Norv Turner Is Back! The Sports Blogosphere Rejoices

Chargers owner Dean Spanos, after appearing ready to clean house a month ago, thought better (?) of it and decided that A.J. Smith and Norv Turner give the organization its best chance to win a championship. He also cited the players not giving up under Norv down the stretch. Norv Turner has survived for a long time on players not giving up when they are eliminated from the postseason. He’s one of the best coaches ever at keeping players going while being eliminated.

Back in 1996, the Redskins started 8-3 and looked like playoff locks. Sure, they managed to lose 4 straight and were eliminated before the final game, but gosh darn it if they didn’t come out and win 37-10 in week 16. In 1997, again it was a 6-4 start, followed by only winning one of the next five. Another closing game victory showed they still had that fighting spirit even though Vikings and Lions wins that day eliminated them. The season after that, the ‘Skins started 0-7, but never gave up on Turner, and they won 6 of 9 after they were already out of the race. After 5 seasons, Turner had missed the postseason every year, but did just enough. He made his first postseason in 1999. The next year, a 7-4 start dropped to 7-6 when Daniel Snyder decided not to see if Turner could win the 16th game after being eliminated.

His Oakland tenure was marked by frustration and losses and didn’t last as long. In San Diego, though, he has continued to be defined by his teams not giving up. In 2008, they managed to make the playoffs at 8-8 on tiebreakers after a 4-8 start. Last year, they dug a hole with bad special teams play early, starting 2-5. They went on a winning streak, but every time they seemed poise to regain the lead, they would lose. First to Oakland, then at Cincinnati in week 16 in the game that eliminated them. They won at Denver in week 17, though, showing Norv knows how to keep them from quitting.

So the stretch that swung Spanos was classic Norv Turner. They appeared hopeless at 4-6, but the AFC West came back to them, and they just needed a home win against Denver. Overtime fail. It looked pretty much lost, so the team did not give up, reeling off three straight wins by 20 or more points. Then, when things seemed possible again, with Denver and Oakland losing, the Chargers needed a win at Detroit. 38-10 loss and officially eliminated. They sure looked good last week though.

Norv Turner shows us how much you can get out of rallying when the pressure is off–the anti-Raheem Morris, if you will. So while Morris’ coaching career in the NFL is likely done, Turner has continued coaching for 14 seasons in the league, reaching the playoffs in only 4 of them. This year, he passed Tony Dungy in games coached. He’ll surpass Mike Ditka on opening day next year. If he makes it to the end of next season, he’ll move past Sid Gillman, Dick Vermeil, and Jim Mora, into 23rd all-time. If he can keep his guys from quitting once they are eliminated again, he could surpass Hank Stram and Joe Gibbs.

Turner is 106-113-1 for his career. If you look at point differentials and pythagorean win totals, his teams should have won nearly 10 more games over the course of his 14 seasons, and most years they underperform (2009 was the only year of his career where his actual wins were more than 1 win better than his pythagorean win expectation). In one score games, he’s got a pretty bad 47-67 record. That is the 10 wins (and 10 extra losses) that we see with the pythagorean wins. If he would have just gone .500 in close games every year of his career, Turner’s teams would have made the postseason 3 more times, and a respectable half of all his seasons coached, including each of the last two.

But he didn’t, and he hasn’t. Turner’s not horrible. He’s not a disaster or train wreck. He tantalizes, and comes up short, but his teams never give up. They claw back in only to lose, and they always leave a good impression. Norv Turner has figured out if you make the playoffs, you usually end the season with a loss. Better to go out a winner. It’s kept Norv around for 14 years, and he’ll be around for at least one more.

[photo via Getty]