JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Seven months ago, on a quiet offseason day in early June, I was sitting on a couch in Brandon Staley’s office at the Chargers facility in Orange County. I was there to interview the head coach about quarterback decision-making and analytics, but early in the conversation, Staley’s words drifted into something broader, something deeper, something that could seem intangible but that has left real and permanent wounds. for anyone related to this franchise.
“The history of this team when I got here, it was like somebody’s going to get hurt, they’re going to lose a lead, something catastrophic is going to happen,” Staley said then. “There’s this Chargering, and there’s all these external factors that I know in my life, they’re just excuses. They’re just excuses. And so, well, well, how do you change it? Well, you’ve got to do things differently. You’ve got to have a different approach.”
Staley has done everything possible to eradicate the black cloud – “Charging” – that hangs over this organization. He has tried to take this different approach. In 2021, he hired an additional analytics staff and leaned toward more aggressive, math-based decision-making, trying to establish a killer mentality among his players in his first year on the job. He brought in a new director of athletic performance and implemented a more cutting-edge process for injury recovery and maintenance, such as a mandatory activation period at the start of practices to allow players more time to deploy muscles and stretch individually Staley has been refreshingly candid and open with the media, revealing the kind of schematic details that few, if any, NFL coaches are willing to share.
And yet, despite Staley’s best efforts to be different, the Chargers’ 2022 season ended in viciously familiar fashion. Someone got hurt. The Chargers blew a lead. And something catastrophic happened.
The Chargers fell to the Jaguars, 31-30, on Saturday night at TIAA Bank Stadium in the wild-card round of the playoffs. They led 27-0 in the first half. They led 27-7 at halftime. They won the turnover margin 5-0.
They still lost.
Brandon Staley stood outside the locker room in stunned silence as his players walked past him after Saturday’s playoff loss. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Frankly, catastrophic doesn’t even seem like a strong enough word for what happened Saturday night.
Since 2000, teams outgaining the turnover margin by five or more were 142-4-1 for that game, according to TruMedia. The Chargers are now the fifth losing team, joining the 2000 and 2010 Browns, the 2012 Cardinals and the 2007 Buffalo Bills.
“You can only preach so much,” said tight end Gerald Everett, who led the Chargers with 109 yards on six receptions. “It just comes down to what you actually do in the moment and what you don’t allow in the moment.”
Staley tried to fly full speed through that black cloud at 500 mph. It split, but only briefly. The cloud came together again, bigger and darker and even more ominous, raining acid on the hopes and dreams of something better, something more.
I don’t know if Chargering is real, but it sure felt real Saturday night.
“We got choked up,” running back Kyle Van Noy said.
This debacle beats them all. It was the Chargers’ largest lead in franchise history, according to Pro Football Reference: 27 points.
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how did it happen
Well, it started at the end of the first half. The Chargers led 27-0 when they got the ball back at their own 18-yard line with 3:11 left in the second quarter. Quarterback Justin Herbert’s first down pass was hit at the line. On second down, Herbert answered with a completion to wide receiver Keenan Allen, who made a leaping catch on a well-placed throw. That led to a third-and-1.
Herbert said after the game that offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi called an infield run with a “kill” built in for that third down. The kill, or audible, was a ray end. All week, the Chargers had been practicing this sweep play with wide receiver DeAndre Carter as the delivery man, according to Herbert. Carter was already filling in for Mike Williams, who suffered a broken back in the Chargers’ meaningless Week 18 loss to the Broncos. By this stage of the second quarter, however, Carter was out with an ankle injury, so Michael Bandy, a former undrafted free agent who began the season on the practice squad, stepped in Carter
Herbert got to the line and saw a Jaguars front lined up to stop an inside run. Based on that look, Herbert killed the opening play, checking the jet sweep. Herbert took the photo and turned to give it to Bandy, who was running from right to left. Bandy wasn’t even looking for a delivery. He was unaware of the death, Herbert said. They disturbed the exchange. Bandy recovered, but the Chargers were forced to punt. And Trevor Lawrence engineered a 53-yard touchdown run on the ensuing possession to put the Jaguars on the scoreboard heading into halftime.
