[Editor’s Note: The Ringer originally ran this story in 2019. It has been updated since the Chargers’ stunning collapse against the Jaguars in the wild-card round on Saturday night.]
If great art makes you think and feel, then the Los Angeles Chargers have certainly turned losing into an art form. L.A. blew a 27-0 lead over the Jacksonville Jaguars in their wild-card matchup Saturday, losing 31-30. The epic collapse was a gut-wrenching loss—and also somewhat historic. It was the third-biggest blown lead in NFL playoff history, and it happened despite the Chargers winning the turnover battle 5-0. Previously, teams with no turnovers and five or more takeaways were 313-3 in NFL history. But the Chargers still found a way to lose.
The loss is the latest in a long line of head-scratching, heart-stopping, stomach-churning Chargers defeats that defy the odds and define the franchise. It’s not just that the Chargers lose so many close contests and blow so many big leads. It’s how they do it. Any team can lose a game. The Chargers often redefine the word defeat. And this avant-garde phenomenon has finally been given a name: Chargering. Even Chargers head coach Brandon Staley has acknowledged it.
“The history of this team when I got here,” Staley told The Athletic last year, “it was like, someone’s going to get hurt, they’re going to blow a lead, something catastrophic is going to happen. There’s this Chargering, and there’s all these external factors that I know in my life, they’re just all excuses.”
Let’s go through the modern history of Chargering, beginning with one of the most painful moments in team history.
Divisional Round 2006-07 Playoffs: The Marlon McCree Game
Opponent: New England Patriots
Score: Chargers 21, Patriots 13
Time: 6:25 left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Patriots
Down and distance: Fourth-and-5
Tom Brady was intercepted by Chargers safety Marlon McCree, seemingly sealing a Chargers victory and ending a half-decade of dominance from the three-time Super Bowl champions. But Troy Brown punched the ball out from McCree’s hands, and it was recovered by Pats receiver Reche Caldwell.
Brady threw a touchdown pass to Caldwell five plays later to make the game 21-19. Then New England made the two-point conversion to tie it at 21. On their next drive, the Patriots kicked a field goal to take a 24-21 lead. The Chargers set up Nate Kaeding for a 54-yarder to tie the game, but he missed. The 14-2 Chargers, who had captured the no. 1 seed in the AFC behind a record 28-touchdown season from LaDainian Tomlinson, were one-and-done in the postseason. Worst of all, this might have been their best chance at a Super Bowl. The following season, the Chargers faced the undefeated Patriots in the AFC championship game with a litany of injured players, including Rivers playing on a torn ACL and Tomlinson trying to play through a knee injury, but lost 21-12.
Sad Marty Schottenheimer quote: “Anytime you’re in the playoffs and lose, and certainly I have plenty of experience at it, there’s a disappointment.”
A month later Chargers owner Dean Spanos fired Schottenheimer and gave us …
The Norv Turner Era (2007-2012)
Week 2, 2008: Ed Hochuli Is the Whistleblower
Opponent: Denver Broncos
Score: Chargers 38, Broncos 31
Time: 1:17 left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Broncos
Down and distance: Second-and-goal at the Chargers’ 1-yard line
Denver had three plays to go 1 yard and tie the game, but quarterback Jay Cutler rolled out of the pocket and fumbled as he tried to throw. The Chargers recovered to seal the victory, but referee Ed Hochuli thought it was an incomplete pass and whistled the play dead. The whistle nullified the Chargers’ recovery.
“The play should have been ruled a fumble,” Hochuli said. “By rule, the ball is dead when it hits the ground when the whistle is blown.”
Denver kept the ball, and Cutler threw a touchdown to receiver Eddie Royal two plays later to make the game Chargers 38, Denver 37. Then Denver went for two. Cutler tossed the ball to Royal again and converted to give Denver the 39-38 win in regulation. It wasn’t even the only referee mistake of the day. Earlier in the game there was another awful technical issue with replay that upheld a bogus fumble ruling against the Chargers.
Sad Norv Turner quote: “[Discussing] the rules or any of the calls isn’t going to change the outcome of that game. That game is going to be 39-38 forever.”
