The biggest disappointment in the NFL this season will likely end the year with a winning record.
It isn’t the Dallas Cowboys (5-10), who have been more mistake-prone than talented from Week 1. It also isn’t the Minnesota Vikings (5-9), who should’ve bet on Brett Favre’s umpteenth comeback blowing up in his face even if no one could predict the Metrodome roof would collapse. It’s certainly not the San Francisco 49ers (5-10), who had no business being projected as NFC West champions.
What the San Diego Chargers (8-7) have in common with each of those teams is that they also struggled out of the gate, losing three of their first five games. What was different for the Chargers was that because a slow September was so familiar, panic didn’t set in.
It should have.
Instead, San Diego brushed off its veteran departures and contract holdouts in the same way it squandered scoring chances in the season-opener at Kansas City, allowed a pair of second-half kickoff returns by Leon Washington in Seattle and a pair of blocked punts at Oakland. All part of the script, right?
In each of the previous three seasons, the Chargers had started 2-3 but still rebounded to win the AFC West title — in 2008, they rebounded from 4-8 to make the playoffs. With quarterback Philip Rivers having an MVP-candidate season, the league’s top-ranked defense (267.2 yards allowed per game) and second-best offense (392.1 ypg), another turnaround this year wasn’t just expected, it was counted on. Hope was still alive even after giveaway losses at St. Louis (field goal blocked late) and at home to New England (game-tying field goal off the upright) dropped the Chargers to 2-5.
They eventually delivered in tardy yet spectacular fashion, winning six of seven games, including a pair of wins over the Chiefs and the still likely postseason-bound Colts by a combined 67-14. Even prior to Sunday’s final implosion at Cincinnati, most of Arrowhead Stadium was afraid to touch the word “playoffs.”
But while Kansas City celebrates an AFC West title, it’s the Chargers that won’t feel the postseason for the first time in five years. Not because they aren’t good enough but because they didn’t recognize when routine turned into rut.
