Ted Cottrell, clearly in an effort to show San Diego fans how funny he is, has declared that the Chargers defense is "close" to regaining it's late season form of 2007.  Oh really, Teddy?  You don't say.  Please, please tell me, Ted, how do you define close?  

In your personal pocket dictionary does the word "close" apply in a sentence like, "Matt Wilhelm is usually 5 yards from the player he is supposed to be tackling.  That's pretty close."  Or is it more appropriate in a sentence like, "The defensive line that you lead hasn't been close to pressuring a quarterback since 2007."  I personally think "close" is a better fit in a sentence like, "If I were AJ Smith, Ted Cottrell would be this close to spending the rest of his fall sundays on his couch, instead of standing anywhere near a once potent defense that only he has managed to tame."

I suppose it's pretty clear I'm not a huge fan of Ted Cottrell.  I don't think he's a terrible coach (he certainly knows more about X's and O's than I ever will), but he definitely isn't the quickest coach on his toes that I've ever seen.  I mean seriously, how long do we try and rush 4 players with zero success before he starts being more aggressive and utilizing more blitz packages?  Do we need to go 1-3 like last year before Ted gets aggressive again?  I know losing Merriman has hurt, as offenses can now focus on Phillips, but we started the same way last year (don't count the Bears game because their offense was offensive) and didn't get better until Ted let the beasts loose and starting blitzing the damn quarterback.  It ain't rocket science.  If you aren't putting pressure on the quarterback, you don't keep doing the same damn thing.

I'm just going to leave it at that for now, otherwise I'll get myself all worked up on a Friday night when I should be enjoying myself.  I'll simply leave you with this: if we don't put pressure on Mr. Favre on Monday night, with or without blitzes, we will be in for a shootout, and teams don't usually win shootouts against Brett Favre.  So Ted, show us all that you are actually watching the game and make some adjustments if we don't get to Favre early.  Thank you very much.  I'm done for now.

Cheers,
TWF