Divisional Round, January 2010: The Nate Kaeding Game Against the Jets
Opponent: New York Jets
Score: Jets 17, Chargers 7
Time: 4:42 left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: Fourth-and-2 from the Jets’ 22-yard line
Nate Kaeding made 32 field goals in 2009, the most of any kicker. He had just three misses all season, which made it more devastating when he missed three kicks against the Jets in the playoffs. The final miss came from 40 yards out with under five minutes to go and would have been enough to tie considering the Chargers scored a touchdown on their final drive. This was the second time the Chargers lost to the Jets in the playoffs when Kaeding missed a 40-yard field goal with under five minutes in the game. Kaeding missed a 40-yarder in overtime against the Jets in January 2005.
Sad Nate Kaeding quote: “Professionally, it’s a tough thing to get through. I’m not gonna feel sorry for myself. I feel sorry for my teammates, coaches and support staff here. I feel like I let everybody down.”
Sad quote from general manager A.J. Smith: “The résumé of the San Diego Chargers has been an outstanding regular-season team and in the postseason can’t get it done.”
Week 8, 2011: Philip Rivers Fumbles on a Kneel-down
Opponent: Kansas City Chiefs
Score: Chargers 20, Chiefs 20
Time: 1:03 left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: First-and-10 at the Kansas City 15-yard line
The Chargers were about to beat the division-rival Chiefs on Monday Night Football and take the sole lead in the AFC West. With the game tied, the Chargers intended to take a knee and let new kicker Nick Novak take the game-winning kick as time expired from 32 yards out. That distance is shorter than an extra point nowadays. But as Rivers went to take a knee, he fumbled the snap and the Chiefs recovered.
The two teams went to overtime and the Chargers won the toss, but Rivers was stripsacked on their second play. Rivers recovered but the Chargers punted to the Chiefs, who drove down and won the game. The game likely cost the Chargers the division title. At the end of the season, San Diego ended up in a three-way tie at 8-8 for the AFC West lead, but the Broncos won the division on tiebreakers.
“I’m baffled,” Chargers linebacker Takeo Spikes said after the game.
Sad Philip Rivers quote: “We didn’t have an issue [with the snap] the whole game. Haven’t had an issue in years. This one’s rough.”
Week 6, 2012: Broncos Score 35 Points in the Second Half
Opponent: Denver Broncos
Score: Chargers 24, Broncos 0
Time: Halftime
New year, new collapse against a divisional foe on Monday Night Football. The Chargers jumped out on Peyton Manning’s Broncos for a 24-0 lead at halftime, but Denver scored 35 unanswered points in the final two quarters like a horror villain that wouldn’t die. Like in a horror movie, the main characters made some inexplicable mistakes. The comeback was possible because the Chargers turned the ball over on five of their six possessions in the second half. In the fourth quarter alone, Rivers threw three interceptions and lost a fumble. Denver’s comeback was the fourth-biggest in regular-season history at the time.
Sad Norv Turner quote: “We’ve got to go play a complete game. We’ve shown through three quarters of a game what we can do.”
Week 12, 2012: The Fourth-and-29 Game
Opponent: Baltimore Ravens
Score: Chargers 13, Ravens 10
Time: 1:59 left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Ravens
Down and distance: Fourth-and-29 on Baltimore’s 37-yard line
Failures of a certain scale are studied. The Titanic sinking, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the Ravens’ converting a fourth-and-29 to beat the Chargers all qualify. Ironically, the Chargers stopped the Ravens on fourth-and-inches earlier in the game. But on fourth-and-29 with the game on the line, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco tossed a checkdown at the line of scrimmage to running back Ray Rice. Rice ran 15 yards straight upfield, pivoted 90 degrees and outran six Chargers defenders as he crossed the Chargers’ lightning bolt logo at midfield (metaphors), curved back upfield, and then lowered his shoulder into the final two Chargers defenders.
