Black Monday came a day early for Mike McCoy.
The San Diego Chargers fired him shortly after the team’s 37-27 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs to close out the season Sunday. It dropped San Diego to 5-11 on the year. Even though it was an improvement over last year’s 4-12 campaign, 2016 will be the third straight year the Chargers miss the playoffs.
Mike McCoy has been dismissed as head coach.
INFO: https://t.co/uECp1NbJTy pic.twitter.com/T64O9WryGa
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) January 2, 2017
San Diego Chargers Fire Head Coach Mike McCoy
McCoy’s tenure with the Chargers got off to a torrid start. The team went 9-7 in his first year as head coach which was good enough to make the playoffs. They then pulled off a 27-10 upset of the Cincinnati Bengals in the wild card round and narrowly lost to eventual Super Bowl runners-up Denver Broncos 24-17 the following week.
A year later, San Diego replicated their regular season record and finished second in the AFC West. But things ended on a sour note with the Chargers losing three of their last four. It included a 19-7 loss to division rival Kansas City in the season finale, a game they needed to qualify for the postseason.
What did McCoy in, though, was the previous two seasons. San Diego finished dead last in the division both years and finished with a combined record of 9-23. Inability to run the football played a part in the team’s struggles. The Chargers finished no better than 27th in rushing offense and were second from bottom in 2015.
Given McCoy’s offensive background, quarterback Philip Rivers‘ play in 2016 didn’t help his cause. Though the 13-year veteran threw for 4,000 yards for the eighth time in his career, he also had 19 interceptions. That number was the most in the NFL among regular starters.
This is a complicated time for the Chargers franchise. The team’s future in San Diego is uncertain as rumors owner Dean Spanos will move the team north to Los Angeles remain rampant. A ballot measure to help fund a new stadium with hotel taxes came nowhere close to passing in November.
The 44-year-old finishes his four-year tenure as Chargers head coach with a career record 28-38 combining regular season and playoff games.
