Last season, Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley was aggressive on fourth downs, often rattling football traditionalists with his decisions.
But early in Thursday night's 27-24 loss in Kansas City, Staley backed off that approach, eschewing several chances to go for it on fourth down. Asked after the game about punting twice on the Chiefs' side of the field in the second quarter, Staley cited his defense's play.
"Just wanted to give our defense a chance to compete," he said, via the official transcript. "I really loved the way we were playing. I felt like that was the formula to flip the field. I felt like we were aggressive when we needed to be tonight -- we converted all four of our fourth downs. I just felt like, with who is over there and the way our defense is playing, I felt like the field position would be a big edge for our defense to be able to put them back there. I like the way our defense competed tonight."
Leading 10-7, the Chargers had fourth-and-2 from the K.C. 47-yard line midway through the second quarter and decided to punt. After the defense got the stop, Staley again faced a fourth-and-2 on the Chiefs' 48-yard line late in the quarter and booted the ball away. The Chargers also took three points on their opening possession of the game, kicking a field goal from the 13-yard-line on fourth-and-2.
Kansas City coach Andy Reid, who also chose to kick a chip-shot field goal with the ball on the 1-yard line, was asked if he was surprised by Staley's fourth-down decisions.
"No, listen, that's a loaded question," he said. "Last year it hurt them, so logically they kind of backed off that. I'm not questioning that."
It wasn't as though Staley completely stopped going for it on fourth down. Midway through the third quarter, he called an Austin Ekeler run on fourth-and-1 from the K.C. 18-yard line that the Chargers converted. The next play, Justin Herbert and Mike Williams connected for a gorgeous 15-yard TD to regain a 10-point advantage. L.A. went 4-of-4 on fourth downs for the game.
In 2021, Staley often cited trying to "give our team the best chance to win" as the reason to go for it on fourth down. His response Thursday night citing his defense playing well is key to understanding the decisions. Last year, he didn't trust his defense to make critical stops. With the offseason upgrades, perhaps he will eschew the analytics more often in 2022.
