San Diego is a BIG LIE!

[LaTunaNostra]

Hi Thunderstruck, glad you made it over.

Toniu Fonoti, our best LG, went AWOL in camp and got placed on IR as punishment.

That's the first time I've heard of such a thing..what did the Player's Union have to say about that? And the league itself.....I'm sure such a draconian punishment made its intended point......but I'm surprised Tags' office would let a team play so fast and loose with the IR.

 

[kmd24]

Ahh yes...2003. What a glorious season that was. If '04 could be a one-year abberation, why not '03 just as easily?

FWIW, I think both years are abberations. My only point is that +21 masks a lot of wrongs, and it isn't totally in the team's control, particularly a team with a below average pass rush and questionable secondary.

 

[Thunderstruck]

Hi Thunderstruck, glad you made it over.




That's the first time I've heard of such a thing..what did the Player's Union have to say about that? And the league itself.....I'm sure such a draconian punishment made its intended point......but I'm surprised Tags' office would let a team play so fast and loose with the IR.

He was injured. That was his claim. According to his wife in an interview last season, Fonoti was going through some major emotional crap in that offseason, which might explain why we still have not leaped forward to give him a longterm contract. He's an awesome football player, no doubt, but I think that scared management. Emotional issues are just scary. He showed no signs of any of that last year though. It was just a wierd thing.

Anyway, when he did finally show up to camp, he failed his physical. Marty was ticked off that Fonoti was out-of-shape and placed him on IR. I don't think there's much the union can do about it because he was injured, and he still got paid.

It's ironic because I've met Fonoti a couple times and he is the happiest guy you'd ever meet on the surface. Possibly he just had some wierd thing going on at the time. I know Marty raved about how terrific he was in the lockerroom last year. Maybe he just needed to be in a better team environment. Lord knows, with Boston and Wiley on our team in '03, our team was anything but united.

 

[Rockytop6]

Amazing. Parcells said "You are what you are." I took that to mean if you have a 12-4 record that you are pretty good. Also if your QB has a rating of over 104 that he is pretty good. However, reading some of these posts I guess BP was wrong and we can just send our cheerleaders out there to play them and we will get the win.

 

[Thunderstruck]

FWIW, I think both years are abberations. My only point is that +21 masks a lot of wrongs, and it isn't totally in the team's control, particularly a team with a below average pass rush and questionable secondary.

Our secondary's not as bad as you think, and never was. Like I said, Wade likes to go soft-zone too much, IMO. Sometimes, passing yards allowed are schematic. Look at our ranking in TD passes allowed and you'll see that our secondary is not a seive. They give up yards between the twenties, mainly due to that lovely soft zone they had to play due to lack of pass-rush. Seriously, if we have a weakness on defense (besides pass rush) it's that we do give up a lot of passing yards to running backs. Supposedly, that's typical of a 3-4 defense when guys are still learning how to play it.

 

[Gent]

We have a kid named Shaun Phillips, #95, who plays that LB/DE role for us on passing downs. Last year he was a rookie, and a bench guy and special teamer for most of the first eight games, but he started playing more as he learned how to cover when it was needed. He's got very good natural pass-rushing skills, but he needed to get stronger, which he did in the offseason. We're looking for him to fill the void and possibly keep Merriman on the bench for awhile.

Good info. Thanks!

-Gent

 

[kmd24]

Our secondary's not as bad as you think, and never was. Like I said, Wade likes to go soft-zone too much, IMO. Sometimes, passing yards allowed are schematic. Look at our ranking in TD passes allowed and you'll see that our secondary is not a seive. They give up yards between the twenties, mainly due to that lovely soft zone they had to play due to lack of pass-rush. Seriously, if we have a weakness on defense (besides pass rush) it's that we do give up a lot of passing yards to running backs. Supposedly, that's typical of a 3-4 defense when guys are still learning how to play it.

Who said anything about passing yards? I was talking about INT's (TO margin).

Simply put, I am saying that the SD defense doesn't put enough pressure on QB's nor have the secondary talent to justify the number of INT's they recorded in 2004. As I said earlier, much of the INT number (9/23) came from the LB's, which is unusual, even for a 3-4.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Ahh yes...2003. What a glorious season that was. If '04 could be a one-year abberation, why not '03 just as easily? After all, we did go 8-8 in '02, which was Drew's first year as a starter, and looked to be on the rise, but we made the mistake of signing David Boston. Boston was like a stink-grenade in our clubhouse. He is the worst football player I've ever seen, and I've seen a few. Gifted and with all the talent in the world, the guy only caught passes that were in his bread-basket, never stretched, pulled up on deep passes that he might have caught if he was willing to leave his feet, never blocked in the running game...a true team leader, that one.

