is one spectacular turnaround. Will this guy be our coach? Don’t know, but he certainly fits the profile. He is friends with the other Pagano (our defensive coordinator), he is a team-related guy and not a power broker, so he can work with the Spanos folks. Makes sense. We shall see.

As far as players go, we will see another big changing of the guard. I have to believe they will dump Jared Gaither and his worthless work ethic. I have to believe they will not re-sign guys like Quentin Jammer and maybe Takeo Spikes and Shawn Phillips..cornerstones of the team who may have lost a step or two. I believe they will re-sign guys like Antoine Cason and Louis Vazquez. I believe they will try to sign Denario Alexander. I believe their main argument will be the Philip Rivers is still a great quarterback...he just needs protection. They will go hard after some offensive linemen and try to shore up that problem. Is that the answer? Well, anyone who has watched Philip the last few years has to believe it is deeper than that.  But, my guess is that out of respect to the franchise QB, they will take this tack. They also will need to get a new running back. They need to have a true backup to Mathews (who may not be a backup for long). Ryan will get another year, for sure, but he is too fragile physically and mentally to carry the load. He just does not have it in him. The Chargers will build around their youth and strength on defense. The D-line looks good...Reyes, Luiget, and Cam Thomas are very good young players. Donald Butler and Eric Weddle are guys you can build around. They need to find a strong corner and another linebacker...but the defense is not far away.

But...that is enough for now. Suffice to say...many changes coming. Although we have known it for a few years, the top team we had from 2006-2009 is LONG gone. Whatever happens next weekend is really immaterial at this point. Let the changes begin.

Happy New Year to All! Here’s to a great 2013.

BOLT ANALYSIS: SOME PERSPECTIVE

There is not much to say today. The fact that the Chargers game was blacked out was obviously a good thing. The game was so bad, even the Red Zone Channel did not waste much time on it. So, it must be said that this week’s ANALYSIS is not really coming from a first-hand account. But, you know all you need to know about our team. Normally, when a team is doing poorly or coming to the end of a bad season, you can evaluate young players...and look for the rays of hope out there. I tell ya, followers, it is not a hopeful place.....Chargerville. There is just next to nothing to get excited about. Losing 31-7 at home to a 4-8 team is bad enough. Doing it in such a way that the stadium is completely empty by the start of the 4^th quarter is pretty amazing. We knew the season was lost a number of weeks ago...and now I think we know that the locker room is lost too.  It is still just crazy to contemplate that we beat the Steelers last week.  Not sure how that happened with this offense. Anyway, a couple of factoids:

·         A total of 164 total yards of offense. Six more sacks given up.

·         31-0 at one point, and the Chargers had run two plays on the Carolina end of the field.

·         Ryan Mathews breaks his “other” clavicle and is done for the year. This, after 4 carries for 22 yards.  Ryan had 1 touchdown this year. 1! Former Chargers Mike Tolbert, Darren Sproles, Michael Turner, and, yes, even Jake Hester each have more than that. I am not being dramatic at all when I say that Ryan was supposed to replace or supplant all of those players (oh yeah, and LT!).

·         Philip Rivers fumbles the ball 4 more times, losing two of them. Mr. Rivers leads the League in turnovers for the second consecutive year...I think the number is 46 turnovers in the past two years.

·         “Star” performers such as Antonio Gates, Malcom Floyd, Meacham, invisible for most of the day. At least Gates caught a TD and has a Charger record, such as it is.

·         “Exciting” young players like Melvin Ingram, Larry English, etc. largely irrelevant.

We are just going to ride out these last few games now. With all the guys hurt, and all the guys out for the year, why risk anyone now?  Why not sit Rivers and let Charlie “Clipboard Jesus” Whitehurst have a shot? Why not sit Gates and let Ladarius Green take some lumps? I think they could suit up Natrone Means and he would do just as well as our 4^th string running back, or wherever we will be at that position. We play the Jets and the Raiders and the only good thing that can happen now are two losses that get us a better drafting position.

