It's Been Some Awful Football

It plagues me to be a supporter of both the San Diego Chargers and the California Golden Bears, because they're almost exactly alike.

Play styles are a bit different, yes, but not that different. Yes, one is a professional team and the other is the football team that represents the best public university in the entire world. A sure, one plays in Brutalist architectural nightmare while the other plays in a stadium older than most of the teams in the NFL.

But they're essentially the same team and the parallels are striking. Both are underachieving, should-be-contenders who haven't reached the promise land and may never.

For the Chargers, that pinnacle is the Super Bowl. For the Bears, it's The Rose Bowl.

Both are teams that are trying (or have been trying) to unseat the major player in their respective Leagues. The ghosts of New England haunts San Diego, while it's Southern California that torments Cal.

And then both teams give piss poor efforts sometimes that it makes you think "Are they really that talented?"

That's what's happened for most of the year for both of these teams. The Bears own a better record and are in better shape than my Chargers, only because in college football, sometimes you can afford to play like shit.

Sure, the offense for Cal got to a fast start Saturday in defeating overly-hyped, uber-overrated Arizona State. But that offense stalled and stalled and stalled and stalled. Thanks to the best defense I've seen in four years, the Bears were able to defeat the Devils 24-14 when the score should have been nearer 48-14.

And the Chargers. Oh those Chargers. "Most Talented Team in Football" is term that has been tossed around to describe them. And they might be. But effort. Where's the heart guys? Where's the determination? Where's the sense of urgency?

San Diego should be 5-0. There's no way that the Chargers should have been beaten on the last play against Carolina or Denver. There's no way that San Diego leave opportunity after opportunity on the table against the one of the worst teams in the professional American football.

But the difference is that I think in San Diego, it's on the players. When the Chargers defense holds a team to 17 points, they should win the game. When the Chargers score more than 30, they should win the game.

It's true and cliche and tired, but San Diego hasn't played a complete game. And it will be scary for opponents when they do.

For Cal, it's the coaching. And it isn't the motivational bullshit or the chemistry problems. No, not this year. That was last season, when the entire nation saw a team implode on itself after being ranked No. 2 in the country (No. 1 for a bout 90 minutes). They've learned and now there's accountability on that team.

What the problem is that the Bears coaches aren't putting their team in a position to perform at the highest level. There have been times when they've been outcoached. There have been times when the team was unprepared. And in Cal's only loss of the year, it wasn't because of a lack of effort. It seemed to me that the Terps were just a step ahead.

But coaching can be fixed. And so can effort. I don't think the Chargers possess any kind of on or off switch where they can automatically play well. But if there was one, a team like San Diego has the closest thing to it.

It's okay that my Saturdays and Sundays look exactly the same--I'm just tired of watching the same awful football, that's all.

These teams should be doing better. Let's see it.