We also had possibly the single-most incompetent defensive mind in the history of sports, Dale Lindsey, as our DC, not to mention we unloaded Junior Seau, John Parella, and Rodney Harrison in the offseason. (After firing Lindsey and hiring Wade Phillips, Marty said Dale simply was overmatched in the NFL.) We also had a raw rookie at CB and SS, a rookie nickelback, and a bunch of seond-year players elsewhere. Toniu Fonoti, our best LG, went AWOL in camp and got placed on IR as punishment, Jamal Williams, our only really good D-Lineman, got cut-blocked in Denver and missed most of the season. (Marcellus Wiley was our best defensive-lineman for most of '03. Oh, the pain!) The young defensive players we'd been counting on to step up in '03 couldn't do so amidst the turmoil of that lockerroom, and they finally started to earn their keep last year.

Yes, '03 was a transition year on defense and a major gaffe on offense. A true abberation.

You guys have to play the Denver 'take out their knees' Broncos twice a year that has to suck.

 

[kmd24]

Incidentally, I wanted to mention that I discovered that I was misinterpreting stats from nfl.com. I mistakenly thought that the fumbles recovered stat on the team page was defensive, but it includes offensive recoveries as well.

The true stats should be 2004 SD: +15 TO margin (10 fumbles lost), 2003 SD: -11 TO margin (12 fumbles lost).

My apologies for the inadvertent error.

 

[Thunderstruck]

You guys have to play the Denver 'take out their knees' Broncos twice a year that has to suck.

Needless to say, we Charger fans have tremendous, umm...what's the word I'm looking for? Hatred! Yes, we despise the Denver Broncos offensive linemen. If the entire Denver Broncos offensive line had a telephone pole fall from the sky and land across the backs of their knees while they were fully engaged with a rusher, justice would be served.

 

[Jimz31]

I saw this in some magazine...about their record and that they got beat by the quality teams....

I like our chances even better than before.

I think our defense....provided they play where they SHOULD, will be too much for them.

Brees WILL throw 2 INT's. Book it.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Needless to say, we Charger fans have tremendous, umm...what's the word I'm looking for? Hatred! Yes, if the entire Denver Broncos offensive line had a telephone pole fall from the sky and land across the backs of their knees while they were fully engaged with a rusher, justice would be served.

That is one thing that has never made sense to me. The NFL talks about how they are always so concerned about the safety of its players and have allowed this travesty to go on for almost a decade in Denver.

I realize that the cut block has its place but situations like the one you are talking about where the defender is engaged with a blocker and someone dives at his knees from behind have absolutely no place in football.

It gets people hurt over and over again every year.

But they ban taking off helmets and grabing someone by the shoulderpads. Go figure.

 

[Jimz31]

That is one thing that has never made sense to me. The NFL talks about how they are always so concerned about the safety of its players and have allowed this travesty to go on for almost a decade in Denver.

I realize that the cut block has its place but situations like the one you are talking about where the defender is engaged with a blocker and someone dives at his knees from behind have absolutely no place in football.

It gets people hurt over and over again every year.

But they ban taking off helmets and grabing someone by the shoulderpads. Go figure.

That's because there hasn't been a T.O. go down because of it. If it were some guy playing in a "skill" position, the NFL would have done something about it.

Yeah right....it's actually because it's not the Cowboys doing it. If we were doing it, it would have been banned and enforced more strongly long ago....Jones would have personal fines and be imprisoned by the NFL....

 

[Thunderstruck]

That is one thing that has never made sense to me. The NFL talks about how they are always so concerned about the safety of its players and have allowed this travesty to go on for almost a decade in Denver.

I realize that the cut block has its place but situations like the one you are talking about where the defender is engaged with a blocker and someone dives at his knees from behind have absolutely no place in football.

It gets people hurt over and over again every year.

But they ban taking off helmets and grabing someone by the shoulderpads. Go figure.

