At night sometimes it seemed you could hear that whole damn city crying
Blame it on the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down
You can blame it all on me Terry, it don't matter to me now
When the breakdown hit at midnight there was nothing left to say
But I hated him and I hated you when you went away
Those are the full lyrics to Backstreets, FAITHFUL READER. This is an amazing version from, of course, Jacksonville. It's the city that gave us the Allmans, Skynyrd, Tom Petty and Jason Mendoza from The Good Place. My God, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi are Jags ambassadors and are playing the National Anthem tonight. It doesn't matter, music and football don't always mix. In fact, I wrote a book on it. It appears that this blog will be the new home of JUSTICE IS COMING for now. I did announce this week that Backbeat Books has been kind enough to sign on to publish my next book. Hint, I'm not Lance Bass' ghostwriter for his forthcoming children's story.
But that's not why you're here. It's the first Charger playoff game in 5 years. Before that it was 5 years and before that 4. I feel like Mike in Swingers when he realizes he needs to borrow that calling card. Sadly, all anyone can talk about is Staley's decision to play Mike Williams last week. As the song quote I chose for this post says, it doesn't matter now. It's done, but was so avoidable. I don't know if Staley is arrogant, inexperienced, projecting one to mask the other. I know what you do. But teams play all season to get that bye. By all accounts Staley deserves credit for the resurgence after the Raiders game. I thought they were done after Vegas. I also maintained that Staley was still not getting the most out of the guys we had on the field. Maybe that was more directed towards Joe Lombardi, who I don't think will be back no matter what. The reality was and I credit Daniel Popper for taking Staley to task on this that Williams plays with no regard for his body. He had that catch in Mexico City in 2019 that should have mattered, was barely moving when he almost sent us to playoffs last year, landed on his ankle after making a great catch this year, won the Titans game, and had that masterpiece everyone saw against the Rams.
Staley could have played zero stars. If he wanted to keep the momentum going, great. Treat it like the 3rd preseason game if you want. But once Williams dove into traffic and got hurt, you pull guys. It's not showing weakness or admitting blame. It's just smart. Derwin, Ekeler, Keenan, and even JUSTIN FUCKING HERBERT could have gone out after Williams was carted off.
Herbert had something on his left shoulder from getting hurt in the Rams game. But that was when at least we were trying to lock up the #5 seed. We had it before the Denver kickoff. Today is January 14, anniversary of the loss to Pats. Remember when we needed to play starters to beat Arizona in regular season finale to get the #1 seed and Rivers got his ankle hurt. There was a reason he played. There was no reason to play the guys Staley did on Sunday, especially after the Williams play.
They busted their ass after getting into the playoffs in Indy to get the #5 seed. Why? Because it was easier to start in Tennessee or Jacksonville than Cincy. That's no disrespect to the AFC South winner. I know how they played and how we played against them. I also know who was out or hurt when we did. That is also what makes Staley's decisions so wrong. There was nothing to gain and everything to lose.
But it's sad I need to say this out loud, I can't control what they do. As I said on Twitter, if my wishes affected their play we would have a ring by now. Sadly, this will be the narrative no matter what happens this week or any other games we play this season. Could this bond the team and they go to the Super Bowl and win? Who knows, but this isn't a thing that happened to the Chargers. This was self-imposed. If they want spin it to everyone counting them out, great. The social media team did an awesome video before the Williams FRACTURE was reported about keeping the receipts. Look, they played great since Miami. They shocked us all. I have no idea if Staley's job is safe. He certainly took the heat off the players for this postseason. The reality is that HEALTHY this team should beat the Jags. But now they aren't healthy and maybe they could have been. Williams would have turned himself into a pretzel tonight and maybe been lost for the year. But that's the playoffs and that's the nature of the game and how he plays it. There's enough bad luck and bounces that haunt this team in the playoffs without us getting guys hurt for no reason. Even if they get to KC, no Mike.
Look at the 2018 Arrowhead win he was so much a part of. Sure Gordon was ruled out right before kickoff and Keenan was hurt. But that wasn't because Lynn put them in harm's way. If we'd beaten Baltimore the next week maybe we get a bye. The reality is Staley has talked about player safety a lot. You could argue that letting Guyton go up for a bomb in a game we were getting blown out of was careless. He's the only speed we have. You could fault Lombardi or even Herbert for checking down into a play on Sunday where Williams was getting murdered. Forget the fumble, Ekeler got tattooed. The reality is that Staley could have sat these guys and even after Williams got hurt he kept the best players in.
Unless this team makes a run and I would argue unless this season doesn't end on a loss there will be the "what if" murmurs. It could go down with Vernon Perry, Kenny King, Ice Bowl, Kaeding, McCree, Eric Parker, Olivea, Florence and Shaun Phillips and the headbutt as "one of those Charger things." Notice McCree isn't the last one, but we can discuss another time. We could look back and put this with injuries to Phil, LT, Gates, Jackson's game day arrest, Michael Turner almost getting past Junior, Wisenhunt running Woodhead up the gut in Denver, and Gus Bradley not adjusting to the Pats as something that kept this franchise from winning just one ring.
But there is nothing that can be done now. It's gameday. I don't know what will happen but I do know we once again have the QB to make a run. It takes a lot to make that matter. Coaching, luck, etc. We'll see what happens. As for me, I am going to workout, go see a 4:40 Plane Movie with a beer in hand and clear my head.
We'll see if we can get to KC, even without Williams.
This is either the first step or the end.
RLW