SAN DIEGO — Revenge does not seem to become him, so Norv Turner only let a slight smirk slide across his face the day after he had won yet another playoff game for the San Diego Chargers. He would not boast. He would not mock the men who had fired him. He would not say those things a man in his position — as a twice-dismissed head coach in the midst of a winning run — was well within reason to scream.
Instead, with the buzz of a first-round playoff victory over the Indianapolis Colts still ringing around the room, he was, well, the same old Norv, as droll and stoic as ever. On the day he could have said anything about anyone who has mocked his ability to be a head coach — and there are plenty who have — he did what he always does, regardless of the current state of public opinion.
He read the injury report. Then he talked about the weather.
“That 10-day report doesn’t tell you a lot,” he said.
But if there is a case to be made for Turner as a head coach, despite his 77-95-1 record in the regular season and his firings by the Washington Redskins and the Oakland Raiders, that case has made itself in the last month, during which his Chargers not only salvaged a season that looked lost with four straight wins but also won a first-round playoff game no one expected them to take.
And if Turner’s Chargers can beat the Steelers today in Pittsburgh, he will have won four playoff games with the franchise, more than any other San Diego coach. In his two seasons here, the Chargers are 12-1 in December and January — the games that supposedly matter the most.
So surely he must feel vindicated.
“No,” he said. “I really believe that it is always about next week. For me it’s always going to be about what happened in this game and now what’s going to happen in the next game. That’s not a bad thing because it does help motivate you.”
Chargers general manager A.J. Smith fired Marty Schottenheimer as coach after a 2006 season in which Schottenheimer led the team to a 14-2 record but made a series of blunders in a first-round playoff loss to New England.
No one has doubted Turner’s genius as an offensive coordinator, designing the offense that took the Dallas Cowboys of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin to two straight Super Bowl titles. He had even installed the Chargers’ offense under Schottenheimer when he was San Diego’s offensive coordinator in 2001. But his head coaching record was unappealing.
Still, Smith promised Turner would be better in San Diego. Smith never warmed to Schottenheimer’s controlling methods. They clashed over personnel. They clashed over philosophies. Schottenheimer lost both the playoff games he coached in San Diego. Smith blamed him fully, questioning the way the team’s best players, such as running back LaDainian Tomlinson, were deployed in those games. Turner, Smith said, understood how to use his best players.
“Game day, in the playoffs, when it’s turned up a notch big-time, there are critical, critical (coaching) decisions that must be made,” Smith said before last season. “I’ll just say four, five or six decisions that take place in a game, critical decisions made by the head coach. Consult with the coordinators, yes, but you still have to make the call. The strategies, the chess game, it’s all very important. You have to make the right call.
“I think Norv has this.”
Apparently he does.
Turner has taken a team struggling with key injuries and somehow pulled it into the second round of the playoffs. Little more than a month ago, the Chargers stood 4-8 and yet they have stormed back with five straight victories to win the AFC West, beat the Colts and earn a trip to Pittsburgh.
Compared to his Redskins teams, which were often rebuilding or were loaded with aging, overpriced players, and his Oakland teams, which were in decline, Turner’s Chargers have talent. A lot of talent.
When he took over two years ago, a strong argument could be made that the team had, with a healthy Shawne Merriman and Tomlinson, the league’s best linebacker, running back, tight end (Antonio Gates), punter (Mike Scifres), place kicker (Nate Kaeding), plus blossoming stars in left tackle Marcus McNeill and quarterback Philip Rivers. But slowly the talent has drifted away. Merriman went down one game into the season and Tomlinson’s season might be over with a groin injury. Gates has been slowed by injuries. The Chargers are not the pretty, gifted team anymore, loaded with stars. They have had to struggle with backups and relative unknowns.
Turner’s players have praised the way he spends time in the locker room with them, how he seems more approachable than other head coaches and how his refusal to panic, even at 4-8, helped prepare them for this latest run.
“Contrary to popular belief, he knows how to motivate us,” defensive tackle Jacques Cesaire told the team’s Web site.
But when Turner was asked if this might be his best coaching job yet, pulling the fragile Chargers back from the abyss, he quickly shook his head and talked about the need to be consistent, to not slip out of his normally dry personality. Anything else would be fraudulent, he said.
“To have dramatic changes that completely try to change who you are or what you are, or how you react to things, (the players) see right through that and they know what’s going on,” he said. “You just have to make sure that you don’t try to do something that you are not capable of doing when you are struggling. That tends to be what gets you in trouble.”
So in the greatest month of his head coaching career, with victories over Tampa Bay, Denver and Indianapolis in the last three weeks, Turner would not taunt his detractors who thought him overmatched for this kind of moment.
“It’s part of what this profession is and it’s part of this business,” he said of the criticism. “If you’re affected by it and you let it keep you from doing your job or doing a good job then I think that would be the biggest error you could make. I’ve got strong beliefs. I’ve been fortunate to be around great coaches and great players. I do believe our staff knows how to coach and we know how to get some things done.
“Are we perfect? No. No one is perfect in this league. We had a great plan. This game is still about players competing and players making plays. We take a great deal of pride in putting those guys in the best position to do their job.”
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