NCT (Paris): Outraged Chargers fans should be asking Smith for answers

[Robin Miller]

Paris: Outraged Chargers fans should be asking Smith for answers
21 hours ago • Jay Paris, U-T

Despite that pesky marine layer, the sun really did come out Tuesday.

Ditto the outrage over the reeling Chargers.

Blogs were brimming with Chargers angst. Tweeters were chirping about
the bird-nest-soft Chargers. Phone lines to radio sports shows were so
jammed that every talking head turned into Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton,
fielding calls the way the Chargers collect stubbed toes.

Simmer down, folks. The Chargers are in first place (technically), have
a week off to remind everyone of just that, and as we’ve been told time
and again by coach Norv Turner, this 3-3 squad can be an outstanding
football team.

But the slew of can-you-believe-it records that were broken in Monday’s
Mission Valley Meltdown isn’t what he envisioned.

The embattled Turner stood tall at the postgame podium, and no, wise
guy, it didn’t collapse after the Chargers’ epic 35-24 face-plant. He
muttered something about pointing the blame at him; his belief that the
guys will play better; his faith in his team leaders; yada, meet more yada.

But Turner’s face looked like he saw a ghost. Though we know Casper is
invisible — think linebackers Melvin Ingram and Larry English, only
bigger — we didn’t spot what spooked Turner in the press room.

What’s scary is what the Chargers have become: from 14-2 in 2006, to the
AFC championship game after the 2007 season, to mediocre or
below-average the last three years.

Great squads, let alone good ones with a three-score advantage at home,
don’t go all U.S. Ryder Cup team — and, yes, Phil Mickelson was in the
house. A 24-point lead squandered before Chargers Nation, and the nation
as a whole, is a different shade of red from the usual hue that
embarrassment brings.

Getting outscored in the last two quarters of the last two games 52-7?
Oh, to be in the locker room when Turner clears his throat for those
scintillating halftime speeches and uncanny adjustments.

Philip Rivers was barking at everyone during the game, but it’s never
good for No. 17 when his turnover figure (six) matches his number of
children.

Chargers backers have lost their confidence in Turner — and is it from
the recent two losses, not making the playoffs in two years, or one
playoff win in four seasons?

Turner was hired to do a job — it’s not his fault that he has a thick
resume and interviews well. The man to answer the “why” isn’t Turner,
but general manager A.J. Smith.

It was Smith who pounded the table, like an old Soviet dictator, that he
was well aware of Turner’s disastrous tenures in Oakland and Washington.
But for the Chargers, he was the right man at the right time.

Seems it’s about time we lobbed Smith a call.

We know he didn’t answer when the North County Times was alive. Think
he’ll tell us to drop dead now that we write for U-T San Diego?

“Hello, is Mr. Smith available, please?” While the Chargers’ defense
goes on vacation, one’s manners never should.

Morning turned to afternoon, and we still didn’t hear from Smith. Not
surprising, but someday the calls will cease, and he’ll regret missing
chances to get tips on fixing this mess.

Smith isn’t a lost cause. Name another NFL executive who had a hand in
drafting the quarterbacks who have won three of the last five Super
Bowls in Drew Brees and Eli Manning (two).

One suggestion: Scrap that general manager’s hat and grab one that says
“Coach.” What? That’s Turner’s domain? Not when running back Ryan
Mathews was struggling, and boy, does that appear small-time now.

When Mathews was struggling with fumbling problems, here’s what Smith
told another U-T scribe, and allow us to insert Turner’s name for Mathews’:

“I am very concerned, and it has to stop. I believe you can improve in
(coaching). And no one works any harder in trying to get better than
(Norv). However, if it continues, he will (coach) less.

“Extremely talented (coaches) like (Norv) get multiple opportunities to
improve. What happens to (sub-par coaches) is, first, they (coach less).
Second, if it continues while they’re (coaching) on a limited basis,
then you don’t (coach) for a while and you get to sit and think about it.”

Has Smith had that chat with Turner? It worked aces with Mathews, as he
hasn’t fumbled since visiting the woodshed with Smith’s shingle on it.

Or has this six-year, Smith-Turner partnership reached CYA Junction —
cover your asterisk. Is Smith telling Chargers chairman of the board
Dean Spanos that the reason his team was riding high in September, only
to be shot down in October, is Turner’s doing?

The Chargers beat the scrubs — Oakland, Tennessee and Kansas City — and
were scorched by teams with quarterbacks of the ilk of Matt Ryan, Brees
and Peyton Manning. It’s that caliber of quarterback waiting for
Chargers if they reach the playoffs, and their fans can dream, can’t they?

The last 11 days were a nightmare, in which every Chargers blemish was
revealed in HD on national television.

In January, Spanos welcomed Smith and Turner back. I wasn’t shy in
saying that was a mistake then; I’m not backtracking now. Everything in
sports has a shelf life, and this tandem is past the sell-by date.

By infuriating the majority of Chargers backers in retaining Smith and
Turner, Spanos sold us on status quo.

Not surprisingly, the Chargers have become status woe.