Better Late than Never

We make no apologies for our general disdain for coaches, particularly at the professional football level. It seems that they fall into this trap of having to prove to the world just how smart they are…. and how much more clever they are than the other coaches. Brian Billick is the poster-boy for this phenomena. The one-time offensive genius while with the Minnesota Vikings has fielded pathetic offensive units year after year as coach of the Baltimore Ravens (3 field goals and 0 touchdowns against the Niners yesterday, by the way). The man just oozes condescension when he speaks which doesn’t help matters any when we wonder why Billick is held in such great esteem.

And Jon “Chuckie” Gruden isn’t far behind Billick in these respects. All that phone book-sized playbook and play names that take up 20 seconds of the 35 second play clock to recite in the huddle have done for him is one of the most moribund offenses in the NFL.

So the only thing Norv Turner gets any credit for on Sunday is just getting the hell out of the way and letting his playmakers make plays in the Charger’s 41-3 trouncing of the Broncos. Actually, the play-calling and the on-field results were very reminiscent of his days in Dallas as the Cowboy’s offensive coordinator: a steady commitment to the running game and effective usage of play-action to go vertical in the passing game later on.

Even when LT wasn’t experience great success early on in the running game, the Chargers stuck with it realizing that it would (and did) pay dividends later on in opening up the passing game downfield to Antonio Gates and Vincent Jackson. We realize we are biased and we know that Randy Moss and Tom Brady are compiling ungodly stats playing catch in New England right now, but we can’t think of any other player who is having as good a season as Gates is.

Defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell is not off the hook, though. Still not generating much of a pass rush so credit has to be given to the secondary for their much improved play over last week in tackling and pass defense.

So it only took Turner a quarter of the season to figure out how to utilize the talent he has on the offensive side of the football. As we said, better late than never. If the Chargers can beat the Raiders here next Sunday, they will be at least tied for first place in what looks like a very suspect AFC West.