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“Chargers Coach-Broken Record”

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When he was hired, I thought this was a pretty good get, as a head coaching candidate.

That was 2013, and Mike McCoy had just come off this playoff run with the Broncos, where he somehow managed to make Tim Tebow competitive, and helped drive a battered Broncos team into post season, with amazing play-calling and game planning around the shortcomings of the lefthanded thrower.

Prior to that, he was part of a staff that had gotten to the Super Bowl with quarterbacks like Steve Beurlein, Jake Delhomme and others. Again, he seemed to have found a way to make people better.

That was then, and this is now.

I found his demeanor on Monday, the day after the hideous give-away loss in Kansas City strange. He was optimistic all would be well. He expressed belief in his team. And he spent 20-minutes dishing out philosophies we had heard before, without any strong content to the probing questions about the horrible loss at Arrowhead Stadium.

Yes indeed it was just one game out of 16, but you don’t get a do-over on a blown opportunity within your division.

Maybe he has to keep up this stiff upper lip. Maybe he has to put a positive spin on everything. Maybe it’s designed to keep the spirit alive in a locker room that has known nothing but losing and bad times since his second season began in San Diego.

McCoy remained in a state of denial about how his team saw a (24-3) lead become a (33-27) defeat. It was as-if all was well, despite the outcome.

He couched everything he said about having ‘to close’ games and win at the end, something his side has not been able to do despite the superstar quarterback Philip Rivers.

He refused to critique nor analyze the burning of 4-timeouts, because of poor clock management and mistakes in groupings on the field.

There was never a comment about the fact his linebackers could not cover anyone in the nickel package, giving up 15-completions during the game to receivers, tight ends and running backs on crossing and underneath routes.

Not once a mention of a defense tht took their foot off the pedal, and wound up giving up 19-plays of 10-yards or more, to a non-explosive Chiefs team. Faint praise directed towards Andy Reid, whom he called a good play-caller, and who has a much better record than McCoy’s (23-28) career mark in San Diego.

He remained steadfast no one made a mistake about running back usage, limiting Melvin Gordon to 3-touches of the ball on the final 34-snaps in the game, covering 5-possessions, when the Chargers desperately needed first downs to stunt the momentum the Chiefs were in the process of seizing.

He heaped praise on Danny Woodhead and Gordon for the combined 155-yards rushing, most of it thru the first 35-minutes of the game, failing to comment on what happened in the final 25-minutes as the floor tilted and the lead slipped away.

He would only say Keenan Allen’s injury was an ACL, refusing to talk about the seriousness of the tear or the fact it’s now been revealed he has cartilage damage on top of the torn ligament.

There was a generic day-to-day report on Joey Bosa, whose holdout has haunted this team, but is finally active. But according to the coach, no-one knows if he will be ready to practice much less play.

It’s a never ending saga with a man, who inherited the best job available in 2013, when he deservedly landed the Chargers coaching post.

It’s been a downward spiral since then, and McCoy’s methodology of dealing with people, has become a cross of a bland Norv Turner, and a condescending Kevin Gilbride, both failures in San Diego.

His 3-plus years on the job have seen some horrible performances. This meltdown in Missouri may be the worst, considering it’s Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs, a bitter division rival, and the fact they had the game in their pocket, and it ended badly.

There have been bad losses before. The bludgeoning last year by the Chiefs in San Diego. That Raiders game where it was (30-3) at one point infront of the crowd at the Q. There was a (37-0) thrashing in Miami too.

For someone who accomplished so much other places, Mike McCoy is doing fewer and fewer positive things in San Diego.

One need not bring up his (5-15) record against teams in his own division now. That question would have been met with another philosophical discussion too.

A columnist wrote that the Chargers needed two-thirds vote on a stadium referendum downtown, they probably won’t get. But if they put it up for a vote this morning, they could get a two-thirds vote no-one likes the job McCoy is doing as head coach.

Mike McCoy-it’s like a broken record. His coaching philosophies, his press conferences, his losing. It goes on-and-on-and on.

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