Posted 25 May 2008 - 09:45 PM
QUOTE (Krn_Track_Star @ May 25 2008, 09:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
like i said i never said the chargers were a bad team i just believe they have ways to go.
You may not have said it but you sure implied it:
QUOTE
as for the chargers i dont think they will go far next year either because they have really been having problems with games they should of won. like last year started 0-4 and became hot at the right time. right now i think the teams in the afc to watch out for the pats, colts, and jags.
You totally discount the Chargers in the AFC race as if they are an afterthought and have gone on to base that assessment on mere intangible issues of leadership and them being too young of a team. I'm merely giving you counterarguments to that above quote to prove otherwise. The Chargers were a young team back in 2004 but four years and three playoff appearances later, those young players have gotten the pains of past playoff failures to build upon and hopefully springboard it into something better the upcoming year. The way the organization has gone about it is similar to the way the Colts and the Patriots have done it methodically over the years in their respective rise to dominance in the conference. The 2004 Chargers are somewhat like the 2001 Patriots in their learning curve into becoming a succesful franchise. Their "ways to go" period as you describe it is what I'm arguing as already being passed. While still a youthful team, they are not fresh-faced and playoff inexperienced and the general consensus is that these Charger players now are pretty much in their prime. As for the leadership issue, that point is pretty much moot. Rivers, Tomlinson, Gates, Merriman, Jammer, and Jamal Williams, among others, are their team leaders and whether you as an outside observer like them or not, the fact is that they are accepted within the team and there is no question or dissension about it. They've been fine with that and that's all that matters. And whether you claim that leadership in and of itself was a problem in the past, it sure didn't affect their relative success as their record over the past couple of seasons suggest. Having that kind of team talent does that for a team. Their losses in the last two playoff losses were not attributable to lack of leadership - the first was due to costly turnovers on their part that the Pats were able to capitalize on and the second was due to simply not having enough healthy bodies on hand to give New England their best.
Am I saying that the Chargers are the best team in the NFL and are the next Super Bowl champions? Hell no, I'm not saying that. But I am hopeful though based on the team progress and I'm encouraged what kind of team San Diego can look forward to. But to say they won't go far and not even mention them in the same breath as the Patriots, Colts, and the Jaguars as teams to watch out for in the AFC this upcoming year is a total slight, sounds misinformed, and is just a thinly veiled discredit to what progress the Chargers have accomplished in the past couple of seasons. Plain and simple, you just don't give them any credit (maybe you just don't even want to) with that above-quoted statement and it is from those comments upon which I've been basing my counterarguments.
Posted 31 May 2008 - 08:29 PM
