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Part I: Staley tries his hardest to give away another ‘W’
Brandon Staley has always been all about the analytics. He’ll live or die by the sword, that’s for sure.
But this Sunday marked something entirely different: He’s so stubborn he’s willing to throw a game away when his Chargers already have an 0-2 record on the season?
Late in the game, with the ball in his own territory, Staley opted to go for it on 4th and short with an absolutely horrific play call. The — uh, how can I put this nicely? — underwhelming Minnesota Vikings defense was able to come up with the critical stop.
It was a very simple situation, really: Late in the game, the Vikings would have been without timeouts, just punt the damn thing away. Jimmy Johnson — a Hall of Fame Super Bowl head coach who knows a lot more than Staley ever will – was stunned by Staley’s horrible decision-making in the post-game show. Just punt it away, he said. Show at least a little faith in your defense once in a while.
At this point, Staley is putting his own ego before his team. He knows people have been calling for his firing all across the country. He knows how hot his seat is. So he’s doubling down: Just keep going for it, going for it, going for it.
This time, his defense bailed him out. But why should they, in the future?
Part II: Payton shouldn’t have opened his big, fat mouth
Sean Payton was talkin’ an awful lot of crap this offseason, wasn’t he?
He trashed Nathaniel Hackett in the media and trashed the old Denver Broncos regime. Well, now look at ya, Sean: You’re 0-3, and you just gave up SEVENTY points to Mike McDaniel’s high-powered Dolphins.
How does that one taste? Are you sure Hackett wasn’t doing a more competitive job with substantially the same team?
It was clear that McDaniel was making a statement on behalf of competing coaches, too: Do NOT break the Coach Code. Do not go to the media, bashing your brothers of the sidelines. McDaniel showed no mercy until the very, very end when he opted not to try to break the all-time record for points in a game.
It was all over but the crying at that point, anyway. It was an embarrassment, the likes of which none of us have ever really seen. It felt like Bill Belichick coaching against Robert Saleh or something like that. Oh yeah, about that…
Part III: Saleh lets the Jets’ franchise die with Zach Wilson
You’re just gonna watch the ship go down, aren’t you?
Robert Saleh is steadfast, unrelenting – he’s sticking with Zach Wilson, even if a high school quarterback would have beaten the New England Patriots yesterday. The Jets’ vaunted defense did the job, but Wilson was unable to come through, time and time again. The Jets can’t even get first downs, let alone touchdowns.
Wilson’s timing is somehow getting worse. He just holds the ball, holds it, holds it… then gets massively sacked. It is truly sickening to watch.
As for Saleh, how about – I dunno – maybe coaching a little bit? Why just sit there and take the loss? The Jets had a really good shot to win this game. Why not at least try veteran Tim Boyle for the second half of the game? Shake things up? Do something else? Rally the team a little?
This whole thing is astonishing. You have Staley with the Chargers, so stubborn he’ll just go for it when it doesn’t even make logical sense anymore. And you have Saleh in New York, so stubborn he’ll lose every single game just to stick with Zach Wilson and play tough with the media.
What happened to coaching to simply win football games?
Part IV: Eberflus — a little less conversation, a little more action
It was a tumultuous week in Chicago, that’s for sure, but Matt Eberflus’ pregame soundbites were still annoying, no matter how you slice them. This guy was talking about ‘great culture’ and ‘great relationships’ all week when we all know the 2023 Chicago Bears are a massive, undisputed dumpster fire.
Like, stop with the lip service, man, and actually coach. He said he was ‘excited’ to take over the defensive play calling — well, how did that go for you when Andy Reid and his Chiefs absolutely blew the doors off you on Sunday?
As you can see, I’m plain old tired of all this coach speak and lip service. I only evaluate coaches on the field. Are they making their teams better? How do they do when key players are injured? How are their real-time adjustments?
In the end, Staley, Payton, Saleh and Eberflus are killing their respective teams.
This was one of the worst coaching weeks in NFL history.
John Frascella is a published sports author who has been covering the NFL for 19 years. Follow him on Twitter, aka X @LegendSports7 for all things football, basketball and baseball throughout the year.
