Looking at the Los Angeles Chargers’ incredibly bad record in close games

The Los Angeles Chargers are 2-9 in games decided by 3 points or less since the start of the 2015 season.

Furthermore, they are 4-18 in games decided by one score or less in the same span. If you want the raw numbers, here they are.

Games decided by 1 point: 0-1Games decided by 2 points: 0-1Games decided by 3 points: 2-7Games decided by 4 points: 0-2Games decided by 5 points: 1-1Games decided by 6 points: 1-1Games decided by 7 points: 0-5

I’m not really sure what to do with this data. What real conclusions can we draw from this? Here are some possibilities.

Blame the Coaches: If there is a loser mentality on the team, who else is to blame? It is the coach’s responsibility to put his players in a position to win. It is his responsibility to get the most out of them, to help them achieve things they never thought they could. For a team that keeps coming up short the coach is the one who is supposed to push them past that final barrier to victory. This record is a direct reflection of “Mediocre Mike” (McCoy) and the effect of his persona on the team. It has been followed up by the new guy whose bumbling out of the blocks has made the difference in two games this season.

Blame the NFL: The NFL salary cap has been great for the game. No other sport has the parity and competition that the NFL does. ‘Any Given Sunday’ is a statement with real meaning. Most matchups could really go either way. In this era of parity, the games usually come down to just a handful of plays and the team that makes those plays is usually the victor. As for the Chargers they find themselves just below the average of most teams and as a result are finding themselves, more often than not, on the wrong side of those handfuls of plays. It’s not that the Chargers are horrible, they are just a little below the breaking point.

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Blame it on Marlon McCree: This seems to be the turning point in Chargers history. Since that moment the Chargers have been on a steady slide to the bottom. Was it Marlon McCree who bestowed some curse on this team or was it the firing of Marty Schottenheimer? We may never know but since that moment the Chargers have become the ‘So Close Chargers’. There were years after the fumble when the Chargers were continually the bridesmaid – getting so close every year. But even those days are gone and this curse has digressed to the point where every game is a so-close moment and we all hope that victory won’t slip through the fingers one more time,but it does.

Can the so-close curse be lifted? Only time will tell.

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