Your assessment of Brandon Staley

[Deberg_1990]

Says he’s sticking with his 4th down approach……..good for him.



Chargers coach Brandon Staley isn't changing his ways: He says he will continue to go for it on fourth down, even after three out of Los Angeles' five attempts Thursday night failed in a 34-28 overtime defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs.

"I felt really comfortable with all those decisions," Staley said after the loss, which dropped the Chargers two games behind the Chiefs in the AFC West standings with three to play. "That's the way we're going to play around here. That's the way we're going to play. When we have a quarterback like ours, and we have an offense like ours, that's the way we're going to play because that's how you need to play against Kansas City, for sure. That's how we're going to become the team that we're ultimately capable of being, by playing that way."

The Chargers entered the game 13 for 21 on fourth downs this season, giving them the fourth-most conversions in the league. Their conversion percentage (61.9) was tied for eighth best in the NFL.

Two of Los Angeles' failed attempts to convert came inside the Kansas City 5, and another was on the edge of field goal range. The Chargers became the first team to fail twice on fourth-and-goal in a first half since the 1984 Chargers did the same -- also against the Chiefs -- 37 years ago to the day (Dec. 16, 1984).

Quarterback Justin Herbert said he stands by his coach and his decisions on fourth down.

"It's always tough and you'd love to be able to convert those," Herbert said. "I think we need to be better on third downs so that we're not in those situations, but we believe in each other. We believe in the guys in that locker room and that huddle, and we believe in the defense. I think that's a statement of trusting everyone on the field and off the field, as well. We love to be put in those situations. Unfortunately, we didn't convert as many as we would've liked to have today, but we're going to ride with each other and we're going to be right back."

With Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill on the other sideline, Staley and his coaching staff realized no lead would be safe until the clock ran out. That's why they never stopped trying to score in all situations: Only the very last of the Chargers' 10 drives ended in a punt.

"It's life in the NFL, in decision-making like that. ... I know that the quickest way to win a game like that is to score touchdowns, not field goals, especially considering who's on the other side," Staley said. "When you don't feel like it's a gamble, when you feel like this is an advantage for you, then that's going to be our mindset. And I don't think that any decision that we made tonight, that I made tonight, was a gamble. We felt like it was an advantage situation for us, and that's why we did it.''

Herbert and his teammates came agonizingly close to proving Staley correct.

Donald Parham seriously injured himself while coming down just out of bounds with a catch in the back of the end zone on the Chargers' failed fourth down from the Kansas City 5 on the game's opening drive.

Four drives later on the final snap of the first half, Herbert was in the shotgun on fourth down from the Kansas City 1 -- but Daniel Sorensen got his hand on a quick out to Keenan Allen, wiping out a potential TD pass and leaving the Chargers' halftime lead at only 14-10 despite 208 yards of offense on five solid drives.

The Chargers' only drive of the third quarter ended at the Kansas City 28 when Herbert and Jared Cook couldn't connect on a fourth-and-2 pass. Cook also dropped a probable touchdown pass on second down during that final drive before halftime.

After Thursday's game, the Chargers have now gone for it on fourth down 29.9% of the time this season. That's the highest rate for any team since the 2007 Jacksonville Jaguars (30.0%).

"We felt like it was an advantage situation for us," Staley explained. "That's why we did it. If we didn't feel like that was the case, then we would have kicked a field goal or we would have punted. That's the way that we're going to do things around here. I know that our team embraces that mindset. We're going to continue to do it every game we play moving forward."

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...way-going-play

"The quickest way to win a game like that is to score touchdowns not field goals, especially considering who's on the other side."

Chargers coach Brandon Staley on being aggressive on 4th down against the Chiefs. pic.twitter.com/4mskizFo2J

— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) December 17, 2021

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by DaFace

And on the other side, most of us would have felt a little relief if they'd just kicked it in most of those situations. That's a pretty good indicator that we know deep down that going for it is the best option.

Good point.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by DaFace

They've gone for it on 4th down 26 times this year. It's just what they do. We just gave them enough short ones that the numbers said to go a lot.

