So I was kind of wondering what happened with that Asante Samuel Jr INT where he went down after making the pick, despite it being a clear pick 6 if he kept going with it.
Doing so would have helped. A lot. The game was not over and him going down there meant we had a 90.3% chance of winning (per ESPN) rather than 99.9% if he took it for 6.
The aftermath was unclear. So, because it’s a public holiday here in Germany, and I’m a sad piece of shit, I’ve decided to do a deep dive and see what the fuck happened on this play. Enjoy.
**What was said:**
* The first feedback we had was from the [locker room interviews](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_q8DZ72ug) with the players. At 2:51, Jeff Fletcher from the Orange County Register, asks Asante about the slide and if he had regrets:
>Asante Samuel Jr: “I definitely did. For sure. I was trying to do what coach tell me. Just get down. I know what that the offense is gonna handle what they need to handle….I can’t really tell you, it was in the moment.
* All fine. But then the Daniel Popper from the Athletic asks “did you see Brandon, like, celebrating and think he was telling you to go down?”
>Asante Samuel Jr: “Yeah for sure, something like that. Because it was in the corner of my eye, so I’m looking at him and he like emphasised that, because we have plays before where…POPPER: like the JC one in Miami?…Asante: yeah…”
* So basically, Asante thought that Staley was telling him to get down, and that was emphasised to him. So what did Staley have to say? Popper asked him in the [press conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCn3pPinqxE) at 5:20 “Did you want Asante to slide there after the interception?
>Brandon Staley: “That’s one we are going to learn from. You know the answer to that. So…any time we don’t put *no más* on a situation then you’re going. But you know. It’s a learning opportunity for him.
* Popper senses this isn’t the same as what Asante told him just before, so he follows up by saying “Did you talk to him, did he see you celebrating…-” he’s then cut off by Staley:
>Brandon Staley: “Daniel. Daniel. We just got done with the game. We’ll have plenty of teachable moments tomorrow and I assure you it will get addressed.”
Huh. This is all, like…super weird. So, looking back, what was Staley motioning. Was he celebrating? Was he telling Asante to get down?
**Here is my investigation:**
* The all-22 is inconclusive. On one angle we can barely see Staley doing anything, and on another we can see him motioning something. It’s hard to tell whether it’s him motioning him to go, or get down. It might be that Asante got it confused, because I certainly did from the all-22.
* I then went back and watched the broadcast tape. Staley first motions for him to go, pointing toward the end zone, but then when Asante sees him, he slows down, seeming to be unsure, then Staley holds up a palm in a stop sign.
**The conclusion:**
I think that Staley was making extremely confusing hand signals to Asante on the side line. Maybe there’s a play call that Asante should have followed, but Staley’s body language was very confusing and probably contributed to Asante’s mistake.
**The ramifications:**
* It is completely unacceptable for Staley to sell out his player like that. Asante made a great play and was publicly scolded by Staley even though it was him that contributed to this.
* Whether this is because Staley feels pressure on his job, or misremembered it, I think it’s only right that Staley clears this matter up and acknowledges that his body language was misleading.
* Ultimately this is a small thing. Staley called a good defensive game, and Asante made a great play, but the facts are the facts. Staley’s motions were extremely confusing and that contributed to this error. Own up and move on, Asante will respect you for it.
26 comments
Oh shut up and enjoy the win. You Staley haters need a life. I don’t blame Staley for jumping with excitement because of that game changing INT. I wouldn’t blame Staley for bumping or even smacking Tillery for that bull shit hit. He said he learned from this mistake. Move on
There was a little exchange between Keenan and Asante in Keenan’s mic’d up. Can you add that into your post?
After all the mess ups by Staley, I’ll give Asante the benefit of the doubt. All signs point to Staley messing up or panicking. He just doesn’t seem to be in control of a lot of aspects of the game.
However, Chargers history dictates that Asante going down was probably the right call. Even if Asante only had AOC in front of him, there’s still a minute chance that he’d drop the ball and give it back. Might as well go down and give the ball back to your elite QB.