Rice gained 29 yards on fourth-and-29. Or was it 28? The referees moved the chains after Rice converted, but then the play was reviewed and the referees had to move the chains back. The new chain location and a lack of a definitive angle showing when Rice’s knee went down led the referees to stick with the call on the field: first down Baltimore. The Ravens’ Justin Tucker kicked a field goal to tie the game on the possession and then kicked the game-winner in overtime.
Sad Philip Rivers quote: “[Rice] did not get the first down. They just did not have a view to overturn it. He did not get it. You can’t help it. When you don’t have a view to overturn it, you cannot overturn it. I do not think anyone thinks he got it. I do not think anyone in the stadium thinks he got it. I do not think Ray Rice thinks he got it. I do not think anyone on their team thinks he got it. But he got it. They just did not have a camera view to overturn it. That’s what the referee said. He felt bad that they could not because he did not have a view. He knew his knee was down on the 35-yard line.”
Sad Norv Turner quote: “Obviously, on 4th-and-29, we should have stopped them.”
Spanos fired Turner after the 2012 season and gave us …
The Mike McCoy Era (2013-2016)
Week 1, 2013: Blown 21-Point Lead to Houston
Opponent: Houston Texans
Score: Chargers 28, Texans 7
Time: 10:46 remaining in the third quarter
The Mike McCoy era began with the Chargers jumping out to a 28-7 lead over the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football. All the Chargers had to do was bleed the clock, but from that point on the offense went three-and-out, three-and-out, pick-six, three-and-out, and three-and-out. Running just 14 plays over five drives gave the Texans enough time to kick the game-winning field goal as time expired for the 31-28 victory.
Sad Philip Rivers quote: ”We’re sick, I’m sick, that we’re not 1-0.”
Sad Mike McCoy quote: “This was a tough one, obviously. When you play a good team like the Houston Texans, you have an opportunity when you’re up 28-7. You have to put the game away.”
Week 16, 2015: Chargers vs. Raiders
Opponent: Oakland Raiders
Score: Chargers 17, Raiders 12
Time: 8:53 left in the fourth quarte
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: Fourth-and-25 at the Oakland 36-yard line
Chargers kicker Josh Lambo drilled a 53-yard field goal with just under nine minutes left to give the team a 20-12 lead, but Oakland’s Khalil Mack was called for defensive holding on the play, giving the Chargers an automatic first down. Rivers threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to tight end Ladarius Green on the next play, but the booth review overturned the catch and ruled it incomplete. The Chargers settled for a 48-yard kick, but Lambo missed this one. The game stayed at 17-12. The Chargers fumbled on their next possession, and the game would eventually go to overtime, when Los Angeles lost.
Sad Philip Rivers quote: “It’s been the story of the year, just losing close games. Doesn’t make it any easier losing another one like that.”
Week 1, 2016: The Largest Comeback in Chiefs Franchise History
Opponent: Kansas City Chiefs
Score: Chargers 27, Chiefs 20
Time: 1:59 remaining in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chiefs
Down and distance: Fourth-and-10 at the Chargers’ 25-yard line
The Chargers led 24-3 midway through the third quarter and 27-10 midway through the fourth, which gave them a 99.7 percent win probability and sent Chiefs fans leaving Arrowhead Stadium. Yet the Chargers were sweating it at the two-minute warning. Drew Kaser shanked a punt for just 17 yards. The Chiefs went 42 yards in four plays to tie the game at 27, won the coin toss, and then scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime without the Chargers getting the ball again. Kansas City overcame a 21-point deficit in roughly 18 minutes. Star receiver Keenan Allen also tore his ACL in this game, making him just one of the nearly 20 Chargers who landed on injured reserve by Week 4.
Sad quote from tackle Joe Barksdale: “Everybody with eyes who saw the game has got to know, we have to close it. It’s not acceptable to be up by 24-3 and lose the game. We know that.”
Week 4, 2016: Blew 34-21 Lead to Saints in Under Seven Minutes
Opponent: New Orleans Saints
Score: Chargers 34, Saints 21
Time: 8:39 left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: Kickoff post–field goal
When Lambo kicked a field goal to make the game 34-21, the Chargers’ win probability was 98.6 percent. But their final three drives were a lost fumble, lost fumble, and interception, while the Saints finished with a touchdown, touchdown, and kneel-down to win in regulation.
