The Chargers had no business losing yesterday's playoff game against the Patriots. The dropped balls, the stupid penalties and the horrific play calling are all traceable back to the coach.
The game plan against the Pats should have been pretty simple. About 25 minutes into the game, you could see the plan for success, plain as day. The Chargers had the better team. All they had to do was play aggressive defense, work field position and get LaDainian Tomlinson the ball outside the tackles as often as possible, both with runs around end and screen passes. In the second quarter, for example, LaDainian took a screen pass about 40 yards to the Pats 5. They just had no answer for him at all.
On defense, up until Marty had a brain seizure in the last two minutes of the first half, they had Tom Brady on the run and totally out of sync. Then they started playing a base 4-3 zone against him. That gave him all day to throw the ball and he carved them up, driving 75 yards in about 110 seconds for a TD.
There wasn't anything complicated about the game. If you look at the statistics prior to that 75 yard drive, the Chargers totally dominated the game. They could have done the same things over and over and just crushed the Pats. They clearly had the superior athletes.
Then comes the boneheaded plays, like Drayton Florence head-butting a Patriots' player in front of the refs, or the interception late in the 4th quarter that the Chargers' idiot tried to run with and ended up fumbling. The game plan should have been beaten into their heads. Just relax and do what you normally do. Don't take chances. Terrorize Tom Brady and let LaDainian do the scoring. Don't get into fights on the field. There's no way San Diego could lose that game.
They did lose that game and there's one reason. Marty Schottenheimer just cannot be trusted to win a playoff game. 14-2 in the regular season and a one and done playoffs is the best you can expect from him. His team and his coaching staff were totally unprepared. They all need to go. Keep the players, lose the coaches.
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