On the opening drive of the 3rd quarter of their first road game of the season Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Stevie Johnson, passing Dan Fouts to become the Chargers all-time leader in touchdown passes. But the 255th TD of Rivers’ career was one of the few positives the Bolts can claim from their trip to Cincinnati.
San Diego piled up the mistakes, many of them mental, in a 24-19 loss to the Bengals. The unfortunate tone was set in the first couple minutes of the game. The San Diego defense held the Bengals to a 3-and-out but wide receiver Keenan Allen muffed it, setting up Cincy at the San Diego 19 yard line. Two plays later quarterback Andy Dalton found wideout A.J. Green in the end zone for a 16-yard score and the Chargers never got out of the hole.
The Bolts had ample opportunities to get themselves back in the game but just kept making error after error. A quick rundown of the untimely miscues that haunted them after the Allen muff:
- Rivers was sacked and fumbled near midfield, the Bengals recovered
- Cornerback Jason Verrett was called for a facemask penalty on Green away from the play, erasing what would have been 3rd and long
- Head coach Mike McCoy elected to NOT use any of his time outs at the end of the first half when the Bengals were punting, instead allowing nearly a minute to tick off the clock
- Linebacker Melvin Ingram was called for an illegal contact penalty that gave the Bengals a first down when they would have had to punt
- Rookie linebacker Nick Dzubnar was called for a personal foul after a kickoff return, moving the Chargers deep in to their own territory and they were really never able to flip the field position again
- Various and sundry other penalties and missed blocking assinments
What’s crazy is, even with all that, the Chargers were still in the game because Cincinnati was playing every bit as sloppy a game as San Diego was. Both teams lost a pair of fumbles and the Bengals committed even more penalties. Both Dalton and Rivers had long touchdown passes (Dalton a 45-yarder to Marvin Jones and Rivers a 40-yarder to Malcom Floyd).
The difference in the game was the timing of the miscues and the great equalizer in professional football: the pass rush.
The Bengals were able to get in to the San Diego backfield with regularity, sacking Rivers four times while the Bolts did not record a single sack of Dalton. Bengals running back Giovani Bernard had a good day running the ball, carrying 20 times for 123 yards. His effort overshadowed a strong performance by Chargers rookie Melvin Gordon, who ran 16 times for 88 yards.