Angry Mike McCoy quote: “That performance in the second half is flat-out unacceptable. From the very opening kickoff return all the way to the very end. You cannot turn the ball over at critical times when you are trying to put the game away. Two times in a row. We absolutely gave this one away.”
Week 5, 2016: A 1-in-30-Million Stretch
Opponent: Oakland Raiders
Score: Raiders 34, Chargers 31
Time: 3:05 left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: Third-and-2 at the Raiders’ 19-yard-line
The Chargers led by as much as eight midway through the third quarter but were losing by three with just three minutes left in the game. On third-and-2, Chargers running back Melvin Gordon was stuffed after gaining just 1 yard, so the Chargers lined up for a 36-yard field goal on fourth-and-1 to tie the game at 34. The holder was punter Drew Kaser, who earlier in the game had shanked a punt 16 yards at the end of the third quarter to set up a Raiders touchdown. On the field goal attempt, Kaser failed to catch the snap and the ball went flying behind him for his second major screw-up of the day.
After Oakland’s loss to the Raiders, The Wall Street Journal calculated the odds of the Chargers losing their games to the Chiefs, Saints, Colts, and Raiders in the first four weeks of the season were 1 in 30 million. FiveThirtyEight calculated that, from the beginning of 2015 through this Raiders loss, the Chargers lost more win probability per game in the fourth quarter and overtime than any other two-year window for any team in the Super Bowl era.
Sad Philip Rivers quote: “You can’t make this stuff up. You think, ‘Is there any other way we can find a way to do this?’”
Sad Mike McCoy quote: “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something like that happens.”
Spanos fired McCoy after the season, giving us the …
The Anthony Lynn Era (2017-2020)
Week 1, 2017: Koo on Ice
Opponent: Denver Broncos
Score: Broncos 24, Chargers 21
Time: Five seconds left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: Fourth-and-2 at the Denver 26-yard line
New city, new kicker, same Chargers. In their first game representing Los Angeles, the Chargers traveled to Denver and lined up rookie Younghoe Koo for a 44-yard kick, which doubled as his first career field goal attempt, to send the game to overtime. Koo nailed it. Unfortunately, Denver head coach Vance Joseph called a timeout to ice Koo. When he lined up for his second try, the Broncos blocked the kick.
Sad Philip Rivers quote: “I think if we get to OT, we would have finished it off, but we didn’t get that chance.”
Week 2 2017: Koo Misses the Game-Winner (This Time It’s His Fault)
Opponent: Miami Dolphins
Score: Dolphins 19, Chargers 17
Time: Nine seconds left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: Third-and-1 at the Miami 26-yard line
One week after Koo’s chance to be the hero was taken from him, he had another shot. The Chargers lined him up for a 44-yard field goal, this time to win the game rather than send it to overtime. He missed.
Adding insult to injury, the team’s celebratory cannons accidentally went off as if Koo had won the game (that’s what happens when the guy who operated your cannons for 37 years doesn’t move from San Diego to Los Angeles). After the cannons celebrated the Chargers’ loss at the Chargers’ first home game in Los Angeles, the fans in the stadium began … cheering. ESPN measured the crowd noise at the game and concluded Koo’s missed kick was the loudest cheer of the game from the crowd, made up predominantly of Dolphins fans. This was the first clue that every Chargers game would effectively be on the road. Steelers fans had turned Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego into a Pittsburgh home game before, but Dolphins fans doing it was new.
Sad Philip Rivers quote: “I thought there was great energy in the stadium. Obviously the loudest roar came at the end after the missed field goal. That’s where you really got to see how many Dolphins fans there were. I heard the roar before I saw the official’s signal. I wasn’t sure which roar it was.”