And it’s gotten them 8-6. Someone should do an analysis to see if just playing straight up football without all the analytics would have gotten them More wins or about the same.

[wachashi]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

And it’s gotten them 8-6. Someone should do an analysis to see if just playing straight up football without all the analytics would have gotten them More wins or about the same.

LOL

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Agreed. He’s one of these young guys that thinks he’s smarter than the game. I think he also made a mistake losing a TO trying to get a Kelce catch overturned.

I hope they keep him as their coach for a long time. The wise coach went home with a W last night.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by O.city

The one before halftime, ok. Maybe.

The others were the same way the Chiefs should play with Mahomes so I commend it. They've got a legit ass QB. Put the ball in his hands and live with the consequences.

Exactly right.

Decisions were fine. Had players executed (Williams and Cook both dropped TD's in separate goal-to-go situations) no one would be having this conversation.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath15

Exactly right.

Decisions were fine. Had players executed (Williams and Cook both dropped TD's in separate goal-to-go situations) no one would be having this conversation.

Honestly, the play where Parham got injured was a pure drop. The defender didn't really affect the play, the ground did.

[Old Dog]

It's been said for a few years now that you aren't going to beat the Chiefs with 3's. Other than the one right before the half that would have put them up seven I think he made the correct calls on the 4th down decisions. The challenge on the Kelce catch is iffy, but it looked to me that they were going to have to take a timeout there anyway on defense and they still had two challenges left so I didn't think that was an egregious mistake either.

[RealSNR]

Asshole had never coached at any level bigger than Div 3 until 4 years ago.

People are waaaaay too quick to crown this guy’s ass as a boy genius.

He might be a fine coach and will probably last longer than his predecessors, but let’s just cool it

[St. Patty's Fire]

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

Where is the DeBerg sub forum, mods??

This is a rare decent thread by Deberg, the discussion around Staley is interesting, don’t discourage him when he’s improving!

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Honestly, the play where Parham got injured was a pure drop. The defender didn't really affect the play, the ground did.

Same with the Williams drop the play or two before. Right through his hands.

[wachashi]

The weird thing about the Chargers discourse is that Staley is *not* a coach who blindly follows the models- he's kicked plenty of times when models would say to go.

But last night he, in addition to every public model I've seen, *all* thought it was right to go for it each time

— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) December 17, 2021

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by wachashi

The weird thing about the Chargers discourse is that Staley is *not* a coach who blindly follows the models- he's kicked plenty of times when models would say to go.

But last night he, in addition to every public model I've seen, *all* thought it was right to go for it each time

— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) December 17, 2021

Translation: It's not about analytics or math with him. He was just scared.

[Gary Cooper]

Another young punk who thinks he's smarter than everyone despite not hitting puberty yet.

I agree coaches aren't aggressive enough, but when your team doesn't have it, you need to settle for the points. He should have got the message after the first one or two 4th down failures.

[ChiTown]

IDGAF what the analytics say. You kick that FG before half. You can't keep throwing up zero's that deep into Chief's territory. Getting points before having to kick off to the Chiefs to start the 3rd Qtr was a must have. Like I said, stuff your analytics up your ass. You take the points there.

Here Staley, you earned this

[RedinTexas]

Originally Posted by Old Dog

It's been said for a few years now that you aren't going to beat the Chiefs with 3's. Other than the one right before the half that would have put them up seven I think he made the correct calls on the 4th down decisions. The challenge on the Kelce catch is iffy, but it looked to me that they were going to have to take a timeout there anyway on defense and they still had two challenges left so I didn't think that was an egregious mistake either.

Yes, they've been saying for a few years that you have to score early and often to beat the Chiefs, but they've been saying that as the 2018, 2019, and 2020 Chiefs put up huge point totals. The 2021 Chiefs have been "struggling" on offense. Making the decision to go for it on 4th down was probably the right thing to do if the situation had come up in prior years, but I'm not sure about it this year.