When a team is 3-9, especially a team that had legitimate playoff aspirations when the season started, it’s easy for apathy to set in. On Monday head coach Mike McCoy said anyone on his team who gets lackadaisical or starts focusing on self-preservation instead of winning the team’s last four games will be making a gigantic mistake.
“This is the NFL, and it’ll be Not For Long if you don’t play very hard,” said McCoy the day after his team’s 17-3 loss to the Broncos. “There’s not only our football team, there’s 31 other teams out there watching it and if you can’t show up every Sunday and play your tails off you’re in the wrong business. You’ll get embarrassed, you’ll get exposed and other teams will see it and not many guys are going to want that.”
Appealing to the potential future earning capability of his players is usually a sound strategy. Another topic of conversation is the way the Broncos were able to take liberties with Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, who was sacked four times and hit 11 more.
Towards the end of the game Denver’s All-Pro linebacker Von Miller drove Rivers in to the ground, prompting Rivers to get in Miller’s face to voice his displeasure. The problem is none of the San Diego offensive linemen came to their QB’s aid.
Usually you’ll see at least one, if not multiple linemen get after a defender who puts an extra shot on their QB but this time around nothing like that happened. Coach McCoy was perturbed with that, and the line’s performance the entire afternoon.
“I’m pissed off at the way we protected the whole entire game,” said McCoy. “They’ve got to rally and protect him the entire game.”
As for the 3-9 record, McCoy finally let go of some of the usual rhetoric about doing what’s best for the football team and gave an honest assessment of the current state of affairs at Chargers Park.
“We created this mess. We were the ones; coaches, players, everybody else. Our record is what it is, it’s not because of someone (else). We’ve done this.”
Now the question is, will they get a chance to un-do it in 2016?