Michael Bandy wasn’t ready for that jet sweep pass, a call that should never have been made. (Nathan Ray Seebeck / USA Today)
“I could have done a better job of going to him and telling him exactly what we needed to do,” Herbert said.
But that wasn’t Herbert’s fault.
Lombardi’s pass call was an absurd decision in the first place, even if Carter had been in the game. The Chargers have completed four jet sweeps of Carter this season. He has gained a combined -21 yards (notice the negative sign in front of this number) on those four touches.
Beyond that, Bandy playing significant snaps in a playoff game is an indictment of this entire organization. Bandy earned his practice squad spot with a strong training camp. And my intention is not to pile on a hard-working player who has made some significant contributions this season. But a team trying to win a Super Bowl has to do better. Williams would have been on the field if Staley had just rested his starters in Week 18. And general manager Tom Telesco should have added more receiving talent this offseason. Maybe a speed threat that, you know, could thrive in that kind of lateral run concept.
This was the pivotal point of the match. And it has been unraveling in the second half. The Chargers had a 20-point lead and should have been able to run out the clock offensively. They mustered just 7 rushing yards on seven carries over the final two quarters. This is not a typo. September
The Chargers didn’t trail in that game until Riley Patterson’s 36-yard field goal sailed through the uprights as time expired, and they had 55 rushing yards on 20 carries in the game. Blame the lock. Blame the runners. Blame it on Lombardi and his offensive staff. Blame it on Staley. Blame everyone.
The Chargers had a clear path to win this game. Staley has always maintained that he wants to be a physical “line of scrimmage” team. When they needed to be this team the most, they failed. epically
“Certainly when you have that kind of lead, if you can have the ball effectively enough, there’s not going to be enough time (for a comeback),” Staley said. “And we didn’t do that.”
While the Jags’ passing game perked up in the second half, the Chargers couldn’t move the ball. (Douglas P. DiFelice/Getty Images)
The defense had baffled Lawrence in the first half with disguised coverages and blitzes. Jaguars coach Doug Pederson adjusted in the second half and increased the tempo of his offense. The Chargers weren’t ready for the crease and Staley’s drive fell apart.
According to TruMedia, the Jags ran 15 no-huddle plays in the game. Twelve of them reached the second half. In those 12, the Jaguars averaged 10.5 yards per play. Lawrence had three passes of 20 or more yards in the second half. All of them came off sloppy moments, including Zay Jones’ 39-yard touchdown run that cut the Chargers’ lead to 30-20 in the third quarter. This was a broken coverage, and Jones was wide open in the end zone. The Chargers scored their only points of the second half on a 50-yard field goal by Cameron Dicker on the previous possession.
“We’ve got to be better in uptempo situations,” linebacker Drue Tranquill said. “We have to be in better condition, everywhere.”
The Chargers committed a series of devastating defensive penalties in the second half.
Joey Bosa was flagged for lining up in the neutral zone on third down in the third quarter, denying a sack by Bryce Callahan. The Jaguars scored a touchdown on that drive to cut the Chargers lead to 27-14. Bosa has also been called for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, one for complaining to the refs and the other for hitting his helmet near the Chargers’ sideline after what appeared to be another missed call in the fourth quarter. The second foul moved the Jaguars’ two-point attempt from the 2-yard line to the 1-yard line, and Lawrence converted a layup to make it 30-28.
“We can’t lose our composure like that,” Staley said.
“I’m not going to speak my mind and they’re going to fine me more than I already am,” Bosa said in the locker room after the loss.
Rookie cornerback Ja’Sir Taylor, playing in place of the injured Michael Davis, committed a pass interference penalty on a second-and-19 in the fourth quarter that gave the Jaguars a new set of sacks. The Jaguars scored a touchdown and converted that two-pointer late in the game. Dicker had missed a 40-yard field goal, just his second missed kick of the season, to give the Jaguars the ball on that possession. The Chargers faced a fourth-and-3 on Dicker’s attempt, but Staley opted not to go for it in a continued departure from his 2021 process.
Davis suffered a pectoral injury in…