INGLEWOOD – Another maddening night.
The Chargers, already at their wits’ end, opened their home to the Baltimore Ravens, whose visit will predictably haunt their hosts. Those once-high Chargers hopes? Gone now, nevermore to return. With six games to play after Sunday’s 20-10 loss, we can pronounce this season cooked.
Now 4-7, the Chargers even traded their powder blue jerseys for dark navy business attire Sunday evening at SoFi Stadium – hoping, perhaps, that removing the D would conjure up more power? – but they needed to do more than that to override the abiding law of the NFL universe.
Call it Murphy’s law – Jack Murphy’s Law? – but everyone knows it goes like this: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong for the Chargering Chargers.
So of course the Chargers’ embattled head coach Brandon Staley’s changes to his defensive secondary – safety Jaylinn Hawkins, of Buena Park, started after not having played a snap on defense before Sunday, and cornerback Deane Leonard starting at the outside corner over Michael Davis – felt more like desperation than an attempt to avoid enacting the definition insanity.
But it worked; the Chargers’ embattled defense held Lamar Jackson and his prolific Ravens’ offense to just 20 points, at least 11 fewer than in their past five games – but of course it didn’t matter.
Of course, the Chargers kept it close, down just three points until 1:44 remained, with a shot rewriting their 0-5 record in three-point games this season. And of course, they still lost.
And of course, the can-go-bad-will-go-bad started early, with officials inexplicably ruling against the Chargers three times in the first three minutes, ignoring a clear catch interference call after they missed a late hit penalty on Justin Herbert and instead penalizing Jamaree Salyer for defending the Chargers’ quarterback.
Of course, the Chargers’ Keenan Allen and Austin Ekeler had momentum-killing fumbles on back-to-back possessions late in the second quarter.
Of course Justin Herbert’s lost fumble on third-and-14 at the Ravens’ 16-yard line early in the fourth quarter spoiled a beauty of a play earlier on the drive: A double-pass on third-and-17, Herbert to Allen to Ekeler for nine yards + eight yards for a total of 17 yards. So that whole 19-play march yielded nothing.
Of course, after a resilient response on their next drive – Herbert scrambling for 35 yards and then throwing a 3-yard pass to tight end Gerald Everett with 8:32 to play to make it 13-10 – the Ravens went Sunday driving right back down the field.
But then something strange happened. A plot twist. A glitch in the matrix. A game-saving – and season-saving? – surprise?
The Chargers caught a break.
Baltimore’s Justin Tucker missed a 44-yard field goal, the hyper-dependable kicker’s first miss within 50 yards this season.
But of course Herbert, made uncomfortable all night, including then, on fourth-and-6, flung an incomplete pass – and got called for intentional grounding too – to turn the ball back over to Baltimore (9-4 and in first place in the NFC East) with 1:57 to play. But of course.
And of course, Zay Flowers raced in for his second touchdown Sunday three plays later to put the game out of reach. The dyanmic rookie wide receiver already got his team on the board in the second quarter by nabbing Lamar Jackson’s floating pass in the end zone.
Flowers – give ’em to the Ravens; they’re what a good team looks like.
The Chargers are not a good team. They’re a disappointing team. A mistake-prone team. A team that gets dressed in near silence after a third consecutive loss and fifth in seven games. A last-place team that couldn’t afford to be anything by almost perfect to have any hope of beating Baltimore – and, well, Murphy’s law.
“We were right there in the fourth quarter with a chance to win, despite three turnovers,” Staley said. “So that’s where our season’s been; it’s been tight, but we just haven’t been able to finish some of these games.
“There were some good things,” he added. “And it really starts with the turnovers, that’s the story of the game. When you turn the ball over three times against a team like that, thats the No. 1 team in the AFC, it’s gonna be really tough for you to win.”
Of course, it is.