You'll Never Believe It But Defensive Guru Brandon Staley's Team Gave Up Over 475 Yards For The FOURTH Time This Season!
This seems almost beyond belief, right? Brandon Staley, a man who was hired because of his defensive prowess, gave up 475 yards on four separate occasions in a single season? Over 500 yards TWICE!?
But wait, Staley's from the Fangio tree and his whole 2-high system is supposed to eliminate explosive plays, so they must be allowing near the fewest in the league, right? Well, since 2021 they have given up a league-leading 112 plays of at least 25 yards.
Okokok. Yards are one thing but at least other teams aren't scoring, right?
2021: T-3rd most points allowed/game (27)
2022: T-9th most points allowed/game (22.6)
2023: 9th most points allowed/game (23.9)
Well, there has to be times that Staley's defense has showed up, right? There sure are! And in the 15 total games of Staley's 43 game tenure that the Defense finished with a positive EPA, they were playing Nick Foles, Zach Wilson, Aidan O’Connell, Derek Carr (three times), Tyson Bagent, Drew Lock, Russell Wilson, Ryan Tannehill and Malik Willis, Baker Mayfield, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Taylor Heinicke, and Mac Jones.
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It is OVER. Staley's time is done and I feel like I have hit the same exact point I did a few years ago with Anthony Lynn just for different reasons (Lynn had no idea how to manage a football game whatsoever). And that point is simple: this is a miserable experience for fans because exactly what we expect to happen is what goes down EVERY GAME.
If the chargers play a team with:
Good O, Bad D = Close loss (MIA, DET) with the exception being a fluke like Cousins redzone INT
Good O, Good D = Loss (KC, DAL)
Bad O, Good D = Toss up (TEN, NYJ)
Bad O, Bad D = Win (CHI, LV)
It's like clockwork. We simply expect Herbert to have an Incredible game and for the defense to not be able to do squat and that's what happens 90% of the time. No team has scored more than the Chargers have under Herbert and no team has given up more points than the Chargers defense during that span.
It's time to move on. And if you're a Chargers fan reading this, don't let anyone in the media etc. convince you that some big name hire is incoming. Just like I warned you with Sean Payton, it's never going to happen because the team does not and will not ever pay coaches anywhere close to a top-10 contract. So if you're looking at Belichick or Harbaugh, get it out of your mind. Ben Johnson, however, is a real candidate and would work wonders alongside a DC that could actually call plays.
H/t to Chargers Beat reporter Daniel Popper who put these stats together with TrueMedia.