Chargers coach Brandon Staley doesn’t regret decisions

Six football seasons ago, Brandon Staley was the defensive coordinator at John Carroll University, a small, non-scholarship, Division III program in Ohio. That was 2016.

This is 2021, and Staley is the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, locked Thursday night in a critical game against AFC West rival Kansas City.

The 39-year-old is on a meteoric rise (he coached linebackers in Chicago for two seasons, then Denver for one, then became the defensive coordinator in LA last year before being promoted). As such, it shouldn’t surprise that he is unafraid of betting on big things happening even if their happening would defy the long held conventional wisdom of how big things happen.

Three times against Kansas City, Staley’s Chargers faced fourth down within field-goal range. One was from the Chiefs’ 5-yard line. Another, on the last play of the first half, from the 1. In the third quarter, there was a 4th-and-2 from the 28.

All three times Staley went for it rather than taking the likely field goal. All three times the Chargers were stopped – once on a scary play where tight end Donald Parham wound up hospitalized after hitting his head on the turf and two others on incomplete/batted down passes.

That’s nine likely points the Chargers left on the field.

Considering the Chiefs were able to come back and courtesy of two, 75-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown drives force overtime where they delivered another 75-yard touchdown drive to win, 35-28, those nine points mattered. A lot.

Not just in the final score, but in how the game was played along the way. If the Chargers kick, the Chargers probably win. They didn’t and didn’t.

Perhaps most interesting about the postgame fallout was that Staley didn’t just lean on “analytics” for his decision-making. He didn’t just…