It’s been almost 3 weeks since the Chargers blew their latest, and possibly best, opportunity to win a Super Bowl.  I can feel the frustration gradually dissipate and my the infuriating clarity I felt on that Sunday begin to blur.  However, I won’t allow myself to be deluded.  My posts from throughout the game reveal the anger I was feeling as it uunfolded.  Even though the last five seasons had allegedly left this team with enough lessons to last a lifetime, they made the same mistakes once again.  However, this time was the worst of all because of all that had preceded it.  Nate K.A.E.D.I.N.G (Kicks Accurately Except During Important NFL Games) was only part of the problem.  As I said during the week leading up to the game against the Jets, other teams can overcome self-inflicted errors like missed field goals.  The Bolts cannot.  We only get the luck we earn.  Sadly, as my friend Fred Rosenberg pointed out, the painful results we say may actually be the only JUSTICE we deserve. Read the rest of this entry »

I always stick up for you.

Whenever people say, “That Damone, he’s a loudmouth,” and they say that a lot,

I always say, “Hey, you just don’t know Damone.”

When they call you an idiot,

I say, “Damone’s not an idiot.  You just don’t know him.”

Well, you know something, man?

Maybe they do know you pretty good.

Maybe I’m just finding out now.

Keading is not the issue.  Him being a Pro Bowler just sums up this year.  Look, he looked like he grew up from the mistakes of the past.  Cincy, Wash, he loooked like he could kick long with confidence.  But he missed the first one, I remember a XX1090 spot where he made it seem like it wouldn’t be a big deal when this “streak” was over.  I actually was relieved when he missed because he could show how he could repsond to adversity.  But he hung his head all day long.

Norv called the “constipated” game that Canepa attributed to Marty in 06.  When things get tough, however, who leads?  It seemed like it took forever to get plays off.  Penalties, turnovers…That Floyd call was luck.  Eventually Rivers actually DID get rattled and showed is not where where Eli Manning and Roethlisberger are in the history books for a reason.  It sucks to say.  I believed that he without a doubt would lead us into Miami.  Floyd looked like Parker and Phillips looked like Florence.  Even Gates dropped passs after superhuman grabs.  I said that they could beat us but we would not lose.  Both things happened and both things got what they deserved.  The Jets deserve credit for taking the Chargers out of the comfort zone that comes from screens to Sproles and Tolbert working all year.  But we have problems bigger than this game.  They fooled us all.  The experts, coaches and critics who knew how small they played in big games before Norv got here.  Even fans who hold onto that pain the most were converted.  I know I was.  Unfortunately, all that suffering was just that.  It wasn’t a learning experience for them.  Norv will stay and AJ is fucked.  He was proud that in the last 3 months this team looked like it nutted up and grew up.  But when the games mean something, if you wilt, then it’s all a lie.  This is who you really are.  Some people expect me to be some punching bag who always says it will get better.  Justice Is Coming came from the days where we had scrappy teams and bad luck.  These years have been the best since I have met so many other Boltheads but the most painful.  We aren’t scrappy.  We are the soft and bewildered team that every one is mocking today.  I will watch every game and write about it.  But I won’t take my guard down.  You know I mention past failures more than anyone in my writing.  I won’t but I won’t forget.  When there is confetti in the air and a Charger on the podium with the Lombardi Trophy, I will smile.  Otherwise I will be guarded until the very end. 

Sadly, I do not see this era of Chargers doing it.

Yours In Justice,

Ross

PS Everyone will see Jackson kicking the challenge flag out of frustration and that’s the image we deserve.

The Chargers played all day like they wanted this season to end.  There was no nutting up and no composure.  They deserved to be one and done.  Norv played right into their hands and Rivers did not play like the guys he wanted to join.  Seriously, I am not backing off on this.  There will be no JUSTICE with this team.  They have fooled me for too long.  I am not devestated because I said all day long they were playing like losers.  The Chargers will one day win, but this team learned NOTHING FROM THE MISTAKES of the past.  The Jets deserve to be happy, mocking us, whatever.  You know that shot of the Jet fan with his head down?  We showed no killer instinct to finish him and his team off and got what was coming to us.  Thanks for all the support  but we all bet on the wrong horse.

RLW

In the past, the only time I have written JIC over the course of the week has been after a playoff loss.  This week, I have a lot to say and I thought that I might also make my week a little smoother if I shared along the way.  I have received a few e-mails from Jet fan friends of mine and I think they all feel that their season is already a success.  Even if they were to lose in San Diego, their fans would view this (as they should) as a great start to a push towards a championship.  The Chargers, of course, are hopefully farther along.  That’s what we have to believe, right?  All the close calls and heartbreaks have been leading towards something.  If not, it’s all been in vain. 

However, the Jets themselves will not be satisfied with anything less than a win.  That’s the way it should be.  Our playoff experience (experience that has left us without a title) alone will not win us anything.  As Rivers said in an interview this week:

Do you think the experience factor and the whole act like you’ve been there before thing is going to be the biggest thing?

Well I think there’s no doubt that that carries some weight. But then, when the ball’s kicked off, whoever can play the best and put the most complete game together will win, and if we can keep improving, we should be in pretty good shape.

In the end, that’s what it will come down to.  It would be naive to think that we will definitively be able to control the tempo throughout the game.  All that matters is that we can make the plays down the stretch. Read the rest of this entry »