Chargers coach Brandon Staley is under fire for playing his starters in last week’s finale at Denver, a decision that backfired spectacularly when Mike Williams injured his back on this play, a setback that will keep him from playing in Saturday’s Wild Card game at Jacksonville.
Williams, the team’s leading receiver with 895 yards this season, had just recently returned from a high-ankle sprain that cost him four games. By the time they kicked off at 4:25 PM ET, the Chargers’ fate had already been sealed, locked into the No. 5 seed with no way of moving up or down. Staley, who has faced frequent criticism for his in-game decision-making including his affinity for pushing the envelope on fourth down, may not live this one down, needlessly risking his best receiver in a game the Ravens, by virtue of their loss to Cincinnati, had rendered meaningless hours earlier.
While other teams with nothing to gain, namely the Giants and Buccaneers, had the foresight to take their foot off the gas, wisely saving bullets for the postseason, the Chargers went against the grain and paid a steep price, with Staley only having himself to blame. Criticism of Staley may come off as reactionary, “playing the result” when, in all likelihood, no one would have said a peep if Williams had escaped last week unscathed. Still, there’s no excusing Staley’s recklessness, tempting fate one too many times with his shameless contrarianism.
Leaving Williams, an injury-prone player, to his own devices in a game the Chargers should have been using as a maintenance week, is the height of overthinking, a galaxy-brained blunder that, if Los Angeles loses Saturday, may end up costing Staley his job.
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