On Thursday night, the Los Angeles Chargers did more defending of their head coach than they did of the Las Vegas Raiders. Following a 63-21 beatdown at the hands of their division rivals, safety Derwin James and edge rusher Khalil Mack both took up for embattled head coach Brandon Staley, whose tenure -- from the outside in, at least -- appears to be nearing an end.
James said Staley has "been there from the start with us and we know what we've been through," according to NFL Network, also noting that "we believe in him."
James also indicated that many of the mistakes the team has made are not necessarily Staley's foul. "A lot of times he makes a great call and we just mess it up as players," James explained. "It's a business where we're all in it together. It's not going our way there's no need to point one finger. We're all in this together and I feel like as players we can be better and I'm pretty sure the coaches feel like they can be better too."
Mack, meanwhile, indicated that the belief goes both ways.
"You talk about believing in a coach? Of course, we believe in him and he believes in us," Mack said, also per NFL Network. "There can't be a disconnect when you love this shit the way that I do. We just have to perform a lot better."
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The Chargers certainly do have to perform better on defense. After the Raiders game, L.A. now ranks 29th in yards allowed per game and 27th in points allowed per game. The Chargers entered that contest ranked 27th in FTN's defensive DVOA, a ranking that is sure to drop even further after getting blown off the field by Aidan O'Connell and the Josh Jacobs-less Raiders offense. The Chargers are sporting bottom-four units against both the run (31st) and the pass (29th), according to Tru Media's EPA/play. They are, simply, not good at anything defensively. And the offense on Thursday night was even worse.
This season has been an epic disaster, even by Chargers standards, and it seems highly likely that changes will be made at the end of the season, if not sooner.
