2003 San Diego Chargers season
2003 San Diego Chargers season | |
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Head coach | Marty Schottenheimer |
General manager | A.J. Smith |
Owner | Alex Spanos |
Home field | Qualcomm Stadium |
Results | |
Record | 4–12 |
Division place | 4th AFC West |
Playoff finish | did not qualify |
The 2003 San Diego Chargers season began with the team trying to improve on their 8–8 record in 2002. They finished the campaign last in their division with only four wins and earned the #1 pick in the 2004 NFL draft. They played one “home” game during the season, against the Miami Dolphins, at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona where the Arizona Cardinals played, due to the Cedar Fire. The team declined from the previous season, as the Chargers won four games and surrendered the second most points per game (27.6), trailing only the Arizona Cardinals during the season.
Personnel
Staff
2003 San Diego Chargers staff | ||||||
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Front office
Head coaches
Offensive coaches
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Defensive coaches
Special teams coaches
Strength and conditioning
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Roster
2003 San Diego Chargers final roster | |||||||||
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Quarterbacks
Running backs
Wide receivers
Tight ends
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Offensive linemen
Defensive linemen
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Linebackers
Defensive backs
Special teams
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Reserve lists
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Schedule
In addition to their regular games with AFC West rivals, the Chargers played teams from the AFC North and NFC North as per the schedule rotation, and also played intraconference games against the Jaguars and the Dolphins based on divisional positions from 2002.
Oddly, this season marked the first time that the Chargers played the Jaguars, despite that team existing since 1995. This occurred due to old NFL scheduling formulas in place prior to 2002, whereby teams had no rotating schedule opposing members of other divisions within their own conference, but played interdivisional conference games according to position within a season’s table.[2] The Chargers played the Tennessee Titans only once during this period[3] (in 1998) but played the Bengals five times[4] during these years.
In preceding years, even longer gaps between two teams playing each other had occurred. For instance the Jets never opposed the Cardinals between 1979 and 1995 inclusive.[5]
Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Kickoff Time | Attendance |
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1 | September 7, 2003 | at Kansas City Chiefs | L 14–27 | CBS 10:00am | |
2 | September 14, 2003 | Denver Broncos | L 37–13 | CBS 1:05pm | |
3 | September 21, 2003 | Baltimore Ravens | L 24–10 | CBS 1:05pm | |
4 | September 28, 2003 | at Oakland Raiders | L 34–31 | CBS 1:15pm | |
5 | October 5, 2003 | at Jacksonville Jaguars | L 27–21 | CBS 1:15pm | |
6 | Bye | ||||
7 | October 19, 2003 | at Cleveland Browns | W 26–20 | CBS 10:00am | |
8 | October 27, 2003 | Miami Dolphins | L 26–10 | ABC 6:00pm | |
9 | November 2, 2003 | at Chicago Bears | L 20–7 | CBS 10:00am | |
10 | November 9, 2003 | Minnesota Vikings | W 42–28 | FOX 1:15pm | |
11 | November 16, 2003 | at Denver Broncos | L 37–8 | CBS 1:05pm | |
12 | November 23, 2003 | Cincinnati Bengals | L 34–27 | CBS 1:05pm | |
13 | November 30, 2003 | Kansas City Chiefs | L 28–24 | CBS 1:05pm | |
14 | December 7, 2003 | at Detroit Lions | W 14–7 | CBS 10:00am | |
15 | December 14, 2003 | Green Bay Packers | L 38–21 | FOX 1:15pm | |
16 | December 21, 2003 | at Pittsburgh Steelers | L 40–24 | CBS 1:15pm | |
17 | December 28, 2003 | Oakland Raiders | W 21–14 | CBS 1:05pm |
Standings
AFC West | |||||||||
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W | L | T | PCT | DIV | CONF | PF | PA | STK | |
(2) Kansas City Chiefs | 13 | 3 | 0 | .813 | 5–1 | 10–2 | 484 | 332 | W1 |
(6) Denver Broncos | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 5–1 | 9–3 | 381 | 301 | L1 |
Oakland Raiders | 4 | 12 | 0 | .250 | 1–5 | 3–9 | 270 | 379 | L2 |
San Diego Chargers | 4 | 12 | 0 | .250 | 1–5 | 2–10 | 313 | 441 | W1 |