That's the whole point to me. Defenders don't like any type of cut-block, but if it comes from the front, he can avoid it, which is clean enough for me. But it's the cut-blocks from behind that end seasons. I've always thought it should be an automatic ejection if it doesn't cause an injury, and if it does cause an injury there should be a suspension equal to the time missed by injury, up to maybe four games. I think that would put a stop to it.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Well my take on the game is that if we can stop the run, SD goes down it is as simple as that.

Whether or not we can do that is a big question. Ferguson and Glover need to manhandle their undersized center and Ware needs to keep containment because LT has more than enough speed to get outside.

Our corners are good enough that Im really not too worried about their WRs and the loss of Gates will allow us to cheat a bit.

Id also like to see a lot of singleback 3WR sets forcing SD to their nickle cause if their starting secondary is not all that good Id love to see Price and Crayton against their nickle guys.

Regardless I cannot wait to watch.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

That's the whole point to me. Defenders don't like any type of cut-block, but if it comes from the front, he can avoid it, which is clean enough for me. But it's the cut-blocks from behind that end seasons. I've always thought it should be an automatic ejection if it doesn't cause an injury, and if it does cause an injury there should be a suspension equal to the time missed by injury, up to maybe four games. I think that would put a stop to it.

Yeah its about par with spearing someone with their helmet IMO. Nothing good comes of it.

I dont know about the ejection thing but a 15 yard penalty and league fines would settle the matter. Have Shanahan look at 1st and 25 a couple times and hell stop no question real quick.

Its dirty and it definitley makes defenders more wary. Thats why he does it cuase just the possibility that you might get cut blocked is going to make you apprehensive.

Everytime I see Schlereth I have trouble holding my cookies.

 

[Letemburn]

Please o please post this over here....

http://forums.chargers.com/showthread.php?t=24077&page=15&pp=10

 

[LaTunaNostra]

That's because there hasn't been a T.O. go down because of it. If it were some guy playing in a "skill" position, the NFL would have done something about it.

Yeah right....it's actually because it's not the Cowboys doing it. If we were doing it, it would have been banned and enforced more strongly long ago....Jones would have personal fines and be imprisoned by the NFL....

Yah, the "Flozell Adams Rule" has a certain ring to it.

 

[SmashFactorGolf]

2004---they had a QB that got hot, wasnt a "bus driver", sched was in their favor,
that is how the nfl wants it,

still the kid at rb is a stud, we cant turn it over, let them get a lead and control the ball

 

[WoodysGirl]

The Bolts still have to prove that the success of '04 was not a fluke. The only way to do that is on the field. Still, for those saying we didn't beat anybody, how many teams that we beat would have been playoff teams if we hadn't beat them? The Chiefs, for one. The Jaguars, for another. The Panthers, though I'll admit the Panthers were a shadow of themselves early in the season last year. The Saints.

But you should also note that we didn't just beat the average teams last year. With a couple exceptions, we dominated them. We also didn't lose any games against teams that we should beat. Two of our losses came to; the Falcons in Atlanta by 1 point, in their yard, and we lost to the Colts by a field goal in overtime in their yard. Both of those teams are considered elite by most. In the playoffs we lost to the Jets on a field goal in overtime.

There was no one who dominated us even on our worst day.

It's a new season and anything can happen. I know this from last year. But it does get rather tiresome hearing the same reasoning this year as to why some team is going to OMG***PWN!!! the Chargers as we heard all of last year. You guys are saying the exact same things we heard pretty much every opposing fan say last season.

and good post. I've trolled the SD forum since Latuna showed up over there. She and FlaCowpoke were good representatives from our board. Glad you decided to come for a visit.

At this point, no one knows how the game is gonna go. I think SD not making any major changes in the offseason was puzzling, but not unreasonable. The problem I have is that it reeks of the follow-up to the 'boys 03 season. You go with the status quo and hope that lightning strikes twice (no pun intended). SD has some pretty good players who you can't easily dismiss.

On the flipside, the Cowboys on the whole is totally different. The entire backfield is different except for Julius; upgrades on the O-line, upgrade on the WR corp, major upgrade in the secondary even if there's a question mark on the safety position. The D-line's depth is scary.

But being that Cowboys didn't show much during the preseason, there's still no way to know how the Cowboys are gonna come out on Sun.

Basically, I'm just saying, I don't know who's gonna win. I think Dal has as good a chance to beat SD as SD has to beat Dal.

Of course, I'm going with the boys. :starspin