Like I said, there is nothing else to really talk about. I could berate the entire team and management for another few paragraphs, but there is not much point. I could pontificate about who the next coach might be, but there will be a better time for that. The end is here for the Bolts....losing record, no playoffs, and, really, no hope. The guys in that list above are our best guys. The Math don’t lie.

It bothers me that these posts cannot be more positive. Sports are supposed to provide a release from everyday life. Something fun and diverting...something that gets your mind off of some of the darker or harder parts of your life.  This is certainly the way the ANALYSIS views the sports world. So, despite the passion and outrage that the ANALYSIS sometimes (most of the time) exhibits while viewing sports, whenever things get a little too upsetting in the Sports world, it usually just takes a minute to put things back in perspective. That became oh so evident last Friday. I spent Friday morning with my daughter’s class and one other class. She is 6 years old and in first grade. I helped herd about 60 kids down to a holiday showing of the “Nutcracker”, about ½ mile down the street from her school.  The kids were excited; excited to go for a walk, excited to hold hands with their friends, excited that some of their parents were there, excited that they were going to see a play, excited about seeing Christmas lights in somebody’s yard, excited to see a cat in someone’s garage.  I got home from that experience to see the news from Connecticut. It has been difficult to watch and read the coverage ever since, as I’m sure it has been for all of you. I am not going to go political here...speaking of gun control, mental illness, or the state of our national media. I just keep thinking of the simple excitement of a first grader. And that puts everything in perspective.  

BOLT ANALYSIS: MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

This past week was one of the most interesting in Charger history. We will get to the crazy, bizzarro-world football game in a minute. The first thing that the ANALYSIS must discuss is that the mellow San Diego media ignited a load of controversy by printing an article that emphatically stated that Norv Turner and AJ Smith would be fired at the end of the season. The author, Kevin Acee, has been with the Chargers for a long time. He was their beat writer for a number of years, often penning funny and insightful bits about players and the state of the team. This year, he was promoted to columnist, where for some reason he has become a flamethrower and an instigator. Maybe he thinks he needs to be sharp and cutting and have an opinion now?  For whatever reason, his (not very good) columns have been pretty harsh and in my opinion off the mark most of the time.  In any event, his article was so sure of itself, it left no room for argument.  The article not only said that Norv and AJ were gone, but it even named replacements for AJ’s job and the Director of Player Development position (or something that sounds like that). According to Acee, in-house guys Jimmy Raye and John Spanos are the guys who will move up. No word on head coach yet, but this is pretty meaty stuff. When, inevitably, Dean Spanos was forced to answer the article, he said that “nothing has been decided and only I make those decisions”. Rather than just holding his punches, Acee wrote another one deriding Spanos for not hitting the issue head on and again citing his “impeccable” sources for the story. Wow! This is something that happens in other sports markets all the time. But in mellow, mild, SD? No way. Whether it turns out to be true we shall have to wait and see. But, in my opinion it makes perfect Charger sense (read: oxymoron). This is the Spanos’ team. They have molded guys like Jimmy Raye and John Spanos to do this type of work. Why wouldn’t they keep it in the family? Why would they go out and get some big name or names to come in and take the team away from them? That has never been how they roll. The series of head coaches over the years bear that out. A big name coach like a Gruden, Cowher, Reid, etc. is not in the cards for these guys. We can speculate more on this later but the bottom line followers, the Bolts are in Spanos’ world...and we will continue living in it.

So, in the midst of all this distraction, the injury reports came out. The Chargers would be down 4 offensive linemen, three starters and a key backup. They would be starting Reggie Wells (just picked up) at Right Tackle, Kevin Haslam (undrafted rookie) at Left Tackle, and Rex Hadnot at Guard. With no depth, they had another rookie (Colin Baxter) backing up. This makeshift line for a team that had not scored an offensive touchdown in a couple of games. Pittsburgh came in with the #1 rated defense in the League. The Chargers had not won at Pittsburgh in the regular season since well before the birth of the ANALYSIS. All logic pointed to a beatdown, or at least a low-scoring affair where the home team embarrassed the Charger offense (again). But, that is why we watch the game, right?

