First-Year Head Coach Mike McCoy Turning Chargers Around
Out in San Diego, the early returns have looked very promising for the Chargers and new head coach Mike McCoy.
The Chargers are off to a 2-2 start, and McCoy has been getting tremendous results out of a talent-depleted roster.
McCoy has Phillip Rivers playing his best football in years. Rivers has two 400 yards games and has thrown for three or more touchdowns in all but one of his starts. And McCoy is getting Rivers to accomplish this despite being without top receivers Darnario Alexander and Malcolm Floyd.
McCoy is also running an efficient offense with a running back by committee approach featuring the likes of Ryan Mathews, Ronnie Brown, and Danny Woodhead.
And by the who is McCoy’s starting left tackle? None other than King Dunlap.
The Chargers are 2-2, and could easily be 4-0. Both of their losses were decided by three points, and came at the hands of a good Houston team and a surprising Titans squad.
Look at the job that McCoy has done so far compared to that of Chip Kelly. Going into the season, which coach had the better offensive talent to work with on paper? Who had the stronger offensive line? Who had better receivers and running backs?
Which coach is doing the better job so far? Which coach is getting the most out of his talent?
The results speak for themselves.
Giants’ Woes Continue
The New York Giants just haven’t been able to get anything right this year.
After receiving a 38-0 pounding at the hands of the Carolina Panthers, Tom Coughlin’s team put up only seven points in a 31-7 rout in Arrowhead against Andy Reid’s Chiefs.
New York just won’t stop turning the ball over. Eli Manning threw an interception and lost two fumbles, giving the Giants a league-leading 17 for the season.
The good news for this team is that they although the score suggests it was a blowout, New York did play a much better game this week than they did in Carolina. It was a 10-7 game going into the third quarter, and then the wheels came off as the Giants allowed a punt return for a touchdown and couldn’t capitalize on several Kansas City mistakes.
However, in the woeful NFC East, the Giants are still only two games out of first place and their season is far from finished. Don’t write off Tom Coughlin’s team just yet. They’ve got a history of bouncing back from slow starts, and Coughlin seems to be at his best when his job is on the line.
Around The League Quick Thoughts
- The New Orleans Saints are back. 2012 was a lost season for this franchise after all of the bounty-gate off-season drama, but Sean Payton is back in place and new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan has turned one of the league’s worst units around, and the result has been a sharp 4-0 start.
- The Houston Texans suffered a terrible loss, blowing a late lead at home to the Seattle Seahawks. Quarterback Matt Schaub threw a terrible interception to Richard Sherman that was run back for a touchdown to tie the game. Schaub had already been under the microscope in Houston, but that loss will only put for pressure on the Texans to consider a quarterback change if the veteran doesn’t straighten himself out.
- The Detroit Lions are a much more dynamic team when Reggie Bush is in the lineup. Bush played a major role in the team’s 40-32 shootout victory over the Bears, contributing 173 total yards and a touchdown. The Lions are now 3-1, and in control of the NFC North.
- The Washington Redskins finally earned their first win of the season, although they barely managed to squeak by the Oakland Raiders who were without starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor. However, a win is a win, and the Redskins will take what they can get.
- How about the Cleveland Browns? Rob Chudzinski’s team came up with another impressive victory, taking down the Bengals 17-6 at home. The Cleveland defense is very legitimate, and suddenly the Browns find themselves 2-2, tied for first place in the division. So much for them tanking the season.
McCoy is doing an excellent Job with the Chargers who really should be 3-1 with a blown 20 Point lead in the 4th Quarter to the Texans on Season Opener
Doug Marrone is doing a nice Job with the Bills as is Chudzinski with the Bills as is Marc Trestman with the Bears and even Bruce Arians is holding his own with the Cardinals
2 Coaches I really see struggling is Chip “Jelly” Kelly and TB Bucs HC Gary Schiano and you know what these 2 COaches have in Common, that’s right, no NFL Experience before getting their 1st HC Job.. this means something, these guys don’t seem how to connect with “Professional Athletes” , they both say the right things, but I don’t see their Players giving a hoot about what they say and appear to be going thru th emotions..
I see Players from Buffalo, Bears, Chargers, Browns and yes even the Chiefs playing hard for their Coaches as if they would run thry a brick wall for them.. I do not see this on the Eagles or TB Bucs who will end up as the 2 worst Teams in the NFL as well as the Jaguars which is stricly a lack of Overall Talent on their Roster
So the Chargers are 2-2 and are doing good even though they blew a 20 point lead in one of those losses, if not for that and other mistakes they should be 4-0. The Eagles on the other hand are horrible cause their 1-3 even though they should be 3-1 for making mistakes, i guess its about what kind of mistakes that gives certain teams a pass right? Yea, ok Denny, that sounds about right coming from you.
