Sports Report: Chargers Lose the Bye Week, Padres Lose Their Backup Plan
One of the reasons I’ve been hoping and praying San Diego gets a third professional sports franchise is to help with weeks like this one. When Chargers fans are too distraught to talk about the Chargers, and Padres fans are too apathetic to talk about the Padres, there is nowhere to turn. For now, our third team is the SDSU basketball team, which starts its season Friday night against UC Riverside.
You’re reading the Sports Report, our weekly compilation of news and information for the San Diego sports fan.
Chargers Lose to Themselves, Then Lose to the Redskins
• Heading into their matchup against the Washington Redskins last week, I repeatedly stressed the importance of the bye week. Some coaches find it difficult to maintain balance between rest and preparation with a full two weeks off, and it looks like the Chargers’ rookie head coach is still searching for the right mix. One reason why San Diego lost a very winnable game in D.C. on Sunday was insufficient preparation.
• This week, Chargers fans are a bit angry with the entire coaching staff. John Pagano’s defense is the worst in the league and looked like it on Sunday, and Ken Whinsehunt had one of the all-time play-calling blunders when he refused to run the ball with his power running back when a single yard would have won the game. This is just one reason that I have offered my services to the team as its manager of common sense.
• Pundits have noticed that the Chargers aren’t quite ready to be part of the playoff conversation. They’ve dropped an average of 3.487 spots in power rankings across the internet and are now considered the 16th best team out of 32 teams in the league. That’s about as average as average gets.
Padres Lose (Ausmus) to the Tigers, Then Lose (Renteria) to the Cubs
• Brad Ausmus, wh’s been working as part of the San Diego Padres front office since retiring as a player in 2010, should be the manager of the Padres. I’ve said this before. Unfortunately, a third team owner and a third general manager feel like Bud Black, who has never made the playoffs in his seven seasons with the team, deserves yet another chance. Meanwhile, the Detroit Tigers know talent when they see it and hired Ausmus to be their manager. Ausmus now gets to lead a team that has gotten to the American League Championship Series or further in each of the last three seasons.
• The Chicago Cubs, who were also interested in Ausmus, have settled for the Padres’ backup backup replacement plan. Rick Renteria, who has been with the Padres organization since 2003 and has worked his way up from the coaching staff of the Single A Lake Elsinore Storm, has been Black’s bench coach since 2008. Now, he’ll manage the very wealthy Cubs. The best laid schemes of mice and men …
Stories You May Have Missed
• Miami Dolphins offensive tackle Jonathan Martin left the team last week in an apparent case of bullying gone too far with offensive guard Richie Incognito. Incognito has since been suspended by the team, but his teammates came out in his defense and against Martin. This story is going to get a lot uglier, and a lot more complicated, before anyone figures anything out.
• Damon Bruce, who hosts a sports radio talk show on KNBR 1050 AM in San Francisco, decided to let the world know his feelings about women in sports. On a related note, I am pretty certain that Damon Bruce will never work in a major sports market ever again (and rightfully so).
• Kirk Goldsberry wonders whether Dallas Mavericks’ guard Monta Ellis is creating a revolution in advanced NBA stats. I love how these brilliant men who crunch numbers with calculator speed are often blown away by the most simple of concepts.
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GIF
Video of the Week: I’m breaking from tradition here and giving you a video instead of a GIF because it has come to my attention that not everyone knows how amazingly good Pavel Datsyuk is at hockey. As this goal from last night will show you, he’s really good and has been for a long time.
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I’m John Gennaro, contributor to Active Voice and managing editor of Bolts from the Blue. You can tweet me @john_gennaro or e-mail me directly at boltsfromtheblue@gmail.com.
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