I Hate to Say It.

No matter how hard I try to be a good loyal "follower" of the Chargers, I keep coming back to the problem of knowing too much. I know what this team is, and more importantly, I know what this team was and could have been. Special teams is a problem, but it's really just a symptom. For years we were told this team had depth to the level where we didn't need to make a splash in free agency. We were told we had the luxury of taking the best available player on the board. For years we passed over players that could have shored up our linebacking corps and instead took a reach pick for Buster Davis (already a number 2 on his college depth chart) and traded up to grab mind bogglingly positionless Jacob Hester. We provided a large contract to virtually unknown one game wonder Jyles Tucker. To make matters worse, we've adopted some draconian zero tolerance policy that has sent several players who contributed out the door. And yes, there have even been a regular amount of injuries piled on. Special teams is the first thing to go when your talent level drops radically after the first string, but it isn't the last. And that's already showing as well. As much as everybody would love to say that two blocked punts did this team in in Oakland, it just isn't true. 12 points in the first 4 minutes didn't put us away. Two long Oakland drives in the 4th were far more responsible than that. Offensive penalties and turnovers aplenty had a heck of a lot to do with it too. Don't let anyone sell you special teams as the scapegoat. The problems this team has raise their ugly heads in every facet of the game. Sure, we still have dynamic playmakers on offense, and we can take advantage of criminally pathetic teams about half the time these days because of it. When we get those big earlyleads, Ron Rivera puts on his big boy pants and lets the defense pin their ears back and bring it. So you'll see some blowouts here and there, but those bad teams are soon to be behind us. After one more "gimme" in St. Louis, we are going to lose 5 in a row. Indy, Tennessee, New England, Houston and Denver in no particular order. Do you like our chances against any of those squads? I don't. Not the way this team is playing right now. And I don't know what changes are going to fix anything at this point in the season. Maybe our division saves us yet again from our own ineptitude, but do you even really want that? Maybe if this teams churns out a true stinker of a season, Spanos has no choice but to save face by forcing AJ to get a real coach in there. Or if we're really lucky, he runs AJ out too. The ego has blunted the sharp football mind that built this team into a contender to begin with. The ego isn't going away on it's own. If we can get rid of one or both of the true cancers on this team after the season, maybe we can salvage the careers of some destined to be great Chargers rather than consign them to the sports fate of every other great player to dedicate themselves to the franchises of this town. Maybe, if we can do that, Rivers and Gates won't have to retire ringless.