Norv Turner isn’t a bad coach. No seriously. And that is one
of the reasons why the San Diego Chargers decided to give him one more chance
to get this team playing up to its potential but like every coach Turner’s fate
is tied closely to the performance of his quarterback; Philip Rivers.
And trust me; Turner is very happy to have Rivers as his
quarterback. Rivers has a great arm and is actually pretty accurate most of the
time but he has what I call the “Tony Romo disease” which seems to flare up when
the Chargers find themselves in tight situations.
But right now Turner doesn’t have much choice but to put
games into the hands of his enigmatic quarterback. In the past, Turner’s
offenses have thrived off of a strong running game setting up a lethal passing
attack. He had that when he was the offensive coordinator for the Dallas
Cowboys and had Hall-of-Famer Emmitt Smith at running back.
He also had that one great season as coach of the Washington
Redskins when running back Stephen Davis rushed for 1,405 yards and 17
touchdowns. The Redskins only went 10-6 during the regular season but they did
advance to the Division round of the playoffs before falling to the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers.
And although Turner’s offense has not dropped out of the top
five during his five-year tenure in San Diego, his offense was most successful during
his first three seasons when he had the super-talented LaDainian Tomlinson
coming out of the backfield. Or do you think it’s just a coincidence that the
Chargers haven’t been to the playoffs since Tomlinson left?
No Turner’s teams are better when there is a productive
running back present who forces teams to stack the line of scrimmage. This
creates opportunities in the passing game either with play-action or by taking
an extra defender out of pass coverage.
And what made backs like Smith, Tomlinson and Davis even
more dangerous was how good these guys were in short yardage situations.
Whether it was bullying their way for yards or finding a seam to exploit, these
guys were very good at converting first downs in short yardage situations. And
no place on the field is that more important than in the red zone.
The Chargers decided not to resign Tomlinson after the 2009
season because of his declining production. That was the first season that
Tomlinson rushed for less than 1,000 yards in his career. The thing that most
people didn’t pay attention to though was that Tomlinson was still an effective
goal line runner scoring 12 rushing touchdowns despite only 730 total rushing
yards that year.
Tomlinson was also a
great pass catcher on third downs. His ability to convert on critical downs and
in the red zone gave Rivers a reliable asset he could count on during tight
stretches of games. As talented as Rivers is he isn’t reliable enough to carry
an offense by himself.
But that is what Turner has asked Rivers to do the past two
seasons and you see the results. Ryan Mathews and Mike Tolbert have been decent
running the ball over the past two seasons but neither is the all-around threat
that Tomlinson was. Both are situational backs which forces the Chargers to
change personnel from play to play.
And that gives defensive coordinators the opportunity to
also make adjustments. It’s tough to run the ball in this league nowadays but
the thing that made Turner’s run-based offenses so hard to defend was the unpredictability
of his offenses. That goes out the door when they are forced to utilize
situational backs.
That may also be why Turner has changed the run-pass ratio
from 51/49 back in 2007 to a wildly unbalanced 42/57 ratio last year. The
Chargers are forced to pass more so Rivers ended up having a career high in
pass attempts last season. He would also have the first 20-interception
campaign of his career.
So Turner may have to either change his offense this year or
look for more production out of former first round running back Mathews. Then
again he always has the option to let Rivers try and carry the offense again
but we see how that worked out for him last year.
Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He is also a Sports Reporter for Pro Sports Lives. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
All QB's benefit from a running game. Ryan Matthews was just shy of 1,100 yds last year, and should have a breakout year if he remains healthy. Rivers has thrown for over 4,600 yds the past two seasons. He lead the league in passing yards in 2010-2011, throwing to 17 different receivers in the process. Last year he uncharacteristically forced the ball. leading to a career high in Interceptions. His accuracy is well above normal. He is a top 5 QB, and has carried this team in the past. Norv's playcalling has put him in obvious passing situations, and opposing team's have been able to key on this. Expect him to have another good year, and do a better job of protecting the football.
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