Tampa Deux?

I know I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the mug shot.  I never really paid much attention to the date on it.  I guess he wasn't booked until about a month after he was cuffed.  Sadly, he was later cuffed by Revis and the Jets that same day.  But I don't need to remind you of that, FAITHFUL READER.  The past is still all we've got.  As I promised last week, I wrote that piece on Rivers' much ballyhooed 2010 for Bleacher Report.  Of course that came on the heels of my "Fire Norv" piece.  The last time the Bolts were in Tampa, their season was on the line.  It was the 2008 game that LL Cool J was raving about on that DirecTv ad.  Tweety actually hit a 50-plus yarder AND Cason had a pick six.  That's about as rare as an eclipse.  It was also the game where the Bolts bloodied Jeff Garcia. 

If that hadn't happened, would we be in the spot we are right now?  I don't know.  I would like to think that if the Chargers had missed the playoffs, that Norv might have been canned.  But they've missed them two seasons in a row and he's still here.  There is no question that the Bolts will need to play better than they have all season to win.  I don't know how good Tampa really is, but they can run and throw pretty consistently.  It would be nice to see Vincent Jackson's inner bitchiness be revealed, but our cornerbacks can't cover anybody.  Since his late hit in New Orleans, Melvin Ingram has been pretty invisible.  The fact that the defense surrendered three consecutive third and longs against the Queefs is pretty pathetic.

I pointed out on Twitter last week that Philip Rivers wished for two things this offseason.  He wanted Norv back and Peyton Manning in his division.  Right now, those two things might cause our greatest wish to come true.  But if Dean actually puts on his big boy pants long enough to make a change, would Rivers even be salvageable?  Look, I hate talking about this when the season is only halfway through.  But this is where we stand right now.  This team has beaten Oakland, Tennessee and Kansas City.  That's it.  It's exactly where they were last year before they beat Baltimore in December.  Looking back, I'm starting to think that was just an epic aberration.  The universe needed to allow that to happen in order for the Chargers to give us their annual tease.

If they show us something tomorrow, then maybe we can look at the Denver game with some hope.  Before this season, beating Peyton Manning was the only thing it seemed that the Chargers COULD do.  Thus far, they haven't even been able to  do that.  Of course, the two seasons beating him would have actually gotten this team into the Super Bowl, they shat all over themselves before they could get there.  Let's give a big thanks to Marty, Cam, Eric Parker, Florence, Cro and Tweety for that.  Rivers deserves some of the blame as well.  I don't need to cite his stats in those games for you.  I read someone in the Twitterverse that he was the one who checked out of the run play down at the goal line against Kansas City.  If someone has verification of that, please come forward. 

I can't believe that some people found it harsh that the crowd was booing at the end of the first half.  Are you fucking kidding me?  That pass was exactly what's wrong with this team.  Any other club would have made us pay for that.  I can't listen to Philip say anymore that he wishes he "had that one back" when he keeps throwing them.  It was against KC earlier in the year that he threw another awful forced pass.

I don't even know if Rivers was ever on the cover of Madden or not.  I don't play video games and I grabbed the pic from some one's Facebook profile.  We can't even blame a Madden Curse for where we're at right now.  But I'll be watching tomorrow, obviously.  You can't be half a Charger fan, after all.

Thanks to Jorge De Rosas for sending me this pic from the roads of Western New York.  From my two trips to Rich Stadium to see the Bolts, I know that there are more than a few fans up there.  I'm not sure how this guy sees out of his windshield, however.  The Chargers are down two offensive linemen for tomorrow.  Letting McNeill go was hardly a mistake, but this Gaither signing is looking worse and worse each week.

Sounds about par for the course right now.

JIC,

RLW