The Chargers came out with a conservative, protective game plan (duh) and played smart. The defense was its typical tough self, playing well and winning the field position game. The punter kept pinning the Steelers deep, we were getting off the field on 3^rd down. Now, the offense struggled at times, let’s be fair. But as the first half went along, we did what we could to put them to sleep. A 51 yard field goal, a great double move by Denario Alexander for a TD, and another Novak field goal made it, incredibly, 13-0. If it wasn’t for some classic Charger time management problems, the half would have ended like that. But, they gave up the last drive and it was 13-3. For those who watched the game, I know you were thinking what I was thinking:  Well...another tough half where slowly we will give this thing back up. You were just waiting for that patented bonehead play that turns a good game into a loss. It had to happen, right?

Well, the opening drive of the second half was the best thing the Chargers have done all year. You know that Steeler coach Mike Tomlin laid into those guys in the locker room. They came out breathing fire, the crowd tried to get rolling. There was a 99% chance that the Bolts go three and out. But....oh my....what the Boyz did was put together nearly a TEN MINUTE drive. A thing of beauty that included 5 third down conversions and smart check down plays over and over. Even when they ran the ball on 3^rd and 13 (the right play) to set up a field goal....Ronnie Brown broke it for 17 yards and a first down. When Rivers hit Floyd on a little pass to make the score 20-3...you had to be impressed. This is what a good team can do. True to form, when teams do good things..more good things often happen. Big Ben throws a screen pass off the ass of his player and Jammer collects it in the end zone. 27-3 San Diego. The score got to 34-10 on another pass and catch of beauty between Rivers and Alexander and the Chargers cruised to victory from there. Throw in a great job by our defense...a fake punt!...and an interception by Bront Bird (another guy we cut before the season started) and there you have it. Best win of the year by far.

It is easy, followers, easy to start forgiving. It is too easy to say...wow, maybe we are not that bad after all. Maybe we are actually pretty good. Well, folks, we cannot do it. A win like this just makes me angry. Angry that when our team was healthy and complete we blew huge leads to the Saints and Broncos. Angry that we gave up a 4^th and 29 to the Ravens. Angry that Robert Meacham dropped the winning touchdown at the Browns. Angry that we were bumbling idiots against the Buccaneers. What the hell? Why is it that Norv can coach his ass off when all hope is lost? Why does Rivers put together a heroic effort when they have nothing to lose? How can three offensive linemen off the street outplay the huge contract players like Jeromey Clary and Jared Gaither and Tyronne Green. How can a guy who has never played for the team in Denario Alexander come in and look like Jerry Rice after a couple of games? How can Michael Spurlock, cut in the preseason, come back to have his best game as a pro against the toughest defense in the League. There is no answer. It is sports, baby. And it is why we watch.

So, where do we go from here? Does this team put together a run and finish 8-8? Does it matter now? The San Diego Union-Tribune tells us it will not matter. The newspaper says our coach and General Manager are done. All we are playing for now is pride, and a higher draft pick.  As the ANALYSIS has cautioned in the past....be careful what you wish for. How many of you jumped for joy when Bobby Ross got fired and we hired Kevin Gilbride? How about June Jones? What about Mike Riley? When Marty Schottenheimer was hired after a 1-15 season, what were you thinking? I bet you were not thinking Super Bowl. And when Norv took the reins, that decision was almost universally panned. Those people who scoffed at Schottenheimer somehow re-made their opinions and suddenly thought he was fantastic. It is all about winning, people, nothing else matters. Maybe Jimmy Raye and John Spanos will be winners....maybe not. Maybe the new head coach will create a spark...maybe not. We have three games to do some player evaluations and see how this team ends up. At least we know one thing, it will be interesting.

BOLT ANALYSIS -- WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT?

