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So ESPN's John Clayton hops aboard the Norv Turner back-slapping bandwagon. The media's been making a huge deal of the Chargers' win yesterday over the Titans, which is, I concede, the Chargers' first playoff win since their Superb Owl run of '94.
But the idea that this team is somehow more successful than last year's Chargers -- made explicit in the title "Turner gives Chargers what Schottenheimer couldn't" -- is just laughable. Yes, they won a playoff game, but they won a wild-card playoff game against Tennessee. Last year as the #1 seed by virtue of a 14-2 record, the Chargers didn't have to play a wild-card game. Winning a wild-card game against a #6 seed is not an accomplishment. Sorry. This proves nothing. Small children, primates and some plants could beat a Tennessee team with four starters out with injuries when they're given the daunting depth of talent on the Chargers' roster.
If the Chargers lose this next weekend -- and against the Colts, they should -- they'll have made it just as far as the previous season's Chargers did under Marty Schottenheimer, the coach subsequently run out of town by GM A.J. Smith, pain be unto him. That's not an accomplishment, that's stagnation. If the Bolts do eke past the Colts by exploiting Indy's injuries or an aggressive defense or maybe remembering that LT can catch passes from time to time, then we can talk about Norv Turner not being a very large bacterium. And it's possible. It just might happen. But I'm not planning the victory parade just yet.
But the idea that this team is somehow more successful than last year's Chargers -- made explicit in the title "Turner gives Chargers what Schottenheimer couldn't" -- is just laughable. Yes, they won a playoff game, but they won a wild-card playoff game against Tennessee. Last year as the #1 seed by virtue of a 14-2 record, the Chargers didn't have to play a wild-card game. Winning a wild-card game against a #6 seed is not an accomplishment. Sorry. This proves nothing. Small children, primates and some plants could beat a Tennessee team with four starters out with injuries when they're given the daunting depth of talent on the Chargers' roster.
If the Chargers lose this next weekend -- and against the Colts, they should -- they'll have made it just as far as the previous season's Chargers did under Marty Schottenheimer, the coach subsequently run out of town by GM A.J. Smith, pain be unto him. That's not an accomplishment, that's stagnation. If the Bolts do eke past the Colts by exploiting Indy's injuries or an aggressive defense or maybe remembering that LT can catch passes from time to time, then we can talk about Norv Turner not being a very large bacterium. And it's possible. It just might happen. But I'm not planning the victory parade just yet.