{"id":152983,"date":"2023-11-20T11:30:32","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T16:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=152983"},"modified":"2023-11-19T23:16:24","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T04:16:24","slug":"brandon-staley-week-11-loss-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/11\/20\/brandon-staley-week-11-loss-press-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clock Is Ticking for Brandon Staley"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Chargers lost to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, falling to 4-6. For the most part, the Chargers have been able to defeat lesser opponents this year, save for the Titans Week 2 overtime loss. Most of their losses have come against tough teams like the Chiefs, Dolphins, and Lions. This game bucked that trend, and while it wasn\u2019t the only factor, the pass defense got torched by Jordan Love of all people \u2013 arguably a new low for them this year (after their new low in Week 10<\/a>–notice a theme?). However, the biggest story of all in the aftermath was how head coach Brandon Staley handled the press conference. Spoiler alert: it did not go well.<\/p>\n

The Clock Is Ticking for Brandon Staley After Week 11 Loss and Press Conference<\/h2>\n

Staley\u2019s full press conference can be found here<\/a> \u2013 and while it wasn\u2019t a meltdown in the vein of Dennis Green or Jim Mora, he was getting testy with the reporters and seemed quite tense. There\u2019s plenty to break down here, but we\u2019ll focus on the highlights.<\/p>\n

The Highlights (or Lowlights?) of Staley\u2019s Presser<\/h3>\n

The reporters \u2013 Daniel Popper in particular \u2013 were pushing at Brandon Staley concerning the play of his defense and his defensive play-calling. When asked for the second straight week if he would surrender defensive play-calling duties, his annoyed response was: \u201cYou can stop asking that question. I\u2019m going to be calling the defenses. Okay? So we\u2019re clear. So you don\u2019t have to ask that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed further about the play of the defense, Staley deflected, saying that there were other factors in the loss \u2013 which was technically true; there were some red zone struggles on offense, which he pointed out. However, he claimed \u201cit certainly wasn\u2019t our defense,\u201d despite the fact that Love passed for an easily-career-high 322 yards, and pointed specifically to drops and a fumble near the goal line by Austin Ekeler as \u201cthe story.\u201d<\/p>\n

This feels like throwing Ekeler \u2013 and the offense \u2013 under the bus, considering Staley wasn\u2019t even asked about the offense but chose to draw attention to them anyway so he wouldn\u2019t have to admit the defense was the main reason for the loss. The offense had some sloppy moments, but against a team like the Packers, it should have been enough to win. Staley \u2013 and some fans \u2013 may point to stuff like Ekeler\u2019s fumble or Quentin Johnston\u2019s horrific drop at the end of the game, but against the Packers and Love, they should not have been in that position in the first place.<\/p>\n

Lowlights, Continued<\/h3>\n

Towards the end, the subject of Quentin Johnston\u2019s drop issues came up \u2013 and while Staley didn\u2019t throw him under the bus for that, he did retort that \u201cYou [the reporter] were also at training camp, and he made a lot of big plays at training camp, so you need to do, you know, your reporting justice.\u201d Aside from the oddity of appealing to training camp performance in Week 11<\/i>, that kind of remark probably isn\u2019t going to endear him any further to reporters — at best, it just gives them fuel.<\/p>\n

After that last exchange, the presser ended with him being asked if there was any update on Joey Bosa’s injury — to which he answered no — and then he just randomly up and left, seemingly storming off.<\/p>\n

A general theme in this presser (and others this year as well) is that Staley, while he claimed to take responsibility for the loss, refused to entertain the idea that his defensive play-calling or gameplans could be to blame at all<\/a>. Three straight years of ranking in the bottom half of the league despite having multiple Pro Bowlers or even All-Pros on defense indicates otherwise.<\/p>\n

The Wheels Are Falling Off for Brandon Staley<\/h3>\n

There are probably multiple points in the season that one could look at as the time when it became clear that Brandon Staley was going to be toast. However, I think this game and its aftermath is that threshold. Whatever excuses could\u2019ve been made the first year or two are ringing hollow when the defense has actively gotten worse this year. And again, a supposed defensive guru\u2019s defense has ranked in the bottom half of the league three years in a row. There\u2019s been plenty of time for him to adjust things this year, and it\u2019s not happening. This defense is undisciplined and playing poorly and they\u2019re not going to get better \u2013 or at least, not better enough \u2013 while Staley is calling the shots.<\/p>\n

But the press conference after this game feels like the nail in the coffin. Again, this may not be on the level of more famous coach meltdowns, but when you reach the point where you\u2019re getting testy with reporters and randomly throwing players under the bus, that\u2019s a sign that the wheels are falling off. Staley\u2019s days as head coach are numbered.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite possible that he doesn\u2019t get fired until the end of the season, because the Spanos ownership is too apathetic to make a move like that most of the time (otherwise Anthony Lynn probably would\u2019ve been fired midseason in 2020). However, if Staley ends up losing the locker room, Spanos may be left with no choice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between an arguably new low for the defense and a rough press conference for Brandon Staley, it is clear that the coach’s days are numbered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2355,"featured_media":152985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,18],"tags":[7430,7642],"class_list":["post-152983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-chargers","tag-brandon-staley","tag-chargers-featured"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}