Again Marty?

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - Marty Schottenheimer proved to us yet again this evening that he will do everything in his power to lose playoff football games despite having superior teams. League MVP LaDainian Tomlinson, seemingly unstoppable in today's game, only touched the ball 9 times in the second half after the first 30 minutes in which he was just short of 100 yards rushing and another 59 through the air. 9 times! Perhaps Schottenheimer felt that avoiding his conservative playoff gameplans, known by his detractors as "Marty-Ball," and instead turning to his first year starter Phillip Rivers to air the ball out to the tune of 14 for 32 for 230 yards and an interception, he would silence the critics. Newsflash Marty, when you are lining up against a defense and getting 7 yards a pop running the football, you might want to stick with it! At no point in this game did New England display any opposition to the run game, missing tackles and looking foolish as the MVP danced and juked anywhere he wanted to go. It almost seemed as if Marty was trying to keep from blowing this game wide open by continually calling passing plays designed to go to his cadre of below average NFL receivers. I just don't understand why professional coaches seem to have been so clueless thus far in the playoffs (And yes, this means you Andy Reid...brilliant decision to punt away the ball on fourth down knowing that best case, you'd have less than a minute left if you got the ball back, which you eventually did not). Perhaps we should change the format of the playoffs to be more like the collegiate ranks, where teams are given closer to 55 days to prepare for a game instead of 6.