EDITORS NOTE: This week’s version of the BOLT ANALYSIS was nearly cancelled due to apathy. The game was blacked out and the ANALYSIS was busy at Disneyland for much of the day. However, it has gotten to the point where the ANALYSIS reads much like a Danielle Steel novel(?)...it pretty much writes itself. Given that, this abbreviated version comes your way.  As Ms. Steele must say to herself over and over again, “Well, as long as they keep readin’ it...I’ll keep writin’ it”.

The Bolts yesterday did not deviate from the script. Like a good soap opera actor, or a cook at Jack in the Box, they keep churning out the same consistent fare at every opportunity. I have written it before but the games are all blending together now. Yesterday’s loss to the BengalsRavensBroncos looked a lot like previous losses to the BuccaneersBrownsSaints. You really cannot tell them apart. It starts with a bit of good defense, some stout tackling, add in some inept rushing, some good ground-gaining passing for flavor, and some turnovers for spice. What you have at that point as you put it into the over is a tenuous 4^th quarter lead.  But, as all cooks at Jack in the Box know, it’s the added ingredients at the end that will kill you. And, we are forced to endure the late addition of the bonecrushing sacks, fumbles, mistakes, and interceptions that are the Hallmark of this team. And thus, you have the finished product. It is not fat free.

Another 4^th quarter lead...blown. Another home game loss...this one without a single offensive touchdown. Another game with zero running game (Mathews 9 carries for 26 yards). Another game with a defense that can play ¾ of a game, but can never do the right thing when it counts. Another game with a stunning display of ineptitude at the end by our Quarterback and leader. Another game where injuries mount and show glaring weakness.

We are there folks! We have reached that point of the season where we cannot, not with any mathematical possibility, have a winning record. The best we can do (until next week at Pittsburgh) is 8-8. I think Norv is done. Even if we do finish 8-8, I think this should be enough to start over with a new coach. Next week, we leave San Diego, where we have featured two consecutive blacked out losses, and we go to Pittsburgh. We have not beaten Pittsburgh since the 1994 AFC Championship Game it seems (pause for moment of blissful reflection). We cannot stop here, Followers, we must keep losing! It is the only way to get rid of AJ Smith and attempt to be born again. Tough Love. Don’t forget it. Even when those bits of caring seep back in. Be Strong. Drink the Kool Aid. It is not easy to do, but we must.

Since I have nothing to talk about re: the BOLTS. How about a brief discussion of two other Sports topics that may be of interest?

1) The LA Galaxy won the MLS Cup again on Saturday for the second consecutive year. We were in attendance for the second straight year, and brother Jonas and kids got a taste of it as well. A fun game and a deserved win (if poorly officiated). This was David Beckham’s last game with the Galaxy. I was skeptical when he joined the team 6 years ago. The media hoopla was so absolute, it was shocking to me. And, he hardly played early on. The first two years were dismal, then he went on loan to Milan. It was not until his 4^th year that he really consistently played for the team. And, in typical Beckham fashion, he goes out with back to back Championships.  In the final analysis, I think that the hoopla was justified. The numbers don’t lie....attendance skyrocketed wherever he played, merchandise is through the roof, the League has signed lucrative TV deals with the major networks and overseas networks. Interest around the world increased. Perhaps most importantly however, the MLS has made decisions that have helped that are unrelated to the name recognition of one player. They have pushed for soccer-only stadiums. They have moved into soccer hotbeds such as Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and created fun rivalries. The MLS has a long way to go....but with the help of Becks....it is a solid and legitimate League and here to stay.

2) The Oregon Ducks. My Boys in Green are the only team in the Country to play in 4 consecutive BCS games. The Ducks averaged 49 points a game this year....yet inexplicably fell down at home against Stanford and scored only 14 in a 3 point overtime loss. This slip cost them a shot at the National Championship game for the second time in three years. Just writing that sentence would have been laughable a few years ago, much less in 1994 when I was going to school there. What a program they have become! I would have loved to have seen them take on Notre Dame in the Championship this year. Instead, they get an exciting matchup against Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl. They will likely lose their mad scientist coach Chip Kelly at the end of the year, but these last four years, with a 44-7 record, a Rose Bowl Win, a National Championship loss in the last few seconds....it has been quite a run.