But before that, I just simply had to give the Chargers some props this morning. I watch football occasionally, so I am not a huge die hard expert on the sport, but I still do enjoy watching it when I can and (like everyone else) love a good game with lots of spirit.
Yesterday's playoff game against the Colts fits into that category better than any game I've seen. Did you see it? If not, you missed (in my opinion) one of the best NFL games ever.
Here's a repost of an article on the web today about the game and Norv Turner, the Chargers new head coach this season:
INDIANAPOLIS – He got choked up during his Saturday night speech,
punctuating some of his more passionate statements with fist-pumps, and the San
Diego Chargers felt inspired by their head coach's emotion. "I believe in you," he told them, and they believed him, and it meant something more than they had dreamt it could have back in the uncertain days of autumn.
This was a different Norv Turner than the man some of them doubted earlier this season, a driven leader who strode confidently and defiantly into the den of the defending champions intent on irrevocably changing the way he and his team are perceived.
He shed the dead-fish exterior and took command of the sidelines, railing at
officials and at one point venturing a good 10 yards onto the playing field to
throw a replay-challenge flag. He looked like he would fight somebody – a ref, a
row of fans, Peyton Manning, whomever – to get what he wanted.
Through it all, Turner kept his poise. There were smart calls at ideal times as he got into one of those sublime play-calling rhythms which made him such a hot coaching prospect in the first place. And for the first time as a head coach in a truly big game, he walked off a winner, his face showing no trace of surprise.
Meanwhile, virtually everyone else looked at the final score – Chargers 28, Indianapolis Colts 24 – and wondered if the football world had spun off its axis. San
Diego, a team known for playoff flameouts, had just taken out the one team
thought to have a realistic shot at stopping the New England Patriots' merciless assault on an undefeated season. Instead, it'll be the Chargers who show up at Gillette Stadium next Sunday to play Tom Brady and the Pats for the AFC Championship, while Manning sits home and digests a can't-win-the-big-one flashback to which Turner can unfortunately relate.
Throw in the game's surreal circumstances, and what Turner's team
accomplished was nothing short of stunning. Playing most of the second half without his superstar halfback and starting quarterback, seemingly shafted by the officials on a couple of key occasions, and stuck on the short end of what would be a 402-yard passing day from Manning, Turner was the hero in the headset.
"The adversity this year, starting out 1-3 and putting ourselves in a hole, it was a tough road," Chargers owner Dean Spanos said after the game. "And I give Norv all the credit. He stayed the course and pulled us out of it." Turner, he of the 59-83-1 coaching record in prior stints with the Redskins and Raiders, joined the Chargers at a fractious time, with ultra-emotional coach Marty Schottenheimer having been fired by Spanos last February after losing a power struggle with general manager A.J. Smith. That the top-seeded Chargers, who'd gone a league-best 14-2 in the '06 regular season, had flailed down the stretch of a 24-21 divisional round playoff defeat to the Pats cemented the franchise's reputation as front-running underachievers – something Turner alluded to when he spoke to his players at their suburban Indy hotel the night before the game.
The new coach had his share of critics when he got the job, and the bashing intensified when he dropped three of his first four games, including a 38-14 thrashing by the Patriots in Week 2. To be fair, I have been a longtime member of this not-so-secret society, not because of anything personal I have against Turner, but largely because of what I've been told about him by various players and coaches I respect.
And, to be even more fair, some of those people who felt Turner was miscast as a head coach were current Chargers players. In mid-November, San Diego was 5-5 and seemed to be treading water, and Smith, a shrewd talent evaluator with an
authoritarian streak, looked like he'd blown it by putting Turner in charge.
The coach, however, stuck to his message: Last year, you were the best team in October and November, he told his players, and look where it got you. The challenge this year is to be the best team in December and January.
LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego's All-Pro halfback and unquestioned leader, helped get his teammates on board with a heartfelt speech. The Chargers promptly began a winning streak that on Sunday reached eight games, and as the victories mounted, the coach's credibility increased internally.
On Saturday night, at long last, Turner found his voice. He spoke of the team's journey, reminding the players of the season's rough beginning and how many times they'd been counted out. "Once again, we're at that crossroads," he told them. "People want to see Brady vs. Manning. Let's be honest. No one gives us a shot in this game."
He talked about the way the Chargers were perceived by outsiders – as a talented team that couldn't dig down deep and, say, pull out a big game as road underdogs.
"I don't know where that comes from, but that's not true," he said emphatically.
The room grew silent as Turner continued, "I believe in you. I believe in this
team."
Then, tapping his chest for emphasis: "I feel it right here."
"You could see him tearing up," Tomlinson recalled Sunday. "We all felt it,
because we knew it was coming from the heart. And when he tapped his chest …"
Wait a minute – that was a page straight out of the Schottenheimer playbook."Yep," Tomlinson said, smiling. "It sure was."
The Chargers could have been blown out of the Dome on Sunday, as so many other teams had before them, but they kept finding a way to silence the roar of 56,950 fans by drawing on the deep, talented roster Smith has assembled.
The Colts were up 7-0 and driving late in the first quarter when future Hall of Fame wideout Marvin Harrison, in his return after missing the regular season's final 10 games with a severely bruised left knee, made his first catch on a crossing route at
the San Diego 23-yard line and fought for extra yardage. Cornerback Antonio
Cromartie, a Pro Bowl selection despite spending the first half of the season as a non-starter, forced a fumble that safety Marlon McCree recovered – the first of three valiant takeaways by the Chargers, who led the league in that department this season – and the game settled down into a back-and-forth affair.
Three gorgeous touchdown passes by quarterback Philip Rivers (14 of 19, 264 yards) gave San Diego a 21-17 lead, the last coming on a short screen that 5-foot-6 scatback Darren Sproles turned into a 56-yard breakaway down the left sideline to close the third quarter. But Rivers tweaked his right knee while backpedaling on the
delivery, forcing him to the sidelines, where (gasp!) Tomlinson had been relegated since twisting his left knee in the second quarter, on the Chargers' first touchdown drive.
So it was that with 10:07 left in the game and Indy having just gone ahead by three on Manning's 55-yard touchdown pass to rookie wideout Anthony Gonzalez, Turner's offense took the field with backup quarterback Billy Volek manning the controls.
Armed with a slew of Smith-acquired skill players, including backup halfback Michael (No Relation) Turner, and the cool wisdom of a confident coach who pushed the right buttons at the perfect time, Volek marched the team 78 yards in eight plays, scoring on a one-yard sneak with 4:50 remaining to put the Chargers ahead. A pair of fourth-down stops, thwarted respectively thanks to killer rushers by bookend outside linebackers Shawne Merriman and Shaun Phillips, doused Indy's comeback hopes.
The Colts, commonly depicted as having flown under the radar while the Patriots were completing an unprecedented 16-0 regular season, had officially crash-landed.
Now Volek was taking a knee, and the Chargers were skipping off the field and into the locker room, where Turner gave the backup quarterback a game ball and told his players he was proud of them and marched into an interview room with a new bounce in his step.
"We've got some guys who compete and fight and scratch and claw as good as I've ever been around," Turner said. "I told them in the locker room I've been doing this a long time … and I've never been around a more gutsy performance by a team. And the adversity, the things that happened during the game, the injuries, our guys never backed down. "It's one I'll remember in terms of individuals stepping up and doing the things you talk about and competing. That's a special game."
No matter what happens in New England next Sunday, this victory over the Colts was a game that Turner will never forget. When we look at him now, we see a different man.
His players saw it first.
"We're going to New England," Tomlinson said.
At long last, they know who'll lead them.By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports
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