Lynn needs to stop ‘Chargering’ now Browns’ Beckham Jr. needs negative test to play.
It’s time for Anthony Lynn to snap out of it.
His track record is calling to mind Mike McCoy. While barring a total collapse Lynn seems likely to return for a fifth season as Chargers head coach, which would mean he’d have the job longer than his predecessor, the parallels in their respective track records are now glaring.
Both rookie head coaches, after launching in San Diego, began with a pair of winning seasons and one upset victory in the playoffs.
Then came much Chargering — defined as losing a very winnable game, often in creative fashion.
Serial Chargering got McCoy fired with a year left on his contract when his last two squads went a combined 7-17 in games decided by eight points or fewer.
After firing seven assistants to keep his job, McCoy saw his final team — the last San Diego team — lose six games it led in the fourth quarter.
With Lynn’s program having lost 13 of 16 games decided
by one score since last season, there’s a “same old Chargers” vibe emanating from a franchise whose latest AFC West title drought began in 2010.
Now 1-4, Team Spanos has lost its past two games despite leading each by 17 points late in the second quarter.
There’s time to rally. Oddsmakers will favor the Chargers in their next game, at home Oct. 25 against the Jaguars (1-3), as well as opposite the Jets (0-5), Falcons (0-5) and perhaps both games against the Broncos (1-3).
Even so, should this team’s performance rival last year’s 5-11 record, he seems likely to keep his job.
One, he’s a better leader and recruiter than McCoy.
Two, the 12-4 season he directed in 2018 produced the franchise’s best record since 2009 and featured a perfect record outside L.A. County, including victories at Seattle, Pittsburgh and Kansas City.
Three, through his good deeds off the field in Greater Los Angeles, Africa and in his home state of Texas, he has brought favorable recognition to a publicity-challenged franchise.
Also, Lynn’s firing would reflect directly on team executives Tom Telesco and John Spanos, who hired him and just nine months ago extended his contract past this year. When a head coach is fired, the front office’s performance draws more attention. The TelescoSpanos era, which began in 2013, has yet to produce an AFC West title. The win rate is .462.
A Lynn critique
Lynn could stand to improve at game management. Telesco and Spanos may need to provide him better support in analytics, where McCoy said the Chargers lagged the Broncos, who employed him before and after his tenure with San Diego.
Punting to Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady this season instead of going for it on fourth-and-1 backfired in the Week 2 and Week 4 losses to the Chiefs and Bucs, respectively.
Not kneeling to kill the final 47 seconds of the first half at Tampa when his team led by 17 points and
had the ball on its 9 and the Bucs had only one one timeout, was as questionable as any of Lynn’s ingame decisions in his 53 games (27-26) .
Against the Saints on Monday night, were Lynn and play-caller Shane Steichen too predictable on first down?
They ran twice as many times as they passed and those 18 run plays netted 20 yards.
“When Shane’s calling the game, he’s always setting up things,” Lynn said in reply Wednesday, via a video chat with reporters.
A deep completion, noted Lynn, came off a run fake that a previous run set up.
“Yeah,” he added, “you can run action (passes off run fakes) a little bit more on first down, but at some point you’ve got to establish the running game. We feel like we needed to take some pressure off a young quarterback (Justin Herbert) who (the blockers) were having a hard time protecting.”
Two glitches in the Lynn era also have called into question what exactly he sees on fourth-and-short — or what an aide may tell him before he makes a decision in such critical situations.
Consider that after opting to punt on fourth-and-1 against the Patriots in 2017 and the Chiefs last month, Lynn incorrectly stated more than one yard was needed.
Pictures showed only two feet were needed at New England’s 33 — Lynn had deemed it “more like fourth-and-2 almost” — and only one yard was lacking with Mahomes on the sideline in overtime (Lynn said “it was a little bit more than one”).
The twin discrepancies recalled Norv Turner or his “eye in the sky” assistant, in Turner’s sixth and final season, not seeing an ailing Chargers left tackle, who allowed a Saints edge rusher to turn the next play into a victory.
Lynn seems to have rare people skills, both within football and outside of it. His players appreciate that he carved out an NFL career as an undrafted running back, that he sticks up for them after they make mistakes, and that he pushes them to make plans for life after their careers end.
By winning more close games, they can show their appreciation.