After yet another game in which his team lost by less than a score and gave up significant yardage on defense, Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley was emphatic that Sunday's 23-20 loss to the Packers was not due to a problem in his own defensive game plan, saying he has no plans to make changes in that area at this point.
"I have full confidence like I've told you -- and like I've told you from the beginning -- I have full confidence in our way of playing. I have full confidence in myself as the play-caller. And the way that we teach and the way that we scheme. Full confidence in that," Staley told reporters. "We've got to bring this group together and do it consistently, and that's where it's at.
"So you can stop asking that question, OK? I'm going to be calling the defenses, OK? So we're clear. So you don't have to ask that again."
Sunday's loss to the Packers dropped the Bolts to 4-6 on the year and 2-5 in one-score games this season. It was also the second straight week in which the defense struggled -- they have given up a combined 957 yards and 64 points in back-to-back losses.
The defense gave up 424 yards to the Packers, who have had issues producing on offense throughout the season and had not hit 400-plus yards or 300-plus passing yards going into Sunday. This came after the Chargers' loss to the Lions last week when the defense gave up 533 yards. Overall, the defense has struggled mightily throughout the season, ranking near the bottom in the league in yards allowed per game through Weeks 1-10, leading to questions for Staley about what, if any, changes might be in store for L.A. in order to address and resolve the long-term issues.
But when Staley was repeatedly asked by reporters after the game whether there might be more to the struggles than just a lack of execution, Staley remained vehement that there was not an issue with the defense as a unit or his play-calling, no matter what the media or fans might suggest.
"I'm not here to talk to the fan base, I'm here to talk to my players, the locker room. I know that we give ourselves a chance to win every single week with the game plans that we have, and we have done it here," Staley said on Sunday. "You guys act like we've never played good defense. That's not the truth. You act like we haven't made any improvements. … There were a lot of other things that caused us to lose today. It certainly wasn't our defense. It was the way we played as a team.
"We didn't play well enough in the red zone on offense, we dropped too many passes, we gave up a few killer sacks, OK, we did this as a team. Stop making it about one unit because that's not what happened out there today. Our team lost, and I am fully responsible for it, and I take full responsibility. But we lost as a team today, and that's the storyline."
The Chargers offense did have its fair share of struggles Sunday, as they went 1 of 4 in the red zone, and multiple drops and slips across the team took away potential scoring opportunities in key moments.
But the offense has not been a long-term issue this year, as it ranked ninth in scoring coming into Sunday. The defense, however, has been a consistent issue, and even Staley acknowledged that the work they've done hasn't necessarily shown up in games, but still doubled down on his assertion that the team can get wins in its current system.
"We have made adjustments throughout the season, it hasn't shown up exactly in an impactful, consistent way, but we have made changes. We have made adjustments, and our players know that, and we're going to continue to work hard at it, and we'll see what progress we make moving forward," Staley said.
Though Staley's words paint a clear picture of his thoughts on his team's struggles, the results don't lie, and something isn't working right now. If the Chargers want any chance of climbing back into the AFC playoff race, the improvement needs to show. And as the season moves forward, they're running out of time.