Either way, a win is a win. Let’s hope someone (*cough, Staley, cough*) actually learns from this and work on communicating better with the team.
https://twitter.com/OliverAHenzen/status/1709069041355325492
Here’s the clip, people can come up with their own conclusions at the 6 second mark.
This is easily a pick six. The players need better situational awareness. They go down when they shouldn’t go down and and don’t go down when they should go down. I’m sure the whole JC thing played a part in this situation.
This should’ve been ball game. It should have never come down to the offense on their own 5 yard line trying to seal the game.
As far as Staley goes, I don’t think he motioned for him to go down, he just was hyped up. At least that’s what it looks likes to me
https://preview.redd.it/7s7e65koa1sb1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f798e777ffc668a23af03ef7850c3ae6186720a
I wouldn’t put too much weight on the post game interview. They’ll look at the tape and sort it out.If I’m blaming anyone it’s JC Jackson.
When you make stupid mistakes then coaches have to talk about things that don’t need to be talked about and you end up with misunderstandings like this. Instead of being “play like you’ve always played” it becomes “check with the coaches first”
Haven’t watched it back since but my initial reaction watching it live was that Staley was motioning for him to get down before realising that he didn’t need to. I honestly think it was just an honest mix up in the middle of all the excitement.
Guy made a good pick, had Raiders coming at him and went down in bounds to keep the clock moving and keep the ball safe. Some people got too much time on their hands lol, let’s just enjoy another win and not bust our brains over something that hopefully the well paid coaches will already be doing lol
It looks to me like he motioned for him to go (rotating his arm) and only changed to a “stop” (palm) after Asante started going down. Maybe the intention was to keep him from trying to get back up to prevent injury or a fumble.
Popper in his article on Sunday gave more context to this:
> Samuel might have returned the interception for a touchdown if he hadn’t slid down at the 11-yard line. Samuel said he saw coach Brandon Staley celebrating out of the corner of his eye. Staley was waving his arms. After cornerback J.C. Jackson made a poor decision to return an interception out of the end zone in Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins, the coaching staff had “emphasized” when defenders should and should not go down after securing an interception, according to Samuel.
>
> Samuel said that is where his mind went.
It sounds like the coaching staff really hammered in that you needed to go down sometimes after an interception, and in the heat of the moment Asante thought that’s what Staley was motioning him to do, from what he saw “in the corner of [his] eye.” Rewatching the footage myself, I can’t say whether or not Staley’s signals were confusing objectively, but really Asante should be able to judge for himself when to go down and when to keep running, he shouldn’t need Staley telling him what to do regardless. That said, him not having the confidence to make the decision for himself is an indication of poor coaching. So overall I think this was both their faults.
I think saying that Staley “sold out his player” is a little strong. I do think he should’ve stuck to the first-person plural and said “It’s a learning opportunity for us” instead of “It’s a learning opportunity for him,” but that feels kinda nit-picky. I don’t think it’s important enough to need clarification or anything.
I think it was a good learning lesson for everyone.
I don’t think Staley was telling him to get down, but he got too excited in the moment and his hand gestures could easily be confusing. Staley needs to remain more composed in that situation.
As for Asante, I’m sure he was overthinking it after the whole JC incident. I would imagine they spent a good amount of time discussing how you DON”T do what JC did, and so Asante was probably pretty nervous.
Fortunately, we still won. I think we will be better in these situations going forward.
The real ones know the blame really rests with Marlon McCree.
I was originally mad at Staley because I’d only saw the pic/clip of the “go down” hand gesture. The replay in the comments here finally showed me that Staley was originally motioning for ASJ to run with it.
I’m still frustrated with Staley overall, but a LOT less so than I was after the game.
Popper needs to ask Staley what those gestures were. They can be confidential but I doubt it. Staley being so rude, condescending and dismissive makes me think he’s covering his guilt.
