We take the Chargers’ badness for granted.
Los Angeles’ non-Rams team isn’t quite the punchline the Cleveland Browns are. Its quarterbacks don’t see ghosts like Sam Darnold. It isn’t the backdrop to Thanksgiving day misery like the Detroit Lions. There isn’t a 28-3 deflation in the Super Bowl like the Atlanta Falcons.
But now, thanks to a genuinely baffling collapse, there is 27-0 in the Wild Card round.
Embattled head coach Brandon Staley and his 2022 Chargers came into the 2023 Playoffs as a 2.5-point favorite. They took a four-possession lead in the second quarter. They won the turnover battle five to zero. They possessed the ball five minutes more than the Jacksonville Jaguars. They held the Jags to two third down conversions on 10 attempts.
They lost, 31-30.
This is, even for a franchise continually spelunking its way through the NFL’s crust, a new low. Los Angeles has lost winnable games to goal line fumbles. It’s had kickers botch game-winning field goals while watching former botch-heavy kickers go on to Pro Bowl seasons elsewhere. It’s seen starting quarterbacks lost due to punctured lungs perpetrated by its own training staff. This is, amazingly, merely a recap of the last three years since Philip Rivers left town.
Before that, there were classic Charger disappointments. The move from a dilapidated stadium in San Diego when a billionaire owner failed to get the public to pay enough for a new venue. Rivers, at the tail end of an eight-game winning streak, tearing his ACL before a 2008 AFC title game loss to the New England Patriots. Five different teams with at least 12 wins in the regular season since 1961 that failed to advance beyond the Divisional Round.
Staley was merely the latest argonaut exploring the ignored territory of Charger despair. His offense, protecting a lead, gave way to a running game that gained fewer than three yards per carry and limited his ability to run the clock. His passing game, without Mike Williams in the lineup thanks to a back fracture suffered while playing a meaningless Week 18 loss to the Denver Broncos, grew stagnant in the second half. The Jaguars bracketed Keenan Allen and dared LA to beat them with anyone else.
They did not.
After taking a 24-0 lead, the Chargers possessed the ball eight times. Those drives, in order:
- three plays, eight yards, punt (muffed and recovered)
- four plays, one yard, field goal
- one play, -1 yard (end of half kneel down)
- seven plays, 37 yards, punt
- seven plays, 45 yards, field goal
- 14 plays, 58 yards, missed field goal
- three plays, five yards, punt (with a chance to grind the clock down to zero).
The Chargers had to protect a three possession lead. They averaged 3.9 yards per play and 0.375 points per drive in that stretch.
Where does the blame lie? Several sources remain, but Staley rightfully will take the brunt of this. He couldn’t mobilize his offense or find the knockout punch to crush the Jags’ spirit. He challenged a catch in the fourth quarter he almost certainly wasn’t going to win on a low-impact eight-yard catch to rob his team of a costly field goal in a tight game. He once again failed to make Justin Herbert the star he has the potential to be behind an offensive line and receiving corps beat up by injury.
this is the FIRST TIME IN NFL PLAYOFF HISTORY a team was +5 in turnover margin and lost the game
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) January 15, 2023
Staley, despite a 19-15 regular season record, could be fired. A thirsty ownership group may be unable to resist the temptation of pairing Herbert with Sean Payton, the man who pushed Drew Brees to a Hall of Fame career. Or maybe the team will turn to a different up-and-coming assistant — perhaps one with an offensive pedigree rather than former Rams DC Staley — and hope he can unlock the greatness inherent in this team.
History suggests this will not matter. The Chargers will be great, or they will be good, or they will be terrible and it will all end the same way. Disappointment stalks the devoted few LA fans like a vampire in the night, waiting only to drain its victims after allowing them to fatten up on a budding franchise quarterback or flashy draft moves or a surprising regular season. Quietly, it strikes, devastating in a way everyone notices, then quickly forgets about weeks later.
Saturday’s loss was simply another incident. Los Angeles couldn’t secure the worst come-from-ahead loss of the year — that belongs to the Indianapolis Colts, who once led the Vikings 33-0 before collapsing. It wasn’t the worst come-from-ahead loss in postseason history — it has to settle for third. The Chargers can’t even be the best at being the worst, and that’s a very, very Chargers thing to be.
