Staley takes responsibility, but Chargers players need to step up as well

INGLEWOOD – Brandon Staley took a page out of his old boss’s playbook Sunday afternoon. Maybe he should be a little more careful with that.

Sean McVay has been notorious for taking the responsibility on himself for Rams’ failures, even on occasions when the responsibility more accurately belonged to those on the field. When you get to the postseason four times in six years, reach the Super Bowl twice and win one, you’ve got enough leeway to get away with it.

Staley, whose one season as McVay’s defensive coordinator in 2020 helped propel him to his first head coaching job with the Chargers, has taken the same approach. After a porous defensive effort ended with Riley Patterson’s walkoff 41-yard field goal and a 41-38 win for the Detroit Lions, Staley fell on his sword much as he did three weeks ago after a loss in Kansas City.

“I didn’t do a good enough job on defense for us today,” Staley said, and never mind that he didn’t personally whiff on a tackle or blow a coverage. “That was the story, run and pass. Didn’t do a good enough job on the run game in the first half and then in the second half there were far too many (explosive plays). So I didn’t do a good enough job for us today.

“We got to go back to practice and we’ve got to get back to work and focus on fundamentals. You know, the fundamentals of playing defense start at the line of scrimmage, playing blocks, leveraging the football, tackling and then staying connected in coverage. You know, we didn’t rush well enough today. didn’t cover well enough and it starts with me. … It wasn’t good enough today in any phase. And again, like I said, I take full responsibility.”

As noble as it is to take full responsibility, and as useful as it might be to relieve some of the scrutiny on the players who aren’t getting it done, a coach should be careful before going that route. You take responsibility publicly too many times and the higher-ups might start to believe you.

Staley made his bones as a defensive coach, remember. His Chargers’ head coaching record is now 23-20, his teams have played one postseason game (and what a debacle that was last January), his 2023 team is now 4-5 and faces an uphill battle to get back to the playoffs and he has one year (at a reported $4 million) left on his contract after this season. And the people he needs to convince are (in ascending order) general manager Tom Telesco, president of football operations John Spanos and owner Dean Spanos, John’s dad.

What’s in his favor is that the Spanoses historically don’t fire coaches in midseason, and they also historically don’t like to pay coaches not to coach. The last time a Dean Spanos team canned a coach in midseason was 1998, when they fired Kevin Gilbride after six games and replaced him with June Jones. (That team finished 5-11 anyway).

Mike McCoy got the full four years at the end of the team’s San Diego run even with 4-12 and 5-11 records the last two, and Anthony Lynn got the full four years at the start of the team’s L.A. existence even with 5-11 and 7-9 records in his last two seasons. Both men reached the postseason once.

Staley’s coaching style is polarizing, though he’s not nearly as much of a riverboat gambler as he was in his first two seasons. He can be mildly condescending, though in a passive-aggressive way as when he told one inquisitor Sunday, “I appreciate your line of questioning” before disputing it.

But here’s where the Chargers are: They’re 4-5 overall and 2-5 in games decided by a touchdown or less. They carried a two-game winning streak Sunday thanks to a schedule that put them against two straight opponents using backup quarterbacks, the New York Jets and Chicago Bears. Sunday they faced a Lions team that is now 7-2 and is displaying all of the gifts that Jared Goff brought with him when the Rams traded up and drafted him No. 1 overall in 2016.

Goff picked the Chargers apart Sunday (23 for 33, 333 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and no sacks), while running backs David Montgomery (116 yards and a touchdown in 12 carries) and Jahmyr Gibbs (77 in 14 carries with two scores) raced past them. Detroit had 16 offensive plays go beyond 10 yards, eight of them 20 yards are more, including two Goff completions of 40-plus yards and a 75-yard scoring scamper by Montgomery on the first possession following a Chargers touchdown.

“A lot of those plays we missed a tackle or a guy didn’t see it right,” safety Derwin James Jr. said. “So we just got to be able to get guys on the ground and eliminate those explosive plays. … You got to get more guys running to the ball. I feel like the more guys running to the ball, the less chances of a guy breaking. So we got to get more pursuit for the ball and get guys to the ball.”

And when he was asked if this involved fundamentals, effort or talent, he answered: “Want-to.”

That should be a red flag.

It is worth noting that linebacker Chris Rumph II suffered a foot injury in pre-game warmups and wasn’t available, leaving the Chargers a man short at that position. But the Chargers’ 38 points, and by extension Justin Herbert’s brilliance (323 yards, four touchdowns), should have been enough. And really, James said, 28 should have been enough.

“It’s frustrating as hell because our job, we want to go out and dominate,” James said, who then said it was time for players to look in the mirror.

“And,” he added, “start with me. We’re going to get it fixed.”

It’s good when the leaders accept responsibility. But if the Chargers are going to make a run with eight games left, it can’t end there.

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Staley takes responsibility, but Chargers players need to step up as well – Daily News

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