Defense is exposed in a loss to Detroit, and afterward the coach says, ‘I take full responsibility.’
Brandon Staley took a page out of his old boss’s playbook Sunday afternoon. Maybe he should be a little more careful with that.
Sean McVay has been notorious for taking the responsibility on himself for Rams’ failures, even on occasions when the responsibility more accurately belonged to those on the field. When you get to the postseason four times in six years, reach the Super Bowl twice and win one, you’ve got enough leeway to get away with it.
Staley, whose one season as McVay’s defensive coordinator in 2020 helped propel him to his first head coaching job with the Chargers, has taken the same approach. After a porous defensive effort ended with Riley Patterson’s walkoff 41-yard field goal and a 41-38 win for the Detroit Lions, Staley fell on his sword much as he did three weeks ago after a loss in Kansas City.
“I didn’t do a good enough job on defense for us today,” Staley said, and never mind that he didn’t personally whiff on a tackle or blow a coverage. “That was the story, run and pass. Didn’t do a good enough job on the run game in the first half and then in the second half there were far too many (explosive plays). So I didn’t do a good enough job for us today.
“We got to go back to practice and we’ve got to get back to work and focus on fundamentals. You know, the fundamentals of playing defense start at the line of scrimmage, playing blocks, leveraging the football, tackling and then staying connected in coverage. You know, we didn’t rush well enough today. didn’t cover well enough and it starts with me. … It wasn’t good enough today in any phase. And again, like I said, I take full responsibility.”
As noble as it is to take full responsibility, and as useful as it might be to relieve some of the scrutiny on the players who aren’t getting it done, a coach should be careful before going that route.
