For everyone who dissed Norv, he sure showed you

After smirking from the shadows, it's time to stand and be counted. Everyone who thought the Chargers had screwed up by firing Marty Schottenheimer and replacing him with Norv Turner, please rise.

There you are. I see you, and you, and you. And I see me. Hey, it's going to be all right. It's not like I see dead people. Just dumb people.

Hey, two playoff wins are in the can. Don't you think Norv has earned the right to gloat? (US Presswire)

Norv Turner made us look stupid, and bully for him. He was hired before this season to take the Chargers where Schottenheimer could not -- deep into the playoffs. And he has succeeded. He has taken San Diego to the brink of the Super Bowl, and while the Chargers have very little chance to get there, any failure from here on out wouldn't literally be a failure. It would be reality. New England is too good, and San Diego is too banged up. Sunday in Foxboro is a game the Chargers can't win.

But then, Sunday at Indianapolis was a game the Chargers couldn't win, either. And they won that thing, didn't they? They won 28-24 despite playing on the road, despite getting hosed by at least one terrible call that cost cornerback Antonio Cromartie a touchdown return, despite getting little contribution from ailing Pro Bowl offensive stars LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates, and despite starting quarterback Philip Rivers' knee injury at the end of the third quarter.

They won despite Norv Turner. Or did they win because of Norv Turner?

A game like that 28-24 upset of the Colts, and a season like this one, should make all of us reconsider our stance on Turner. And there are a lot of us. Here's a sampling of the fallout from the Chargers' decision to replace Schottenheimer with Turner:

From CBS Sports.com poster message-boards poster Matttarheel: "They have recycled one of the worst coaches off of the trash-heap of NFL coaching. Norv is a problem."

From the blog BleacherReport.com: "Norv Turner: The Worst Hiring in NFL History?"

ESPN.com: "Norv Turner is a terrible head coach."

CBS Sports.com: "Norv Turner sucks."

That last one was me, but in my defense it was written in September, when the Chargers lost three straight games to fall to 1-3. Under Schottenheimer one year earlier San Diego had lost just twice in 16 games, but here was good ol' Norv losing three of his first four. He sucks, just like he sucked in Washington, and just like he sucked at Oakland. History doesn't lie.

But stats can. In Turner's case they did, and we fell for it because, frankly, we wanted to fall for it. At Washington and Oakland, Turner had gone a combined 69-87-1. When he got the San Diego job, it looked like another example of the NFL's good old boy network. Hating on Norv Turner was an excuse to hate on the system.

But look at the stats from a larger perspective, and Turner's failure in Washington and Oakland isn't as egregious. Washington was so troubled that Steve Spurrier and Schottenheimer couldn't win there after Turner was fired, and Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs went 30-34 the past four years. As for Oakland, the truth of the matter is this: Oakland sucks. Oakland sucked with Bill Callahan, it sucked with Art Shell, it sucks now with Lane Kiffin, and it was going to suck in 2004-05 whether or not its coach was Norv Turner.

The Chargers still recycled him. No denying that. But it worked, just as recycling worked in New England with Bill Belichick. Turner made it work in San Diego by crafting a team that can win even without Tomlinson, reducing the running back's workload in favor of the offensive diversity mandatory of a playoff winner. Result? Tennessee held Tomlinson to 42 yards on 21 carries in the first round, a knee bruise limited Tomlinson to seven carries in the second round, but here comes San Diego into the third round.

Turner's touch is light. Schottenheimer is a dictator who is tolerated only when he is winning, and his firm grip choked the Chargers out of the playoffs last year. Turner gets players to play for him because they like him. He broke them up after the win over Tennessee by doing an awful impression of defensive end Luis Castillo's sack dance. He fired them up before the Colts game by telling them they would play in the AFC title game, and he allowed himself a gloat afterward when he spotted Lorenzo Neal in the locker room and hooted at him. "Get ready, No. 41. Get ready. I told you!"

All sorts of emotions were running through Turner's body after the win over the Colts. He was in tears as he left the field, but 25 minutes later he was defiant. Walking through an RCA Dome hallway toward a scheduled postgame interview, Turner told an associate, "We're in no rush. (The heck) with 'em."

That's right, Norv. (The heck) with 'em. (The heck) with 'em all.