Bad taste left in Chargers’ mouths

The Chargers went vegan for four straight weeks, noshing on easy-to-digest NFL fare such as the Bills (kale), Jaguars (tofu), Jets (bananas) and Raiders (nuts). So Sunday afternoon, when they were offered something of substance, Kansas City steak, they regurgitated and spit it out all over Qualcomm Stadium.

In the bitter end, the Chiefs had beaten San Diego 23-20 by being more like the Chargers than the Chargers. They out-Bolted the depleted Bolts at their own game. And that was by holding onto the ball — and, as we all know, you cannot, simply cannot, score without it. As good as quarterback Philip Rivers is, he must have at least one loaf and one fish to work his magic.

The Chargers had been mighty good at Bogarting the football for six weeks. On third downs, they were better than everyone. It didn’t hurt that they were playing stiffs — the combined record of the above-mentioned teams is 6-21 — but this still is the NFL, and they were good, despite suffering through an injury streak Hollywood couldn’t dream up.

But the Chiefs, who came in here 2-3 to San Diego’s 5-1 — winner of five straight — force-fed the Chargers beef all afternoon, holding onto the ball for 39:00, or well over a full quarter longer than their hosts.

“Sometimes,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid, “the best defense against Philip Rivers is keeping him on the sideline.”

Rivers was 17 of 31 passing for just 205 yards and two scores (his one pick was on a last-second desperation throw). That is not a Rivers afternoon. Not close. But they couldn’t sustain anything, maybe because they didn’t run rookie back Branden Oliver enough. K.C. defenders weren’t having fun trying to tackle him.

Let’s face it, while the Chiefs have some talent, they shouldn’t be holding onto the ball for 39 minutes if left alone in a room. But they pushed around the Chargers’ front seven — as Oakland did a week ago — and K.C., being better than the Raiders, didn’t screw things up, although it tried.

The Chiefs really could have won this thing by a couple of touchdowns, but they aren’t good enough for that, and to the Chargers’ credit, they made a game of it. And were it not for some dumb mistakes, might have been able to pull it out.

But, with their secondary now in critical condition, this time they just didn’t have enough to do it. With the score tied and time running out, they had the Chiefs pinned back inside their own 5, when defensive end Corey Liuget was flagged for a facemask penalty. So quarterback Alex Smith, the Helix High alum, led the visitors into field goal position, Cairo Santos kicked a 48-yard field goal with 28 seconds remaining, and that was that.

A bad loss. A home loss to a division team. And on a short week the Chargers must travel to Denver for a Thursday night game that could go a long way toward deciding the AFC West. Unless they catch the Broncos on a bad evening, they can’t be anything near what they were Sunday and have a chance vs. Peyton Manning & Co.

San Diego Chargers 20, Kansas City Chiefs 23

10/19/2014 at Qualcomm Stadium

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• Canepa: Bad taste left in Chargers’ mouths
• 3 big moments from Chargers vs. Chiefs
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• COMPLETE CHARGERS COVERAGE

“Not good enough situationally as a football team,” coach Mike McCoy would say. “Third downs on both sides, offensively and defensively, was poor overall, so we couldn’t sustain drives and we couldn’t stop drives.

“We didn’t make enough plays. We didn’t have 11 guys making plays. We didn’t stop them. No excuses at all … it’s 11 guys on the field making plays. They made plays, we didn’t.”

It’s rare when you see Rivers as disappointed as he was after this one. It wasn’t that he played poorly. He didn’t play enough. And he knew, despite it all, the chance of winning remained until the final seconds. The Chiefs never really had this thing under control. Because they aren’t good enough.

“It wasn’t our best day,” Rivers said. “We hadn’t felt like this for a while.

“I think to expect that we’re going to go up and down the field and never punt, and just win all the time is unrealistic. We’re in an OK spot. We’ve just got to keep going.”

Somewhere better than they went Sunday. Which was nowhere. They never punched their ticket.

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Twitter: @sdutCanepa