TooKnown's Info of the Day
Taken right from the hands of
Vic Carucci :
A large part of being successful in the NFL is having the ability to forget.
Forget the good plays. Forget the bad plays. Forget the past and focus on the present -- on the next play, the next drive, the next opponent.
That's the challenge Norv Turner and the San Diego Chargers face this week.
The only way for the Chargers to deal with the officiating blunder that cost them a victory against the Denver Broncos
-- a fumble that was incorrectly ruled an incompletion but not reversed because the whistle had blown the play dead (
the explanation is as silly to type as it was to hear) -- is to forget about it.
But that's so much easier said than done.
For one thing, it doesn't fit well into the "
forgettable" category. A win taken away by something out of a team's control has a way of sticking with coaches and players for a long, long time. Human nature dictates as much. As long as the Chargers look at the final score -- Denver 39, San Diego 38 -- they will always see injustice.
Adding to the difficulty of putting the whole thing behind them is the fact they have an extra day to stew about it. Their next game, against the New York Jets, is not until Monday night, Sept. 22. The frustration and pain will continue to linger … and linger … and linger.
It didn't help that, according to Turner, referee Ed Hochuli told the coach, "
I blew it!" And it doesn't help that an NFL spokesman has said the league's competition committee would look into the rule that, despite the fact the ball clearly fell from the grasp of quarterback Jay Cutler and was clearly recovered by linebacker Tim Dobbins, forced the officials to allow the Broncos to retain possession in the final seconds. (
I'll go out on a limb and predict that the rule will be altered in some fashion so that a $6.50 whistle won't undermine the league's multi-million-dollar investment in technology designed to improve the chances of getting the call right.)
Fixing the problem at the league meetings in March does nothing to help the 0-2 Chargers in September. It won't help at the end of the season, either, when the loss to the Broncos possibly prevents them from winning the AFC West or making the playoffs in what quickly is shaping up as an extremely wide-open conference.
Coaches recognize the price of defeat better than anyone. At the end of the season, a loss will simply be a loss; it won't carry an asterisk that says "
officiating error." And, where job security is concerned, its ramifications will be the same as any other loss.
I've had more than one head coach tell me through the years that apologies from officials or the league office after their team has suffered because of a blown call are meaningless. If anything, they only create greater anger, frustration, and helplessness.
Turner called the blunder "
unacceptable," but he is going to have to get over it. He is going to have to do everything possible to convince his players that he really meant what he said when he told reporters Monday, "
You've got to move on … it's gone."
THE VID OF THE INCIDENT