Chargers hope for carry-over effect

Experience has served the Chargers well.

Last year, during spring meetings, offensive players were shown game film of plays they’d run. That footage often was of a different team — maybe the Broncos, where coach Mike McCoy last worked, or the Cardinals and Colts, where others formerly coached. The new scheme was a hybrid.

One year later, the Chargers reviewed themselves.

The effect is clear on a day like Thursday.

As San Diego began training camp, it continued a trend from the spring. There is less thinking and more playing on the practice field in year two under McCoy, a fast pace tying into one of his core messages this camp.

“We’ve got to start off where we finished, and I think that’s the most important thing,” McCoy said. “There’s a lot of areas we can improve on, a lot of little things. ... The entire offense, our scheme overall, we should play a lot faster. A couple of the breakdowns we had, whether it was in protection, a route combination, missing a signal made, we can’t make those mistakes.

“They were unacceptable last year, but they are a lot of things we have to clean up. ... We’ve got to start where we finished last year and pick it up from there.”

The team, of course, finished 2013 strong.

It won four straight games to reach the postseason before upsetting the Bengals in the first round.

McCoy also applied the message to fans. About 3,000 attended Thursday’s practice at Chargers Park, a good number for a warm weekday morning.

“We’ve got to encourage the fans to come support us the way they did over the last month of the season,” McCoy said. “It was a great atmosphere in that stadium. ... We’re all in this together.”