New Chargers, same as the old Chargers
What … the … heck … was … that?
That … was … brutal.
Again.
There you pretty much have the summation offered and the shock-induced pace in which it was delivered in the Chargers’ locker room after Sunday’s season opener.
“I don’t know what happened,” defensive end Corey Liuget said.
It was the new team they promised. Then it was the same old Chargers, bad luck and all.
“It was better than what it has been, but it’s still not good enough,” King Dunlap said. “I can’t even … I don’t know.”
With just more than 21 minutes to play in regulation, the Chargers led by 21 points. Five minutes into overtime, they had lost, 33-27, to the Kansas City Chiefs.
As they dressed for the trip home, Chargers players were certain about only one thing.
“It’s unacceptable,” right tackle Joe Barksdale said. “We’ve got to close it. They know it. We were beating their (rear ends). That’s why I’m so (angry).”
That was an appropriate emotion, one certainly shared by virtually the whole of Chargers fans. The frustration all around is merited. This also-ran of a team is tiresome with its rerun. It’s time for a new show.
It is strange, though, the Chargers haven’t figured out how to explain losing this way. They have certainly had enough experience doing so.
For all they did right, differentiating themselves from the bumblers that lost 10 of their final 12 games last season, the Chargers on Sunday were undone by the same old problem.
In their first opportunity to distance themselves from the 4-12 record of 2015, they fell to 0-1 in ’16 because they couldn’t play and couldn’t coach an entire game at a high level.
A new offensive coordinator, a largely revamped defensive line, Melvin Gordon running like a guy who actually merited his first-round price, wide receiver Keenan Allen healthy again ...
D’oh! That’s why the Chargers can’t be trusted with nice things.
There can be no excuse for losing a three-touchdown lead. The Chargers gave up a point a minute over the final third of the game, for goodness’ sake. A good team ahead by that much with that little time left could blindfold half its players and not be any worse than the Chargers were.
But there was a definite demarcation in Sunday’s game that cannot be entirely tossed aside as an explanation as to why the Chargers folded.
In their first three drives with receiver Keenan Allen in the game – before he suffered what is believed to be a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament, which would end his season early for the third straight year – the Chargers scored three touchdowns. Three plays after Allen left the field on a cart, the Chargers failed on third down for the first time in seven tries and punted.
They would punt on their first possession of the second half, as well, before getting a field goal to go up, 24-3, on their next drive. But their final five possessions would result in three punts and two field goal tries, one of them a miss from 54 yards.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs went from averaging 3.7 yards a play on their first six possessions to 7.4 over their final six drives. In that span, they scored on every drive except one that ended in a Jason Verrett interception.
Josh Lambo missed a 54-yard field goal attempt with 11:25 to play. The Chiefs drove 56 yards in two minutes to score a touchdown that made it 27-17. The Chargers punted after four plays.
At that point, the game had a feel of inevitability.
The Chargers lost nine games by one score (eight points or less) last season. They led in the fourth quarter of four of those games.
That is not the mark of a team that is close to being winners. That’s a trait of team that is awful. Bad teams find a way to lose.
“It boils down to it not being good enough,” Dunlap said. “We’ve got to be better.”
The question now is whether the Chargers can be better, especially without Allen.
Quarterback Philip Rivers quickly extinguished a query about whether this game prompted concern the Chargers were heading down a familiar path.
“It’s the first game of the year,” Rivers said. “So that’s the good news. We have 15 more.”
Whether you concur that 15 more opportunities is a positive, it is prudent to wait before declaring 2016 unsalvageable. It was just hours ago we were on the brink of a season. It can’t be considered a season on the brink just yet.
Still, to be at a loss for words after the first game feels a little too much like an old habit.
