No one expected the Chargers to win this game. All four analysts on CBS before the game picked the Steelers to win. San Diego was the underdog from the time they outlasted the Colts on wild-card weekend ‘mdash; the Bolts were lucky just to be playing in the divisional round. After the loss, every expert on TV was quick to say that Norv Turner and the Chargers deserved credit for coming back from 4-8 to make the playoffs and win a game ‘mdash;’ the Bolts had a successful season just by getting this far.
No one expected the Chargers to win this game ‘mdash; and that’s the problem. Before the season began, the Chargers were picked by all 16 ESPN experts to win the AFC West and five of them picked San Diego to win it all. Even with all the injuries and the shaky officiating early in the season, that’s exactly where the Chargers should have been all along. Going 8-8 this season and losing in the divisional round was an underachievement for this San Diego team stacked with talent on both sides of the ball.
While coming back from 4-8 and winning the division was an achievement, it’s not like the Chargers did it against high-caliber teams. Two of the four wins coming at the end of the regular season were against the Raiders (5-11) and the Chiefs (2-14), and their other two opponents finished at or barely above .500.
In the end, the Chargers ran right into a better team in the Steelers ‘mdash; only gaining 15 yards on the ground against the NFL’s No. 1 defense ‘mdash; and could not contain the balanced attack of Pittsburgh’s offense.
The Bolts rarely got close to oft-sacked Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who suffered a concussion in the Steelers’ final regular-season game, nor were they able to contain running back Willie Parker, another question mark for Pittsburgh coming into the game. Without LaDainian Tomlinson, the Chargers needed to get production from recently acquired running back Michael Bennett to back up Darren Sproles, but they only handed him the ball once for no gain.
The worst part of the Chargers’ 2008-09 campaign is not their loss to the superior Pittsburgh team. It’s the fact that Norv Turner will most likely get another shot at disappointing San Diego fans next year. Turner has proven time and again that he is a great offensive coordinator and a poor head coach. Four wins over teams ranging from abysmal to mediocre and one gutsy victory over the Colts is not enough to erase his more than two decades of NFL coaching that has proven that he can’t be the man in charge.
Turner almost lost his job this season after the Bolts’ disappointing start. Let’s hope that he does just a little worse next time so the Chargers might actually have a shot at the Super Bowl sometime in our lifetimes.