Andrew, Andrew, Andrew. Its amazing to me how you continue to miss my point entirely in just about every article I write haha.
I said they “could” easily be 4-0, not “should”. There’s a difference. And the 20-point blown lead happened in Week 1…since then, they’ve been improving.
What direction have the Eagles gone in since Week 1, andrew? Well in Week 2 we got questions about the coach’s ability to adjust to situations and manage the clock. In Week 3, we saw him spend his short week of preparation installing a gimmicky two-point conversion package and fail to make adjustments against the Kansas City pass rush. In Week 4, we saw a complete and utter lack of creativity on the offensive side of the ball despite the fact that Kelly was given extra time to prepare.
Its not about record…its about the direction and quality of work that each team is putting in. McCoy, a first-year head coach, is making the most out of the talent that he’s been given. He’s got a Chargers roster that nobody thought much of (with injured receivers and mediocre running backs) putting up almost 30 points a week, and even though they may not make the playoffs, right now if you’re a Chargers fan you have to be pleased with what you’ve seen from your new head coach.
If you’re an Eagles fan, you’ve got a lot of questions and very few answers to go with a bunch of what ifs and maybes.
Mike McCoy is doing more with an offense that had far less talent than the Eagles coming into the season on paper. What’s Chip Kelly’s excuse?
Denny, Do u know going back to last year that we are 2-14 after starting off 3-1? We have 31 players still on this team over this period, do u remember how the players totally gave up last year? I sure do! That’s the problem! Too many players on this team that doesn’t have a clue on how to win, players that just give up when they go through a bad stretch. That’s my excuse! There’s maybe 8 to ten players from last year that should still be here, having players that showed that kind of mentality last year are like cancers, they have to be removed in order to get better, hopefully it will be after this season.
I’m sorry andrew but that’s not enough…
You think the Chargers were playing hard for Norv Turner and fighting for his job last year? Phillip Rivers was a guy who a lot of people believed had checked out and wasn’t playing focused anymore (as evidenced by his high turnover rate).
This year, McCoy takes over a roster with the same amount of turnover as the Eagles had…and he’s got the same group of guys who were bums a year ago fighting hard for him. They’ve reacted very well to adversity this year…they didn’t let the blown 20-point lead kill their spirits, they came back and fought hard against the Eagles the next week…they just completed another come-from-behind victory this week against Dallas.
The right coach can get the most out of a bunch of guys who were flat out losers under the previous regime. I agree with you that a lot of players that are here now have a losing mentality about them, but I also believe its up the coaches to break them of that…its not like this is a veteran team with bunch of dogs on it…this is a very young team with some talent on it that needs good coaching to bring out the best in them.
McCoy has shown that he can get the most out of Players.
– See Denver with Tebow
– see the beginning of this year
Chip Kelly has shown that he can use mismatches in college players who have limited football experience to gain an edge until he meets an opponent that dictated to him how the game would run.
In the NFL Kelly has shown that he is Rigid and stuck to his system vs his talent. He is struggling to Create mismatches vs experienced players who have little separation physically.
Manning appeared to run an uptempo offense that looked more like Kelly’s than Vick has in the last 4 games. (Kelly chose the wrong QB….Foles running the offense looks more like Manning (not even comparing the two as Peyton is a HOFer and Foles is just a player some here want to see more of.) )
Kelly has put together a coaching staff from Cleveland (Really… I mean when Iook for greatness in the past 10 years I immediately think Cleveland)
Andrew – You must be a young kid or Society has completely Failed you.
Good article Denny- As usual
only thing chargers have done is beat the Eagles and win their last game. If you believe our team is not that good then you are saying they have one good win really. I think Mike M is doing a good job as well but come on they are 2-2. Direction? they won their last game ok. So tired of opinions being from week to week good or bad. world beater and giant slayers one week heartless undisciplined the next. so much of how you look depends on who you play as well as who your team is at a particular part of the season. I guess the Bears coach isn’t turning his club around bc he lost last week.
