Well..."Cheers" To A Winning Season At Least

[Bearded14YourPleasure]

[Boltjolt]

It left 258 more for everybody else.

[Formula 21]

[oneinchpunch]

[Steve]

With all the new players and trying out so many guys to see where they fit (new D), there wasn't a lot of room to emphasize ST early on. Many new coaches have problems like that. Add in the mistake of hiring Stewart, it was too much of an issue.

Given how much progress we made in other areas, they should be able to find the time to get some ST guys and get a new ST coordinator.

And ST cost us more than just 2 games. It was a bleeding sore all season long. The field position vs KC killed us in the 1st game, and it went a long way to losing Philly.

[Formula 21]

Noted on the radio broadcast, Dzubnar leads the NFL in special teams tackles.

[Jagged]

New coach, new DC, the move to LA, losing our number 1 and 2 draft picks for the season (Williams was basically lost), are all reasons for a a crappy year. I think this team did well in spite of all that. I think most teams would have mailed in the season with all that happening.

I'm very impressed with how Lynn has handled the team (with the exception of special teams). Someone mentioned McVay and Zimmer as missed opportunities, I don't see it that way. I think Lynn was the perfect fit for this team. It just took him a minute (the first four games) to get out of his coordinators way. At least he realized this and let them do their jobs.

Offensive line, run stuffing linebacker, and for gods sake.... DO SOMETHING ABOUT SPECIAL TEAMS and this team will win more games next year.

[RTPbolt]

Just finding a decent kicker for game 1 would have found us in the playoffs. I dont even blame Lynn for what happened. Lambo was flawed and we saw it last year...he didnt impress in preseason and Koo was showing his equal without the supposed locker room baggage of Lambo. I thought Koo would do better but his youth and inexperiencr with missing game winning kicks seemed to crumble the kid. We were left with a shit situation that nobody would have predicted although i think we all knew there was risk with either kicker. Its our achilles for sure that cost critical points.

That said im PROUD of this team. We had declined so far under Mccoy and the injury curse. Lynn has pulled this team off the trash heap in a strange transition year and damned if we werent that first KC missed field goal from winning the division outright in what I thought was one off the tougher divisions in football. KC we easily could have split with and Denver have swept along with Oakland....almost a 5 out of 6 division record with a decent kicker....never under Mccoy would we have seen that. A decent kicker and we would be 11-5 and possibly 12-4 of that I have no doubt despite our early defensive issues and ST challenges. We were pretty damned close to being a 3 seed. The offense is there to stay even with the medicre run blocking ....we have just said we lead with the pass which is our strength but we never gave up on the run either despite the need for improved line play (i think Lamp would have made a nice cog on the right side but now Feeney got a year to really progress). There were no excuses of our OL ...they gutted it out and protected Rivers enough and improved over the season despite losing Slausen too...we had a good showing for a young line in retrospect with room for growth.

The Defense was so ready to change schemes. We have some swagger now which was a major surprise so quickly. A couple holes to fill in FA and the draft to help the LB core and safety but our pass rush and Verrettless CB core were pretty damned stout. We need s DT to train up as Mebane isvery long in the tooth now. The D took serious strides with the simple approach and letting Coach Pagano try his schrmes elsewhere...i liked Pags but his D was frustratingly inconsistent. We can improve the run D but overall they held the points off the board very well this year...near a team low right? Major bright spot we have in D. Lots to look forward to from this unit.

As a whole the team knows it was there and was arguably better than Titans and Buffalo and the Jags IMO. Is say at least on par with KC despite a poor showing in KC.i expect nothing from KC in the playoffs. We had some flaws but less thatn the 3-4 in the AFC playoffs now for sure. Sucks having to watch for them but i think they know next year there is no reason to think division crown is not right in reach and maybe even a first round bye if we stay bslanced and fill a few holes this offseason. THAT is sayig a lot coming from the last 2 horrid seasons of inept coaching. Lynn...you earned my respect this year....slow hands clapping.

Well done Chargers. We are no longer the AFC bottom. We are on the top again with a few changes and have a bright future.

[Lightnin']

I'm very happy with 9-7 and the way we took over games-v-teams we should have taken over.

No, there was no "signature" win; we lost to teams that were frankly, better.

It's easy to forget where we were this time last year; the only team that lost to Cleveland in '16
and a 5-11 cellar dweller in the AFC West, headed to Los Angeles.

We'll see who stays, who goes, and who gets drafted, but-right now, I'm eager for 2018 Charger
football.

[Boltjolt]

Maybe I'm missing something but can you explain the locker room baggage that Lambo had. Lambo was not that bad and imo they took a chance on Koo and it backfired. They didn't even bring him back when they were playing musical kickers.

[Bearded14YourPleasure]

I’ve read a few things where he just didn’t fit into the locker room. I know there were also some issues with his actions post game after he had made mistakes that cost us games last year. I think his inconsistency on the field made it a lot easier to get rid of a guy that didn’t mesh with the rest of the team.

[Boltjolt]

I dont live down there so i dont get to read everything but the only issue i recall was after a loss he was laughing it up with the other kicker. But really that just makes fans mad more than anybody else.

[Heatmiser]

[RTPbolt]

Maybe I'm missing something but can you explain the locker room baggage that Lambo had. Lambo was not that bad and imo they took a chance on Koo and it backfired. They didn't even bring him back when they were playing musical kickers.

I thought I read something on this forum about Lambo and locker room issue but honestly im not sure which post it came from. All water under the bridge at this point.