Confused Chargers Schooled on Basics

4 turnovers in 1st half drop team to 2-4

Sunday's transformation unfolded like a practical joke by a sadistic alchemist with a grudge.

Professional players making Pee Wee mistakes. An electric crowd turning into an angry mob. A flashy preseason Super Bowl pick that, play by play, error by error, was flushing lower and lower into the pipes of its own lost promise.

There was no wizard behind the curtain. Just the San Diego Chargers.

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Their own mental breakdowns cursed them into a deep hole, and only when it would prove to be too late did they begin climbing out of it. After a false start penalty, Kris Brown's game-tying field goal attempt from 50 yards away clanked off the right upright to close the casket on a devastating but familiar 23-20 home loss to the Patriots.

By halftime, the Chargers (2-5) lost three fumbles, two of which were totally inexplicable, and threw an interception to trail 13-3, prompting their first sellout crowd of the season to chase them into the locker room with a concert of boos.

They were down 23-6 in the fourth quarter before the offense began mounting the comeback it didn't deserve and wouldn't get.

“I just don't think we gave ourselves a chance in this football game,” coach Norv Turner said. “You do the things we did in the first half with the football … and you're not going to win.”

Rookie wide receiver Richard Goodman made the first mental blunder on a play that would have been fine if Turner was a young Bobby Bowden and Goodman was back in Tallahassee at Florida State.

Goodman made a sliding catch for his first reception as a professional, but the play isn't over in the NFL until a player is down by contact. Goodman said he knew the rule, but thought he was touched down. He wasn't, and Patriots safety James Sanders recovered the fumble.

“I’ll be the first to say it’s my bad,” Goodman said. “After catching the ball, down or not down, I need to catch the ball and toss it to the ref.”

Or so he's coached.

Fullback Jacob Hester made the next critical error. He extended his arms forward on a short Phillip Rivers throw that was actually a backward pass. No whistle. Fumble. Live ball.

Hester thought the play was over, but in a brief moment that seemed to unwind in slow motion, Patriots linebacker Rob Nikovich pieced it all together and scooped up the ball. Rivers tackled him at the 8-yard line, and the Patriots would be limited to a field goal.

“I didn't think there was any chance it was a backwards pass,” Hester said. “I was kind of confused, and by the time I noticed, the guy picked up the ball. When a play like that happens, you just have to pick up the ball whether it's a forwards or backwards pass, just to make sure.”

Or so he's coached. For whatever reason, it's Week 7, and these lessons still haven't hit home.

As much as could be said about the slow-starting offense, whose first fumble by tight end Kris Wilson led to the game's first touchdown, the defense was sensational.

Defensive coordinator Ron Rivera had his players flying to the ball, holding the Patriots to 38 total yards in the first half and 179 for the game. Brady was sacked four times, most since the Patriots' Super Bowl loss to the Giants on Feb. 3, 2008. New addition linebacker Antwan Barnes had two of them.

Late in the fourth quarter, linebacker Antwan Applewhite tackled running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis behind the line of scrimmage on a fourth and 1, giving the offense possession at the Patriots' 47-yard line with 1:55 remaining.

The Chargers, with all three timeouts in hand, couldn't complete the rally that would have placed their season back on track, instead falling to 2 1/2 games behind the Chiefs in the AFC West.

"There's no doubt in my mind we can turn this around," safety Eric Weddle said. "But if we continue to make mistakes, we won't. We've got to be accountable. We as players got to turn this around. The coaches can only do so much, and they've done an excellent job preparing for us. But we've got to go out there and make plays and execute.

"And when we don't, you see what happens. We lose."

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