Divisional Round, January 2019: The Luck Runs Out
The Chargers’ luck turned in 2018. They played in seven one-possession games during the regular season and went 6-1 in them, en route to a 12-4 record—their best since 2009. The Chargers dominated the Baltimore Ravens in the wild-card round and held Lamar Jackson to the worst performance of his young career. Entering the divisional round, they had to like their chances against a New England team that had been slow and sluggish for the entire month of December. This was the Chargers’ best chance at a Super Bowl run in years.
That team was promptly disemboweled. New England turned the Chargers inside out in a 41-28 loss that was 41-14 midway through the fourth quarter. L.A.’s luck turned around for one season, but it did not carry into the playoffs.
Week 7, 2019: The Melvin Gordon Game
Opponent: Tennessee Titans
Score: Titans 23, Chargers 20
Time: 19 seconds left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: Second-and-1 at the Tennessee 1-yard line
Chargers running back Melvin Gordon returned from his holdout after backup Austin Ekeler thrived for a month in his absence. Gordon’s return promptly clogged the Chargers’ running game. Gordon had just 20 carries for 49 yards in his first two games back, and the Chargers went from one of the best rushing teams to one of the worst. Gordon’s solution for this was publicly asking for more carries.
“With the more carries you get, you run that play and you’re like, ‘OK, this is how they are playing it,’” Gordon told ESPN’s Eric D. Williams. “So when you run that play again, I know how I’m going to treat it. But when you get eight carries, you’ve seen the same play for the first time every time. There’s no feel to it, and you never get a feel for the game.”
Gordon went from eight carries against Pittsburgh to 16 against Tennessee, but the 16th and final of the day was an exercise in be careful what you wish for. The Chargers were down 23-20 in the fourth quarter and got to the 1-yard line on a 15-yard pass to Ekeler originally ruled a touchdown before being overturned on replay. A false start moved the Chargers back to first-and-goal from the 6, but then a pass interference penalty put the Chargers back at the 1-yard line for first-and-goal. Rivers handed the ball to Gordon who ran in for the touchdown from the shotgun formation, but replay review once again overturned the score and put the Chargers at the 1-yard line. On second-and-1 Gordon was stuffed at the goal line, but the play was once again reviewed. The referees ruled Gordon fumbled the ball before being tackled, and the Titans recovered. Three consecutive replays, three rulings against the Chargers, and Tennessee held on for the 23-20 win.
Sad Anthony Lynn quote: “I have been in the league for a long time, and I have never been in a game like this. The emotions of this game, going from winning the game to losing the game in a matter of seconds ...”
Week 10, 2019: Rivers Is the Zero Instead of the Hero
Opponent: Oakland Raiders
Score: Raiders 26, Chargers 24
Time: 1:02 left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: First-and-10 at the L.A. 25-yard line
At the end of the fourth against Oakland, Rivers needed to move the Chargers from the 25-yard line into field goal range, but he completed zero of his seven pass attempts on the drive. Even when the Chargers were bailed out by a fourth-down penalty, they didn’t move an inch on the other seven plays. Rivers was the first player to go 0-for-7 on a drive in at least 40 seasons, according to Elias Sports.
Sad Anthony Lynn quote: “I don’t have that luxury right now to think beyond the season. Right now, it’s one week at a time for me. Philip is our starting quarterback. I’m trying to figure out how to win the next game with him.”
Week 11, 2019: The Nadir of Rivers’s Career
Opponent: Kansas City Chiefs
Score: Chiefs 24, Chargers 17
Time: 4:20 left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: Third-and-10 at the L.A. 17-yard line
One week after throwing three interceptions against the Raiders, Rivers threw four interceptions against Kansas City, including ones on the Chargers’ final two drives of the game when a touchdown would have tied the score at 24. In back-to-back weeks the Chargers lost to the division-rival Raiders and Chiefs in prime time, and the seven combined picks Rivers threw is the most for any two-game stretch of his career.
Sad Philip Rivers quote: “If you could just pick and choose and never throw [interceptions] ever, I’d choose to throw zero. So I certainly don’t want to throw them, but I know it’s hurting us right now. So obviously I need to cut them out.”
