My point wasn't to criticize CAR's offense, but just to give a recent example of how an outstanding defense could help a struggling offense
Can't remember who said it, but it was basically "what football fans mistake as 'momentum' is actually field position"
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/drivestats
Like people wonder why Rivers is considered a good QB and throws for all those yards, yet they can't score. It's b/c his team has chronically bad field position. If Mike McCoy somehow gets fired, he should be in hot demand. He's the guy who figured out a Tebow solution, and got Rivers away from Turner's vertical offense and into a short passing offense. His error was hiring a Pagano and being at ground zero of some sort of unknown injury plague
Yeah the last time the Chargers had a good defense was when Rivera was their defensive coordinator. That also happened to be the season where every receiver on the Chargers roster got injured and Rivers #1 target for a while was Seyi Ajirotutu. That franchise is perpetually injury fucked, it's strange.
Also, for all the praise Carolina's defense gets, we've been pretty average against the run this season. Turnovers and not giving up big plays in the passing game have been the main reasons for our success.