Chargers Win A Wild One

Bolts overcome 17-point deficit to win on the road

The Chargers tired doing a few things differently on Sunday. One of the big ones: instead of building a big lead and letting it get away late, they let the other team get ahead by double digits, then staged a furious late comeback to get a 33-30 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at the Georgia Dome.

The first indication the Chargers are truly trying to do things differently came on the opening coin toss. Quarterback Philip Rivers got it right when he called tails but instead of deferring to the 2nd half like San Diego normally does they decided to take the ball first.

The strategy worked. Rivers led an impressive touchdown drive that included a 49-yard reception by wideout Tyrell Williams and ended with Melvin Gordon going in from the two yard line to give the Chargers a 7-0 lead.

San Diego’s defense was able to hold the Falcons, who own the NFL’s highest-scoring offense, to a field goal on their first drive. But when you’re facing one of the best teams in the NFL on the road you simply cannot make mistakes. After those opening drives the mistakes started happening.

What looked like another promising drive ended when running back Dexter McCluster had a ball bounce off his hands and in to the arms of Deion Jones. The linebacker took it back 42 yards to the San Diego 10 yard line but the Bolts defense again held, forcing another field goal to cut their lead to 7-6.

Josh Lambo hit a 40-yard field goal to make it 10-6 then Julio Jones took over the game for a while. The All-Pro wide receiver caught a beautiful 50-yard rainbow from Matt Ryan to set up Ryan’s 17-yard scoring pass to Jacob Tamme to give the Falcons their first lead. That lead got bigger just a few minutes later.

The kickoff was short and dangerously close to the sideline. Instead of letting it land and see which direction the ball would go, Griff Whalen short-hopped it and just knocked the thing out of bounds at the eight. The Chargers ran three plays and punted, setting up the Falcons at midfield.

A mere four plays later running back Tevin Coleman got a monster hole and ran 30 yards for a touchdown and a 20-10 lead. Just three plays after that Rivers was sacked by Vic Beasley, the ball came loose, Adrian Clayborn scooped it up and ran in for a 5-yard touchdown and a 17-point lead.

Chargers fans god a ray of hope when Rivers righted the ship and marched the Bolts down the field following the same blueprint they used to start the game. A 38-yard catch by Tyrell Williams helped set up a 3-yard Gordon touchdown run to make it 27-17 at the half.

The 3rd quarter was fairly uneventful outside rookie defensive end Joey Bosa getting the first of his two sacks on the game. Bosa now has four sacks in three games and is tied with Melvin Ingram for the Chargers team lead. The teams traded field goals before the San Diego offense showed some life again.

Rivers led a 15 play drive, throwing 14 times, the last one to Gordon for a 5-yard score that cut the lead to 30-27 with 5:59 to play. The game was then in the hands of the young Chargers defense, who needed to get a stop or at least not allow a touchdown to keep hopes of a road win alive.

They did one better. Linebacker Denzel Perryman intercepted Ryan at the San Diego 35 yard line and the Bolts had a chance to do something they had not done in a long, long time … win a game with a last-second drive.

On 4th and 3 Rivers hit Antonio Gates for a first down. On 3rd and 1 Melvin Gordon bounced off a tackler and ran 13 yards. But then Gates dropped a ball at the goal line, one he has caught so many times in his career, and the Chargers had to settle for a field goal and a 30-30 tie with 18 seconds left to play.

That was enough for Matt Ryan and Julio Jones. Two passes moved the Falcons from their own 25 to the Chargers 40, where Matt Bryant lined up for a 58-yard field goal. The way things have gone for the Chargers this year, one would assume he would have made it. But like we said, the Bolts started doing things different in this game.

The kick hit the bottom part of the upright and bounced away, leading to overtime. San Diego lost the coin toss and Atlanta got the ball first. They didn’t have it long. On 4th and 1 they went for it and Perryman came up large again, stuffing Devonta Freeman for a loss of one to give the Chargers the ball at the Atlanta 44 yard line.

The Bolts moved the ball to the 24 yard line, where Lambo nailed a 42-yard field goal to complete the comeback. The Bolts improve to 3-4 and have another tough trip to Denver next week.

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