Week 13, 2019: The Broncos Game
Opponent: Denver Broncos
Score: Broncos 20, Chargers 20
Time: Nine seconds left in the fourth quarter
Possession: Denver
Down and distance: First-and-10 at the Denver 28-yard line
The one that prompted this exercise. Drew Lock threw a ball down the sideline to Courtland Sutton, drawing the first pass interference penalty of the season called with under 10 seconds remaining. The Broncos kicked the field goal to win as time expired. This capped a stretch that ended the Chargers’ hopes for a meaningful season. A month ago the Chargers were 4-5 and fresh off of beating the Green Bay Packers. After their past three games, they’ve fallen to 4-8 and lost to each team in their division by a combined 12 points.
Sad Anthony Lynn quote: “Hell, if there was something I could do to avoid being in a close game, I would have done it by now.”
Week 4, 2020: The Beginning of a Historic Stretch of Blown Leads
Opponent: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Score: Chargers 24, Buccaneers 7
Time: 1:37 left in the second quarter
The Chargers were up 24-7 over Tom Brady and the Buccaneers with less than two minutes to go in the first half. But the Bucs scored just before halftime to make it 24-14, and in the second half, the Bucs tallied three touchdowns in a span of 18 offensive plays to take a 35-31 lead. The Chargers’ depleted secondary played a major role in the comeback, with reserve players giving up catches of 28 yards or more to four different Bucs in the second half alone. “It happened pretty quick,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said after the game.
Sad Joey Bosa quote: “We’re just not finishing games. Maybe teams are figuring us out. I don’t know what it is. … We have to step on their throats and keep the intensity going for four quarters straight.”
Week 5, 2020: The Drew Brees-ening
Opponent: New Orleans Saints
Score: Chargers 27, Saints 27
Time: 5 seconds left in regulation
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: 50-yard field goal attempt
On a Monday Night Football clash between Justin Herbert and Drew Brees, the Chargers took a 17-point lead midway through the second quarter. Chargers kicker Michael Badgley had missed his first kick of the game on the opening extra point attempt, but he had the chance to redeem himself with a 50-yard would-be game winner. Instead, he doinked the kick off the upright, and the Saints won 30-27 in overtime. It was the second-largest comeback of Brees’s career and tied for the third-largest Monday Night Football comeback win since 2010 (the two larger comebacks were also against the Chargers).
Sad Justin Herbert quote: “It is going to take 30 minutes more of stretching, weightlifting, and watching film. It’s little bits that add up in the long run. I know we are really close. If we work hard and do the right things, good things will happen. I love the way this team battles and I know that we are going to stick together. Losing is tough. It always is, but we are going to learn from it. I know we are going to stick together through this.”
Week 8, 2020: Epic Collapse Against Drew Lock
Opponent: Broncos
Score: Chargers 30, Broncos 24
Time: 7 seconds left in the game
Possession: Broncos
Down and distance: Fourth-and-4 at the Chargers 18-yard line
Blowing leads to Brady and Brees sucks, but at least they are going to be Hall of Famers. But losing like that to Drew Lock?
The Chargers took a 24-3 lead over the Broncos midway through the third quarter, but the score was 30-24 by the second two-minute warning. Lock led the Broncos to the red zone on their last-chance drive and threw a prayer to tight end Albert Okwuegbunam that fell incomplete. But Chargers defensive back Brandon Facyson committed pass interference in the end zone, giving the Broncos the ball at the 1-yard line. Lock threw the game-winning touchdown pass to K.J. Hamler as time expired. The loss made the Chargers the first team to lose three games where they’d had a 17-point lead in the same season since the 2003 Atlanta Falcons. This also made it four consecutive weeks that the Chargers had blown a lead of at least 16 points.
Sad Rayshawn Jenkins quote: “We have to learn how to finish. We can’t let these games like this slip away. This is the NFL. It don’t make sense.”