Chargers wins Eagles, Cowboys. Eagles Cowboys losses KC and SD. Philly beats NY then they will have beat the same teams as the Cowboys for arguement Rams = Skins at this point in the season. Assuming a Cowboys loss to Denver. I know at some point the look back on who should have been our coach will happen as it should. M. Mcocy has been doing a decent job so far with his team, but they are not well enough to start pointing fingers likey
“look at how good this guy is doing”, “Hey Chip do you see SD that’s how it’s done” lol come on far too soon for all that on both sides. Dunlap, Demps, guys like that are NFL caliber players we tend to look down on our own bc we watch them everyday every mistake magnified, but watch other NFL games there are players getting beat all the time and far worst. Teams prob saw Dunlap and figured they can do something under their coaching. But honestly if you are not watching the Chargers he could be getting beat still just bc he had an ok game against the Eagles doesn’t mean he is not the same player.
No one has yet to answer this question, where is this great read option offense, quick throws, yac, I see nothing but vintage Vick making plays with his legs, holding on to the ball, waiting for the play to develop….
Where is this innovative offense………..
There is none Jake… Chip Kelly is a Fraud.. He ran 6-8 Plays and ran them well at Oregon with excellent execution, lots of speed and depth and wore Opponents down at the College Level.. As I fears and even stated when he was hired, this does not work at hte NFL Level where ever defender is as fast as your Skill Players and the NFL Defenses and Coaches are quick to catch on and take away your bread and butter plays.. The NFL Coaching is about making timely Adjustments and right now, Chip “Jelly” Kelly is an Amateur at the NFL Level trying to find his way and G-Man posts after the Redksins give that KElly is way ahead of NFL Defense’s .. The Overhype and Glorification of Philly Media and Fans never ceases to amaze me …
“The Harder they Come, The Harder they Fall”
The offense has been successful so far how many points do you expect them to score every week? KC has a very good defense sometimes the other team deserves some credit smh. My goodness. Den had the lead and we didn’t punch it in when we had the chance early. Like now the offense is fraudulent? So if they win the KC game 16 to 14 us the offense still a fake? Offense is not the issue! In the NFL other components of the team step up. KC offense didn’t score all 26 of their points and neither did Denver offense put up all 52 points. NFL teams don’t score 28 points per game unless you are close to the top of the mountain, and we aren’t close to that caliber, but no team has shown that they have us so figured out. Execution and playing mistake free holding on big plays blown assignments drops bad read here or there is the only thing that has slowed them. Everybody is in such a rush to say I told you so and will use a loss no matter how it happens to make silly points about the offense.
I expect the starting offense to score better against Denver than an oakland raiders offense led by Pryor/Flynn. 13 freaking points are you kidding me, thats suppose to be OK for us? what a fucking joke. Esp in this offense that was suppose to be perfect for our loser QB. And when we had almost 2 weeks to prepare (and denver had like 5 days). That was one of the most embarrassing performances I have ever seen considering the circumstances
I agree Jake. Its all BS. I thought this read option was taking over the NFL? All it basically took was an offseason to really figure it out. RG3 is scared out of his mind to run. I don’t see him making it to 30 in the NFL. Whats the story of the NFL this year? Definitely not the read option…Its a statue like peyton manning tearing up the league..Its a statue like Brady winning games with basically nothing to throw to (and ppl here say we have no weapons…Brady would turn Riley Cooper into a stud just like he is doing with Edelman). This eagles FO tells us they are trying to win us a Super Bowl, yet when the blue print for how its done is out there, we do the opposite. But hey they know they are frauds out there that would rather see a QB run a fast 40 vs. win a Superbowl
Again you don’t watch the games bc if you did you would know the Raiders scored a meaningless TD on the absolute last play of the game, they only had 7 points when the game actualy mattered. Brent Celek catches the ball we have 17 points in the first half. So if you are trying to say the Raiders offense looked better that is not true. At the end of the day the Den. Game was going to be a loss for this team. KC is better at this point of the season the game to win was the Chargers game we should be 2-2 nothing more nothing less. To continue to make offense the issue when it’s clearly not is predictable brainless fandom. Whining about the read option when Kelly said all along that’s not all he runs. And it was dredging against KC for two long runs. Like I said the team has to get out of it’s own way in certain situations.
Nugreenboi is clearly retarded. Actually I watched that entire game. Obviously you didn’t. Oakland put up 21 against the them, we put up 20. Oak put up 14 after the 3rd while we put up 13. Pryor actually handled that Denver defense pretty well, had better numbers than Vick (which is fucking laughable) and handled the pressure well. Oak has nowhere near the offensive talent that we do and they were actually in the game when the 4th quarter came around, unlike the Eagles. The Oak game was a 2 score game which cannot be taken easily in the NFL these days, while we our starting offense didn’t even belong on the same field by mid 3rd quarter. Oak also missed a oppotunity on 4th and 1 on Denver goal line (i believe that was a drop on Moore) so you could play the if this would have happened crap there too.
