Chargers may not recover from this slow start
Lots of NFL players fancy themselves football historians, but San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers never dreamed he’d be flipping back to these kind of statistics.
“Last time we were 2-4 … it turned into 4-12,” Rivers said Monday, referring to the Chargers’ 2003 season, the year before he was drafted. “We have to understand that this thing can get away from us. [We’re] going to fight like crazy not to let that happen.”
So far, there has been very little to indicate the Chargers (2-4) are turning the corner. Their special teams are a disaster. They have lost all four of their road games, falling behind by double digits in each. Rivers was sacked a career-high seven times Sunday in the Chargers’ loss at St. Louis — against a team that finished 30th in sacks last season. And the Chargers already have two more fumbles lost (nine, a league high) than they had in all of 2009.
And there’s more. As Vincent Jackson, the Chargers’ best deep threat, continues to hold out in a contract dispute, the team is forced to cope with injuries to key receiver Malcom Floyd and Pro Bowl tight end Antonio Gates. Floyd is likely to miss Sunday’s home game against New England, although the Chargers are hopeful they can get Gates back, as what originally was reported to be an ankle injury turned out to be a hurt toe.
Still, it has to be of significant concern for the Chargers that their four losses came in what should have been the softest part of their schedule, against teams that were a combined 15-49 last season. Their next stretch includes home games against the Patriots, Tennessee and Denver; and road games at Houston and Indianapolis.
Chargers Coach Norv Turner rejects the notion that any games should be presumed victories, even for a team that was 13-3 last season with an 11-game win streak.
“Anyone who’s naïve enough to think there’s going to be a game that’s going to be easy in this league, they don’t know enough about the National Football League,” he said. “All you have to do is look at [Sunday’s] scores and see the games that went to overtime, or when someone scored on the last play of the game, teams that were heavy favorites losing to someone else. That’s this league.”
However, Turner said that the body language of some Chargers indicated they expected to have an easier go of it against the Rams, who were 1-15 last season and lost by 38 to Detroit the week before.
“Guys fall into that trap,” Turner said. “When we didn’t get off to a fast start [Sunday], I sensed a frustration from our guys on the sideline. That shouldn’t be, because you should go into every game expecting it to come down to a drive in the fourth quarter.”
Getting off to a slow start is nothing new for the Chargers, who were 2-3 in each of their four seasons under Turner. But the three previous teams took a step forward from that point; this one took a step deeper into the abyss.
The only silver lining for the Chargers? Every other team in their division lost Sunday.
“If you can find anything bright, that would be the one thing,” Rivers said. “We didn’t lose any more ground … But at the same time you look at it as, ‘Man, that’s two games we should have won to close the gap and be sitting here at even.’ ”
That missed opportunity is clearly troubling for a franchise that made drastic changes in the off-season, parting ways with longtime fixtures such as running back LaDainian Tomlinson, defensive tackle Jamal Williams, cornerback Antonio Cromartie, and ace special-teamer Kassim Osgood, while making few moves in free agency.
Those Chargers, and the players around them, grew accustomed to digging themselves out of holes with timely winning streaks, allowing them to make the playoffs as AFC West champions the last four seasons. Linebacker Kevin Burnett said there’s a danger in waiting around and expecting those winning streaks to come.
“What we have to do as players is say, ‘Forget the run. Forget the 10 in a row,’ ” he said. “We’ve got to win one before we get to two.”
twitter.com/LATimesfarmer
