Brandon Staley has done as much over the last few years to forward the new light box/multiple coverage defensive paradigm as any coach in the league. He has made some interesting decisions based on analytics in his two seasons as the Los Angeles Chargers’ head coach. As a scheme guy, and as a coach who can build a winning defense, Staley has nothing left to prove.
But as a head coach, Staley has a lot to learn.
Moving from coordinator to head coach is a weird and often unexpected journey. That ability to see and react to everything at the proverbial 30,000-foot level — to be the CEO — is not something everybody finds easy or possible to attain. Which is why some utterly brilliant coordinators have flamed out as head coaches, and some perfectly ordinary schematic minds have been great in the top job.
It’s not for everybody. Not to say that it will never be for Staley, but after Saturday’s 31-30 wild-card loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, in which Staley’s Chargers blew a 27-0 second-quarter lead and seemed to have no answer for a Jags team that was very busy throwing up all over itself in the first half, there have to be serious questions regarding Staley’s understanding of his current job.
In his press conference following the third-largest postseason collapse in the history of professional football, Staley had a lot to say about how his offense and defense underperformed as the game went on. He had things to say about his team’s penalty tendencies in the second half, and he had a veiled shot or two for referee Shawn Smith’s officiating crew — valid to a point, as Smith and his team had a terrible game overall.
What you did not see was Staley taking a leadership role and putting the responsibility upon himself.
“We just didn’t play clean enough football in the second half in all three phases,” Staley concluded. “We didn’t score the ball or possess it well enough on defense. We had far too many penalties in the second half that really hurt us and didn’t play well enough in the red (zone) area, didn’t perform well there in the two minute at the end of the game. Just didn’t play a good second half of football as a team.
“Defensively, penalties just really hurt our team. We had a second-and-18 that [was] going to be a third-and-19. We have a PI (pass interference). We had an offsides when it would have been a sack. We have a penalty that allows them to go for two. An unsportsmanlike penalty, it goes for two. So I thought penalties hurt us in the second half on defense. On offense, we just didn’t sustain drives in the second half, and didn’t run the football effectively enough, and then didn’t do well enough on third down in the second half. We had some killer third-and-shorts that we didn’t make today. And then, obviously, we missed a kick down the stretch that really hurt us.”
Coaching decisions, adapting to in-game changes, and situational awareness were not mentioned. They should have been, and Staley should have put that onus on himself.