Week 9, 2020: Premature Celebration
Opponent: Las Vegas Raiders
Score: Raiders 31, Chargers 26
Time: 1 second left in regulation
Possession: Chargers
Down and distance: Third-and-goal at the Raiders 4-yard line
This wasn’t a true blown lead, as the Chargers were merely up three points in the second quarter. But they had a chance for a great comeback win. The Chargers got the ball with just under five minutes remaining down five points. But they moved down the field at a glacial pace, including a bizarre stretch after the two-minute warning where Chargers players were tackled in bounds five times in a six-play stretch. Eventually, the Chargers set up a third-and-goal at the Raiders four-yard line with just one second remaining.
Herbert threw the game-winning touchdown pass to tight end Donald Parham Jr. But a replay review overturned the call, and because time had expired, the Chargers didn’t get another try on fourth down. L.A. players were celebrating on the sideline and didn’t even realize the play had been overturned until they saw the Raiders celebrating on the other sideline.
Sad Anthony Lynn quote: “I don’t want to find out how many [tough losses] we can take. Right now, we’ve been kicked in the gut six times. That’s six times too many for me.”
Sad Keenan Allen quote: “I could talk about this since the second week of the season. Just close games, we’re not winning them. That’s just been the story of the season.”
The Chargers finished the season with a four-game win streak, but Lynn ws still fired at the end of the season. Leading to …
The Brandon Staley Era (2021-Present)
Week 18, January 2022: Staley Doesn’t Read the Room
Opponent: Raiders
Score: 32-32
Time: Less than a minute left in overtime
Possession: Raiders
Down and distance: Third-and-4 on the Chargers 39-yard line
For much of his first season, Staley avoided the blown leads and terrible losses that had plagued his predecessors. And in the final regular-season game of the 2021 season, it was the Chargers who put on a ridiculous comeback. Herbert had one of the best fourth quarters in recent NFL history, converting a fourth-and-6, a fourth-and-21 for a touchdown, a 2-point conversion, a fourth-and-10, another fourth-and-10, and then a 12-yard touchdown pass with five seconds left to force overtime. It was a supernova performance. It also was wasted.
The Raiders-Chargers game had been placed on the final Sunday Night Football of the regular season because the winner would make the playoffs while the loser would not. But there was a catch: If the teams tied, both would make the playoffs. Entering the game, both teams were obviously trying to win. But as they traded field goals in overtime, the winds shifted, and an unspoken situation seemed to be unfolding. Suddenly the Raiders were facing a third-and-4 with 38 seconds left on the Chargers’ 39-yard line. If they didn’t get the first down, they could let the time expire, and both teams would advance.
But rather than let the time expire, Staley called timeout. The Chargers had a bad run-defending group on the field and he wanted to make a substitution. Whatever quid pro quo may or may not have been going on, Staley’s timeout shattered it. “Hmm,” Al Michaels said on the broadcast. “I am trying to process this.” His partner, Cris Collinsworth, was in disbelief, saying the Raiders seemed like they were trying to play for a tie.
Staley’s substitution didn’t work anyway. Josh Jacobs ran for 10 yards, setting the Raiders up to make a game-winning kick. They nailed it and advanced to the playoffs, eliminating the Chargers. Staley, who had already been pilloried by football traditionalists for being aggressive on fourth down all season, was excoriated.
Sad Brandon Staley quote: “We are going to learn from this. We are going to grow from this and come back in a really big way together.
Wild-Card Round, 2023: The Worst Chargers-y Loss in Chargers History
Opponent: Jaguars
Score: 27-0
Even with all of this pathetic Chargers history, Saturday’s wild-card round collapse takes the cake. It was the largest blown lead in franchise history—which is saying something. With a 27-point lead and just needing to bleed the clock, the Chargers had seven rushing yards on their seven designed carries in the second half. If you count the 10 yards the Chargers lost on a fumble on a botched handoff late in the second quarter, L.A. managed minus-3 rushing yards after going up four scores.
“We choked,” linebacker Kyle Van Noy said.
Sad Derwin James Jr. quote: “Twenty-two years of playing football in my life. This one probably hurts the most.”
Sad Brandon Staley quote: “The way we started the game, that’s the team that I know that we’re capable of being. In the second half, we just didn’t finish the game.”