I’m glad the reporters got to Asante first for the record. If Staley were a veteran coach and confident, he’d probably say Asante misinterpreted his gestures. But Staley instead threw Asante under the bus a bit.
I think Staley is starting to lose the locker room. He’s like a coworker you think is going to be fired soon — making excuses for errors and overhyping successes.
I’ve been a Chargers fan since Fouts was dropping dimes to Joiner, Winslow, and Chandler. Muncie running around all over the place. Chargers winning and losing 48-41 style games every other week. Stadium was called “The Murph.”
Raiders of the Lost Ark was in movie theaters.
At some point, as an organization (AND some of the “rookie” Charger fans in this forum) you need to GET OVER the Marlon McCree debacle some 17 years ago now and MOVE ON.
While I understand the decision Asante made whether he thought Staley was signaling him or not I guess, man you need to run that fuckin INT back if you have a great opportunity to, especially if the only guy you had to beat possibly was a back up rookie QB playing his first NFL game and given the game situation at the time.
The next time the opposing offense is on their own 5 yard line and you pick one off on the 7-8 yard line with no one around you for 10+ yards, you going to go down again because of what happened 17 years ago or are you going to WALK that one into the end zone?
And yes, Jackson should have immediately went down in the end zone instead of trying to run it out on his INT in week 1 given his position AND the game situation at the time.
I’m literally that [Ben Affleck smoking meme](https://amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/ben-affleck-smoking) after reading this. Because I was confused In the moment. Then someone on here mentioned something about a lineman which didn’t make sense from what I saw. And then Staley being an a-hole to Popper when I felt the line of questioning was valid. IDK, we escaped but that mental breakdown… it’s a team thing.
We need a third base coach on the roster for clear hand signals
This is the thing. Staley gets mad at these types of questions but at the end of the day these are the types of mistakes that have him in the hot seat. He’s a new(ish) coach so there is going to be some things that are “learning opportunities” it’s the fact that he gets mad when called out about obvious issues that is both concerning for the future and tells you that he’s not open to any criticism, when he’s clearly on the hot seat for a reason. IF YOU DONT LIKE GETTING CALLED OUT FOR THIS BULLSHIT THEN YOU SHOULD PROBABLY COACH OR PRACTICE THESE SITUATIONAL FOOTBALL DRILLS IN PRACTICE.
Lol this was way too much effort. Everything made sense and there was no contradiction.
1) In the Micd up vid, Asante says he thought it was game over and Keenan says there’s like 2:50 left. That’s the whole story really
2) Staley clearly emphasized going down when it’s “No mas” beforehand. Asante thought it was over even though no mas wasn’t called out
3) In the moment he saw Staley in the corner and remembered the whole shtick about going down so he did. It was a mistake. Confusing motions or not, Asante should have known it wasn’t game. Thats on him
This is my own opinion, but #70 looked like he had a pretty good angle on Asante to at least force him inside so it’s a moot point IMO
The newest mic’d up of Keenan Allen he tells asj he could’ve kept goin and he responds like he knew he fucked up
daily FIRE STALEY comment
This situation has “did Logan Roy underline or cross out Kendall’s name” energy
Nice original post OP
I think in the latest Mic’d Up with Keenan. He told Zont he should’ve kept running. I think Zont replied saying he thought there was less time on the clock. To which Keenan replied, “nah, there’s like 2:40 still left”
This isn’t that weird. I feel like we can piece together that Staley was celebrating, ASJ mistakes it for a slide signal, Staley plans to discuss during the week about using common sense to not mistakenly think something nonsense is being instructed, and Popper pressed way too hard and not really the right time so he was just politely told to shut up for now.
Seems like everyone was pretty cool and it’s just an honest mistake to avoid in the future.
It’s pretty clear and dry to me and not worth this post. Staley was celebrating, Asante thought Staley was saying to go down. Should he have ran it? Yes. There was like 1 defender to beat. Is it good that a young db is listening to his coach? Yes.