Whoa!! Shawnee, AJ, take a pill and chill!!

[Waterston_Fan]

A few weeks ago, Coach Turner politely told everybody in the media and fans we aren't as good as you think we are and we can get better... Didn't get criticized harshly, at least as far as I know.

Turner comments

AJ the GM who gets these players has come out, rather harshly I think calling the team soft. Even I agree with Herm Edwards of ESPN and Mark Schereth. AJ angry

'The Chargers have had as much success playing regular-season football games in Pittsburgh as Germany has managed in regular world wars. That known, for them to finish on the short end in the city of the three rivers hardly makes for a denouement worthy of Agatha Christie.

So they lost. NFL teams lose. All but one in history hasn't. Continuously losing in Pittsburgh is a problem, but in this case, it was acne on the elephant in the room. It was the way they lost. It was humiliating. Disturbing.

“Absolutely embarrassing,” Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith confirmed yesterday during the first of our annual quarterly report get-togethers. “Everything is wrong with it right now. I'm not the least bit happy in a lot of areas. I've seen us be tough and physical to soft and bewildered.”

Coach Norv Turner fumed when asked if his lads were manhandled. Norv, your team was Stooges-slapped defensively. He even went so far to say his defensive line didn't play all that poorly in Pittsburgh. Norv, by game's end, your guys were wringing out their uniforms after being blown into the Monongahela — or was it the Allegheny or the Ohio? Maybe the soaking helped remove the tire tracks.

The Candy Man can sugar-coat things, but he can't blindfold the angry, watchful villagers. This was one pathetic voyage, and he was on the bridge.

The Steelers ran up 32 first downs, 497 total yards — 165 of those provided on the ground by JV tailback Rashard Mendenhall, who had been exiled to coach Mike Tomlin's personal Elba. The Chargers were aspirin for their Super Bowl hangover.

Going in, San Diego hadn't played the run worth a damn, but had sucked it up and improved when it mattered. They never sucked it up in Pittsburgh. And with defensive coordinator Ron Rivera content to fall back in that zone and allow quarterback Ben Roethlisberger — who is very good, by the way — to stand around and throw underneath all night without adjusting defied logic.

You think you have cover corners. Man-up and get after the quarterback. You're not beating a good QB that way (you're only going to get JaMarcus Russell twice a year). Even if losing is inevitable, show the other guys you've been shaving for a while.

The Chargers can't run block, can't stop the run, can't come close to applying enough quarterback pressure — from inside or outside — and will continue to have trouble defending the pass if the secondary is ordered to back off receivers as if their pockets are filled with Strontium 90.

This is not a physical football team — on either side of the ball.

Very few Chargers played well Sunday night, but the coaching staff gets a flat game ball. Steve Crosby, who runs special teams, seemed the only guy on the sidelines who knew what he was doing.

Turner may be an offensive wizard, but this was yet another game his guys started as if introduced just prior to kickoff, when one play, one stop, could have made a tremendous difference. Maybe he should come out in the two-minute offense and let it rip.

Get down 28-0 to Pittsburgh on the road, don't brag about comebacks, how your team fights to the end. How about fighting in the beginning?

The front seven, not long ago thought to be the best in the sport, has become the Seven Blocks of Marmalade. So seminal nose tackle Jamal Williams is hurt and out, as is defensive end Ryon Bingham? So Shawne Merriman isn't ready? Send anvils, not flowers.

“Everybody gets hurt in the National Football League, if not early, then late, or in the playoffs,” Smith said. “You do the best you can. Deal with it.

“Everything bothers me right now and there's not much we can do. You can make trades (trading deadline's Oct. 20) or go on the street, but all you can do is tweak in football — during the season. You can lose your job and the players are still here.”

What to do? This is a bye week, a time to heal, but the Chargers need an attitude inoculation. Don't give me that “San Diego soft” crap. One Charger was raised in San Diego — nose tackle Ogemdi Nwagbuo — and he played at Michigan State.

Denver is 4-0 and now has a two-game cushion on the Chargers in the AFC West. The Broncos get New England at home this week. If they take that one and come in here and win on Oct. 19, they'll be 6-0 and the Chargers may as well book January cruises. The miracle of 2008, when Denver collapsed and the 8-8 Chargers made the playoffs, isn't happening again.

“If this trend continues, we'll be 8-8 — or worse — and certainly out of the division,” Smith said. “We won't have the credentials. It's not going well for the San Diego Chargers and we'd better get our act together quickly.

“We need to complete games. We've gained absolutely no ground over last year. I'm extremely disappointed.”

A.J. Smith sounds like our e-mailers. Except he won't call for his own firing.'

Yes, AJ is getting criticized for going public with this and I do agree with that..

Now he has gotten one of the players upset.

'SAN DIEGO -- Chargers outside linebacker Shawne Merriman isn't happy with a comment from general manager A.J. Smith that the team's play at times this year has been "soft and bewildered."

Merriman at first declined to comment after practice Wednesday, but then said: "That's an opinion of a person, and it's not needed. We know that we have to play better."

Merriman said the only opinions he's interested in hearing are those of his teammates.

The Chargers (2-2) lost 38-28 at Pittsburgh on Sunday night, falling behind 28-0 and allowing 497 yards of total offense.

Smith made the comment about the "soft and bewildered" play to The San Diego Union-Tribune in Wednesday's editions.

Smith didn't return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.'

[James]

Well, to the Chargers' credit, they did score 28 points, even closing the gap from 28-0 to 35-28! I was thinking the Steelers were coming apart and choking!