Oh Norv. Just when you had everybody convinced your past coaching missteps were ancient history, you go ahead and do something like this.
The Chargers were down two scores with nine minutes left to play. They had 4th and 10 from the Patriots 36. And they punted.
It was a decision that was stupefying, indefensible, and moronic. I can’t even imagine being a Chargers fan at that moment. I would have thrown every object in my reach at the TV. Down two scores with nine minutes left Turner gave the ball back to the most prolific offense of all time in order to gain 25 yards of field possession. Right then and there any hope of a comeback disappeared.
Turner was counting on forcing an improbable three-and-out, getting the ball back with seven minutes left, scoring a touchdown, forcing another improbable three-and-out, and driving for a winning field goal. That’s called having too much confidence in your defense. Or being somebody with the brain the size of a pea.
Turner’s fatal decision was just the culmination of a completely botched set of downs. The Chargers had 1st and 10 on the 36. Everybody but Norv Turner knew then and there that the Chargers were in four down territory and had to get at least a field goal (which meant getting the ball at least to the 30-yard-line.) But instead of trying to pick up some smaller chunks of yardage the Chargers through the ball downfield. Even on the 3rd and 10, a draw would have been a good call. That would have brought up a manageable 4th and short or put the ball in Nate Kaeding’s range. The Chargers did neither, paving the way for a coaching gaffe that will live on in infamy.
Other thoughts from Sunday…
—I understand that it’s difficult to go 19-0, but I’d really feel better about the Patriots being anointed the greatest team of all time if they didn’t keep getting outplayed by inferior teams for 40 minute stretches.
—Outstanding decision by Tom Coughlin to for it on 4th down right before halftime. Coaches will almost always punt the ball in that situation even though they could easily throw a hail mary and not leave enough time for their opponents to do any damage. The Giants didn’t get anything out of it, but it was a good aggressive call.
—The officiating in the Giants-Packers game was atrocious. There weren’t necessarily a slew of bad calls or one sided calls, but the officials made a ton of borderline game-changing calls that didn’t need to be made. The refs just didn’t let the players play.
For example, there are the two huge and unnecessary 3rd quarter personal foul calls. The first was a roughing the passer penalty on Nick Collins that kept alive the Giants go-ahead touchdown drive in the 3rd quarter. The call was borderline at best. There was nothing blatant and he didn’t do anything dirty. Two minutes later, on the Packers ensuing drive, the refs gave Green Bay a first down with an extremely subjective personal foul call on Sam Madison. Madison and a Packers defender were tussling after the play and the ref only saw what Madison did.
It simply wasn’t necessary to call either penalty. That’s the bottom line. I understand that the NFL needs to protect quarterbacks and keep players from brawling, but when it’s the second half of a conference championship game the league cannot allow officials to affect the outcome of the game by flagging an action that had zero effect on the play.
(By the way, my favorite part of that roughing the passer call was Eli Manning lying on the ground and pleading for a flag. Since roughing the passer could basically be called “The quarterback is too weak and girly to take a hit like a man,” it’s always funny when a quarterback is asking for it to be called.)