So clearly based on the facts the Raiders offense looked better then our starting offense with Vick which is pathetic. Really the Raiders looked better than us. Sorry when Oak offense looks better then us against the same competition thats a fucking problem. But go ahead and be a delusional jackass like many others on here.
ok Pheags you clearly want to revise what you say in your first comment you suggested the Eagles scored 13 points taking away the late TD from Foles which I understand, but on the same note you want to count the two garbage time TD’s the Raiders scored, one on the absolute last play of a game that was over at half, the other a pass by the RB on a trick play in a blow out. Raider Broncos half time score was 27 to 7 dummy, game set match. eagles game was 21 -13 at the half totally different game. You add the blocked punt and horrible D this is what you get. looking at the stats does not mean you watched the game if you did you wouldn’t be debating such nonsense. The fact that you called the Den Raidrs game a two score game shows you didn’t watch it and simply look at stats and try to say bc of this that should happen blah blah blah get a clue.
Raiders are a running team left the game with 49 rushing yards, had one long pass play in the first half two garbage time scores yeah they handled DEN D pretty well lol what an idiot lol
Again I watched that game, clearly you didn’t. The Raiders were much more competitive then the Eagles, yet your too delusional to admit it. You want to talk about what ifs yet forget that the the Raiders missed an opportunity on 4th and 1 on denver goal line early in the 4th.
And to top it off on just how stupid you are, Manning actually played till the last second in that Raiders game. Against the Eagles,Brock Osweiler is throwing passing with about 11 min left in the 4th. So in one game Manning finishes and the other he is sitting on the sideline with 11 min to go, yet you are trying to say the Eagles were more competitive. what a fucking idiot you are.
And obviously you cant read…I said Pryor handled the denver defense pretty well, better than Vick…He almost passed for 300 actually with no Djax or Shady btw. Learn how to read dumbass
correction Peyton Manning was not sitting in the 4th he was vigorously flipping through defensive alignment photographs studying and helping Osweiler, you are confusing the player with a baseball hat sitting down doing nothing —that was Vick who didn’t show any emotion when WR Jeff Maehl scored his first NFL TD just continued sitting there with his baseball cap sulking. Even during the game Manning is stuffing his brain with diagrams, photographs talking on the headset trying to get an advantage.
are we talking Vick vs Manning or the Raiders out performing the Eagles. If you are trying to make comparisons between the two no need.
dummy the game was over early in the 4th. Pryor was in passing mode all game they could not run at all you don’t know football lol if you are down 27 to 7 you will be passing the rest of the game. Even with that the Eagles had more total yards than the Raiders. You jumped out there incorrect trying to make a silly point about the Eagles O using the Raiders and now you sound stupid Bc I watched the game lol. You not going to just throw final scores out there and think someone who knows what they are looking at is not going to challenge you. I’m not one of these Fly Eagles fly all I know is the Birds fans. All of your original points was to spite the Eagles offense now you are trying to say the Eagles “as a team” didn’t play better than the Raiders which is a different point. The Eagles gave up two special teams scores which allowed Peyton to have a lead that he could come out of the game. When the game mattered the first half Raiders were losing 27-7 so that’s better than 21-13 with one of Den scores coming on a KR? that’s more competitive? How is that handling the Den D pretty well? I bring up a dropped TD by Celek in the first half of a competitive game at that point and your dumb ass bring up a 4 and 1 in the 4th quarter of a blowout game in garbage time. Yet Pryor was much better? oh the TD thrown by Darren Mcfadden maybe? Did you even watch the Eagles game? The Eagles offense had much more success moving the ball and scoring when it mattered. Stop living in a philly sports bubble then you can learn to appreciate and better understand what you are looking at.
oh cool, we’re talking about the quarterback again.
Man nugree, you have to butcher a post and write a novel, wake up, Vick isn’t good, remember this offense with these weapons was supposed to finally showcase what he really can do but he looks like the same old Vick
Im not arguing Vick at all, I just stand when someone’s dislike for a player gets them to say dumb this out of spite like the Raiders looked better offensively. People that are tired of Vick have every right to be, but you not gonna just say anything like its factual to try and make a point. 1-3 start in this case is not a direct relation to the offense living or not living up to its expectations. if you look at these few games and your conclusion is the offense is the issue I seriously have to ask you what was your expectations? prob something delusional like 28 points a game.