Chargers hand it to Patriots, 23-20
In years past, the slow-starting San Diego Chargers would be making their U-turn around now.
Sunday, they took a hard left toward irrelevance.
While there wasn’t necessarily shame in the score — they lost, 23-20, to the New England Patriots — it was the way the Chargers came apart that had their hometown fans booing them at halftime. Four turnovers in a span of 13 minutes will do that even to ardent supporters.
Asked about those catcalls, disheartened quarterback Philip Rivers said: “That’s about how I felt, how all of us felt, at that point.”
After falling behind by double digits in the first half — as they have in each of their five losses this season — the Chargers made a game of it in the fourth quarter. But they blew their chance to force overtime when Kris Brown’s 50-yard field-goal attempt bounced off the right upright with 27 seconds to play.
Brown, signed last week to replace the injured Nate Kaeding, had originally lined up for a 45-yarder, but the mistake-prone Chargers were flagged for a false start that pushed back the attempt.
It was the last in a litany of miscues that included two bizarre fumbles in the second quarter. The first came when Rivers connected on a short pass to Richard Goodman, an undrafted rookie making his first NFL catch.
Goodman slipped after making the grab and fell to the turf. Although he wasn’t touched by a defender — he said later he mistakenly thought he had been — he left the ball on the ground as he stood to clap his hands. It was a live ball, and New England safety James Sanders plunged in and recovered it.
On San Diego’s next possession came another mental meltdown. Rivers and Jacob Hester failed to connect on a screen pass. Again, it was a live ball, and Hester simply gave up on it as if it were an incomplete pass. Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich scooped it up and returned it 63 yards to the Chargers’ eight-yard line.
“We’re not capable of taking care of the football,” Coach Norv Turner said. “It’s something we’ve taken a lot of pride in around here for a long time … It’s the worst thing we’re doing right now.”
And it has served up victories on a powder-blue platter for opponents. The Patriots (5-1) generated only 38 yards of offense in the first half, yet held a 13-3 lead.
Attention to detail, and not sheer talent, is the reason the Patriots are tied for first in the AFC East, and the Chargers are tied for last in the AFC West.
“Coaching,” quarterback Tom Brady said, when asked why the Patriots seldom seem to make mental errors. “From the time we walk in the door, [Coach Bill Belichick] talks about eliminating bad football. That’s stuff Foxborough High School can complete — wide-open throws, snap-count violations, or dropping the ball when you haven’t been touched.
“The day we started training camp, we run laps around the field for stupid plays like that.”
The path doesn’t get any easier for the Chargers, who play host to Tennessee on Sunday, then hit the road — where they have yet to win this season — for a game at Houston.
“We’re a team that’s making a lot of plays, but we can’t put together a game without having some key, critical mistakes creep in,” said Rivers, who threw for 335 yards and helped rally his team from a 20-3 deficit with three scoring drives in the fourth quarter. “It’s unfortunate, because we put our defense in such tough situations, and they keep stopping them.
“We turned it over four times in the half … and having [three] points going into the fourth quarter, you’re not going to win many games.”
And if it keeps going like this for the Chargers, it won’t matter anyway.
