San Diego Chargers choke in the playoffs… again
Being a San Diego Chargers fan is becoming painful. After an unimpressive start to the season they racked up eleven regular season wins in a row and earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs only to have their offence completely shit the bed in the second half of yesterday’s playoff game against the New York Jets. I don’t want to write a long and detailed diatribe as, quite frankly, it’s too frustrating to live through again. All aspects of the team failed in the second half except for the defense. Although the scoreboard shows that the defense gave up two touchdowns in the second half I only blame them for one. Any time your quarterback throws an interception in your own red zone you can hardly expect the defense to respond with a full stop. Yes, they gave up the 53-yard run late in the game but, mentally, that team had already checked out by that point.
Nate Kaeding missed two easy field goals. There’s no analysis required here. If he’d made either one of them, all other things being equal, it would have at least given them an opportunity to win on overtime. I’m really surprised that a guy who had made over 60 field goals in a row from within 40 yards missed twice from that range.
The coaching failed, as well, coming out in the second half. New York visibly demonstrated in the opening moments of the second half that they had made adjustments and found a way to win. San Diego looked uninspired and lost.
What was the most frustrating moment for me to watch was Shaun Phillips’ idiotic head butt which netted a 15 yard personal foul penalty. There are very few aspects of a game of football that are completely under your control but a lack of discipline like this is bush-league. This was not a case of two guys not ratcheting down their intensity milliseconds after the whistle, this was a knuckle-head intentionally walking over to his opponent and throwing a head butt long after the play was over. Pointless. Meaningless. Stupid. The San Diego Chargers that walked on the field yesterday in the third quarter were a team that deserved to lose and that’s precisely what they did.