Chargers drop to 0-3 after 24-10 loss
CARSON (AP) — Different city, but the same story for the San Diego-turnedLos Angeles Chargers.
The Chargers fell to 0-3 on Sunday, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs 24-10 after turnovers put them in an early 14-point hole from which they never recovered.
“You might say we’re the same ‘ol Chargers, and right now we are,” coach Anthony Lynn said. “Until we prove differently we are. So we’ve got to go back to work, and we’ve got to get better. The coaches and players.”
The Chargers lost 24-21 to the Denver Broncos in the season opener when a potential game-tying field goal was blocked with 1 second left. Last week, a 54-yard field goal with 1:10 to play sent them to a 19-17 defeat to the Miami Dolphins.
This time, the Chargers’ first two possessions ended in Phillip Rivers throwing interceptions, giving the Chiefs a 14-0 lead less than six minutes into the game, before Rivers had a single completion to a teammate.
“It was tough, to spot a good football team like that 14 points early, with the turnovers we had,” Lynn said.
Rivers finished 20 of 40 for 237 yards and three interceptions. He could have thrown five, had Marcus Peters dropped an easy one in the third quarter, and what was initially ruled an interception by Daniel Sorensen early in the fourth was overturned by replay.
“It was a rough day,” Rivers said. “You hate be be the guy that let’s down the group.”
The Chargers didn’t fold completely, however, as they got within a touchdown on Melvin Gordon’s scoring run late in the first quarter, and a 29-yard field goal by Younghoe Koo on the last play of the first half.
“It was a 17-10 game at the half, and I’d played terrible,” Rivers said. “We were right there in the game, thanks to the defense and the guys hanging in there. We were right there in the game and had multiple opportunities.
The Chargers’ best opportunity to draw even came after the first play of the fourth quarter. On a fourth-and-14 at their own 39, the Chiefs tried a fake punt only to see Albert Wilson thrown for a 4-yard loss.
With a first-and-10 at the Chiefs 35, a pair of runs and an incomplete pass failed to yield a single yard.
“Obviously after the fake punt that was a terrible three-and-out,” Rivers said. “We had other opportunitites to make it a 17-all game, but we just couldn’t put it together.”
The Chargers’ six second-half possession went punt, punt, turn the ball over on downs, punt, punt, before time ran out.
“A quarterback is going to have a couple of bad throws, a couple of bad plays,” Lynn said. “That’s going to happen over the course of a season. As an offense, we have to overcome it.”