Los Angeles at St. Louis

We watched the end of the San Diego opener vs. Seattle and one thing stood out. Norv Turner had everyone off the field with his offense going three-and-out in the fourth quarter twice. Meanwhile Seattle was gaining large chunks of yards, on way to scoring 17 points. Turner gets some reps for his starters and then shortens the game in the 4th quarter to get out without any problems. Tomlinson will not play again as he does not even suit up for these games. It certainly must send the signal to the rest of the squad to just shorten the game and minimize the bumps. This team has nothing to prove and they just want to get to game one of the regular season healthy. A team that wins 14 games doesn't care about their preseason record - at all. Marry that to a coach who doesn't care (17-20 preseason record for Turner) and you have a great team to fade. We don't like the fact that Turner has said he'll play his starters for the entire first half of this game, but at least the NFL's best player (LT) won't be on the field. This will be offset to some extent by the messages (overt and subliminal) being sent to Chargers players this week. Those messages all say "relax." Two-a-days are over and Turner said this week, "We’re going to go next week and have light practices during the morning. They’re half walk-through and half practice. It’s more of teaching-type periods." The Chargers' website reports that Turner is "very pleased" with his team's work through the first three weeks of camp. "We've gotten a lot done," he said this week. So, what are these players hearing? That they have done very well and things are going to lighten up. Nothing about working harder. Nothing about needing to improve. Nothing about winning. Scott Linehan took a different approach last week as the Rams put the ball in the air 43 times, lost the turnover battle 3-0, and still won their game! That tells us that this team is making attempts to move the ball down field and has no intent on shortening the game. It is unusal to see a team overcome a 3-0 turnover deficit, especially on the road, to win the game. That highlights these contrasting approaches to the preseason. Combine that with points given at home, where NFL exhibition teams have really done some winning, and we have a strong play on the home dog.