San Diego Chargers – What went wrong against the Chiefs

The San Diego Chargers loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was painful.  It was that game where everything finally caught up to us.  It was still a very winnable game, which tells you how much talent this team has – even on an off day, we were close to winning.

Oct 19, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe (82) makes a fourth quarter catch while defended by San Diego Chargers cornerback Richard Marshall (31) at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

1. Injuries finally caught up to the Chargers.  Losing Brandon Flowers early on was a big loss.  With Jason Verrett already inactive, we had to rely on Richard Marshal.  Marshal was continuously owned by the Chief receivers.

2. Philip Rivers had an average day.  Wow.  He was just average. 17/31, 205 yards, 2TD, 1 INT.  Now before you blame this on the O-line or on the defense for not getting off the field, Rivers missed some throws today and rushed a few others.  It was not his best performance of the year. We had come accustomed to awesome performances every week.  Today was just average. (I now it hurts me to talk about Felipe Rios The Gunslinger like this, but its honest.)

3. The Chargers offense failed to sustain drives.  This is something that it had not failed at all year. Four 3-and-outs and one 5-and-out. We lost the time of possession battle in a big way and forced our D to be on the field way too long.

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4.  The Chargers play calling seemed suspect at times.  On 2nd and goal from the 5.  I was thinking two handoffs to Branden Oliver here.  He had basically just carried us down the field with great runs.  We went with two passes, both which were hurried and we had to settle for a FG.  It may have been the difference in the game. Also, the endzone shot on 2nd and long with about 3 minutes left was questionable. I thought at this point we should have been looking to milk the clock and win with a last second touchdown. Even a touchdown there would have only put us up by 4 and left KC with 3 minutes and our D was tired.  We should have gone for a first down or a shorter play to give us a more manageable 3rd down.

4. The Chargers made too many mistakes.  Penalties, missed tackles, bad reads.  When Eddie Royal dropped that opening drive pass on 3rd down we were seeing a forecast of things to come.