Maybe the Chargers are Figuring This Out

A series of interesting events provide hope the 2016 season can be a good one

NBC 7's Derek Togerson looks at the Chargers recent success in this commentary

Well now I’m totally confused.

In the span of two weeks the Chargers have gone from being the most inept 4th quarter football team in recent memory to being the one team outside New England that nobody wants to play. San Diego chased its hang-on-for-dear-life win over the Broncos with a come-back-from-17-points-down win over the Falcons, this one on the road.

So what the heck is really going on here? How did this team go from losing to the Colts to beating the Falcons? Let’s try and break this down scientifically.

Those of you who took any Sociology classes (and paid attention) know of a theory called “social equilibrium.” It’s basically the belief that a social system, when disturbed, will eventually return to its original state. Put another way: what goes around comes around.

For the last couple of years things have not gone the way of the Chargers. It seemed like every penalty, every bad bounce, and every miscue in a football game somehow hurt the Bolts. Granted, a lot of that was due to bad decisions from coaches on the sidelines and players on the field, but there was undoubtedly a disproportionate number bad things that led to San Diego losses.

Now, all of a sudden, it would appear the proverbial worm has turned. Go back to that Thursday night win over the Broncos. Right when it seemed Denver was on the road to making the Bolts blow another 4th quarter lead the defending Super Bowl champions were hit with a holding penalty to negate a C.J. Anderson touchdown.

That would not have happened before.

Against the Falcons on Sunday in the Georgia Dome the Dirty Birds were trying to drive for a game-winning field goal at the end of regulation when Julio Jones thought he was interfered with but no flag was thrown. That penalty would have been called in Week 2 and it would have moved Atlanta deeper in to Bolts territory than did the next 10-yard reception by Jones, which would have given Matt Bryant a shot at something shorter than a 58-yard field goal, which likely would have gone in instead of nipping the corner of the uprights, never giving San Diego a shot to win in overtime.

In fact, the Chargers were only flagged three times in Atlanta while the Falcons were hit with nine penalties. In the very recent past those numbers would have likely been flipped.

So, going back to our sociological hypothesis, this is very likely the NFL system trying to pull itself back to the middle. I have been very hard on head coach Mike McCoy, and although I still have serious reservations about his spot as an NFL head coach, he does deserve full marks for sticking with it. The guy has faults but he certainly does not quit, and as Sunday’s comeback from a 17-point deficit shows, neither does his football team.

“It says a lot about our team,” said McCoy. “I’ve been saying this forever; we just play. It doesn’t matter what the score is, when it is during the season, how much time is left, we just play. That’s what we talked about at halftime, just go one play at a time. You’ve gotta believe this! Everyone’s gotta believe we are winning this football game. It’s the same way in the 4th quarter we got the ball there we said, hey, we’re winning this game somehow.”

A few years back the Bolts seemed to get most of the breaks. They went to the playoffs five times in six seasons between 2004 and 2009. Lose Drew Brees? No problem, here comes Philip Rivers. Lose Steve Foley? That just makes room for Shawne Merriman.

It would stand to reason that the recent epic failures were simply the social system getting back to its baseline, then overcorrecting a bit. Or maybe somebody just really ticked off Murphy, who sent his law to torture San Diego for a while. Whatever it is, Sunday was the first time in a long time that the Chargers had the look … and feel … of a consistent winner.

“In the years we’ve been on runs and have been a good team we’ve done that,” said quarterback Philip Rivers. “It was just kind of like, ‘I don’t know how but we’re going to win the game,’ and we believed that and just kept chipping away. That’s what we did (Sunday).”

Sunday’s win was the 22nd career 4th quarter comeback for Rivers, tying him with Jim Kelly on the NFL’s all-time late heroics list. It was the first time he had one against a team with a winning record, however, since November 30, 2014 in Baltimore.

If they can keep finding ways to pull out close games … perhaps again next week in Denver … then reports of Mike McCoy’s coaching death will have been greatly exaggerated.

Contact Us