Interpreting The Acee Report: Week 2

Yesterday, U-T San Diego columnist Kevin Acee joined Darren Smith of XX1090 to discuss a host of topics as week 2 came to a close. The weekly conversation hit on some of the more obvious topics Monday afternoon, including: fan reaction, Dante Rosario and Antonio Gates, the running game, and the health of Jared Gaither.

These interviews however, are never just about questions and the answers. These interviews are entirely about Kevin Acee's latent thoughts that cannot manifest themselves lest he damage the relationships he has with his sources.

Fortunately for you I'm blessed with a certain skill-set. My abilities begin with a keen awareness of how to properly grill a tri-tip and end with an innate ability to read Kevin Acee's mind. I ain't cooking sh*t for you any time soon but I will interpret Kevin Acee's thoughts and share them with you.

The phenomenon occurs after the jump.

Keys to following along:

Block Quotes in Bold = Darren Smith's questions.

Regular Type = Kevin Acee's freaking thoughts, man!

Block Quotes in Italic = Kevin Acee's radio answers after he filters his freaking thoughts, man.

*** = Separation between each question.

***

How would you describe your interaction with Charger fans as they feel about the Chargers after a 2-0 start?

Ummmm, these PEOPLE are crazy, Darren. Certifiable nut-jobs. Seriously. You would not believe my e-mail spam folder.

Via twitter and email, highly positive, defensive about their team. I wish I could compare sometimes twitter handles or emails from people from week to week.

What am I going to do if this team drops to 2-2? Mr. Manchester wants us to report happy news. These people will NOT be happy.

But I would say, by and large, very positive. There still though is a segment of people who I think are waiting for Atlanta, Denver, even New Orleans and then obviously that's 3 of the next 4 opponents.

***

Dante Rosario, he's the big offensive star of the game, how much of that was by design?

Have you seen Norv's aviator glasses? Everything's by design, brother.

Definitely there was a large part by design and it showed. And I've always said this about when Antonio Gates is in there -- this man is supremely talented but dang, Norv Turner can get a TE open.

Presumably the Titans were keying on Randy McMichael because they thought it was still 2004.

The other thing is the Titans did not pay attention to him in the red zone as they presumably would have against Antonio Gates.

***

It does seem like the TE has about caught up to what the WR is in terms of preference amongst teams, player personnel guys, coaches, QBs, etc . . . Is it fair to say that the Norv Turner offense has tweaked it all to be reliant on TEs or is it the same offense, just different guys doing it?

Rams. Los Angeles. 1985. God could I tell a crazy story involving Norv Turner, Dieter Brock, an egg of Silly Putty and Eric Dickerson's Rec-Specs. Resist. The. Urge. Don't tell it.

It's the same offense and Norv will talk to you about it all the time that back when he was a position coach with the Rams and they had 3 really good TEs, their TE led the league, or was the highest gaining TE.

***

Is it fair to wonder about Antonio Gates the player at all when you see Rosario and other TEs around the league have the kind of performances that they seem to have on a week-in, week-out basis?

Erroneous question! But since YOU'RE the one asking it . . .

After about 2 seconds it's patently unfair.

Dante Rosario had a nice game. Uhhhhhh. But for f#%&'$ sake! Come on now Darren.

Meaning, okay, interesting, this guy just caught 3 touchdowns. Watched them over as I did today, Antonio Gates possibly, even probably gets just as open as Dante Rosario did but under tighter and more complicated coverages. The man is not only bigger, supremely talented, I mean he got hurt because he made the most improbable catch on a failed 3rd down last week in Oakland.

***

Does bringing Ryan Mathews back automatically, in your opinion, based on what we've seen, does it mean that the running game is fixed and problem solved?

Uhhhh. F*ck, noooo.

Uhhhh. Noooo.

If you get Ryan Mathews back, this offense becomes more like Madden '93 with Thurman Thomas running the ball. BOOM! But it's not EXACTLY like it.

There will be some cuts that he makes and just the ability he has to maybe, when the running game builds on itself, so maybe they get some bigger runs earlier and then, BOOM, he breaks a 15-yarder and then a 30-yarder that these guys don't have the ability to do.

John Madden, Darren! John Madden. BOOM!

Curtis Brinkley has close to that ability once he gets going which is why you saw his game on the screens. But Ryan Mathews is the only guy they have that can, BOOM, get away from a tackle a yard in the backfield and then turn that it in to a four yard gain.

***

So you think it's better but not necessarily fixed?

Uhhhh. Oh God. There's still major f*cking issues.

There's still issues. There's still issues. Absolutely.

***

What do you think is the bigger storyline thus far, the Chargers or the Chiefs?

If you think for one minute that I'm going to share with your audience that I thought the Chiefs and Chargers would be switched in the standings right now, you're crazy. My e-mail would crash!

It's gotta be the Chiefs. Because we've already established that we don't know about the Chargers yet. We don't know about the Chiefs either. But wow they looked awful.

***

As of today is it more likely in your opinion that Jared Gaither plays this season or doesn't play this season?

I'm sorry, who?

Ooooh, Boy. You really are a good radio question asker in the way that you set those up and you're making me choose diametrically opposed answers. I LOVE it.

Just bought myself some time there. Jared Gaither? Right, right. The tall guy with a reputation for being lazy. Really rich. Now we're on the same page.

Ummm. I'm going to go with more likely he doesn't play.

Because he's lazy. Man this is a loaded question.

And I'm not saying he isn't going to play.

What do I even say about this Gaither situation. It's more ridiculous than Scott & BR on UT-TV.

But you're asking me to choose between the two and here's the justification for my answer: and it's that they still don't know what the deal is aaaaand that's just ridiculous.

***

Kevin Acee's answers were edited down to cope with a landscape of short attention spans: yours and mine. Do check out the audio of Darren's interview with Kevin Acee yesterday for a surplus of goodness.