I was at the Charger-bear game today, and let’s see what happened compared to what I said prior to the game. I’ll summarize before I get into details.
1. I said the Chargers should punt 35-40 yards and high, forcing a fair catch, so the bears couldn’t return any punts. I said if they can’t kick it out of the endzone, they should deep squib kick. What happened? The Chargers kicked and punted to the bears all game without doing what I suggested, and got burned by long returns over and over, even though some were called back by penalty. Both bear TDs in the first half (14 of the 17 points the bears scored to lead 17-10) were the result of long punt and kickoff returns. This set the tone for the game. The bears got 2 first-half scores the previous week by kicking to Hester, but I guess coaches will never get this.
2. I said the Chargers needed to throw to Gates (tight end) a lot, and also to Vincent Jackson, including going deep to Jackson to stretch the defense. The Chargers did not do this until late in the second quarter, which of course they scored a TD on. They wasted the entire first half, when the tone of the game is set, not doing this, and thus not scoring. They did this on the opening drive of the second half, and scored their other TD. It was obvious the bears couldn’t defend this, which was obvious before the game, but the Chargers rarely did this.
3. I said the Chargers should rarely run, and never on first down. Runs killed drive after drive, and it was a first-down run that produced the fumble, resulting in a 14-point bear lead instead of San Diego driving for a tying TD.
4. I said ballcarriers have to protect the ball against strips, as the bears constantly try for strips (especially Tillman), but the ballcarrier didn’t do this and fumbled (Tillman stripped him), preventing a potential tying TD and allowing the bears to score a TD to go up 14 in the second half.
San Diego could have had a nice first-half lead if they didn’t punt and kick for returns, refuse to throw to Gates and Jackson and stretch the field, and call running plays.
Some specifics:
1. When it was 3-3, the Chargers ran on first down and punted.
2. Hester had a big return on a punt after a drive was stopped due to a run for minus-5.
3. The Chargers had the ball at their own 3, and ran on first down for 1 yard, and punted.
4. The first offensive play of the second half was a first-down run by the Chargers for minus-1. They then threw a bomb to Jackson for 47 yards. They then ran on first down for minus-2. They then threw a bomb and got a pass-interference call. They had a first down at the bear 11, and ran on first down for 2.
5. Other drives were hurt by runs for no or almost no gain.
6. Other coaching idiocies: With 20 seconds left in the half and the bears up 17-10, the bears kicked deep instead of deep squib kicking, risking a return. With 1:59 to go and the bears up 31-20, they faked a punt and had a receiver wide open. The receiver kept running and the passer had to lead him. All the receiver had to do was stop, turn around, and wait for an easy short pass. The bears didn’t need a TD, because if they had just completed the pass and the receiver went down, the game was over and the bears could have taken a knee a few times (the Chargers were out of timeouts). This gave the Chargers time to come back. The San Diego coach had to challenge a call in order to stay in the game as there was 3:11 left, so instead of challenging, he called timeout, had the play reviewed by his coaches upstairs, then challenged. When he lost the challenge, he lost his last timeout. This cost him 2 timeouts instead of the 1 it should have cost if he had just challenged immediately. With 3:11 left and all challenges having to come from the booth with 2:00 left, this made no sense as he wouldn’t have needed to save a challenge. That last timeout could have been critical.