What do 2-5 Chargers have left?
For a while last Sunday, Chargers coach Anthony Lynn loved everything he was seeing about his team’s fight-to-the-end spirit. Late in a close game against the Titans, the Chargers were coming up big under pressure, making clutch plays to spark what could have been a rousing come-from-behind victory.
Down 23-20 with less than 4 minutes left, the defense first stopped the Titans on third-and-7 and then on fourth-and-1.
After the turnover on downs, the Chargers offense marched down the field and into the red zone for what was, at least, a game-tying field-goal drive or quite possibly a game-winning touchdown.
And then?
Well, the final 44 seconds happened. First-and-10 at the Titans 16: Philip Rivers hit Austin Ekeler underneath, and the elusive running back knifed the final 12 yards into the end zone.
“What an effort! Austin Ekeler!” CBS play-by-play man Ian Eagle proclaimed. “And the Chargers take the lead with 37 seconds to go.”
Wait. Hold the phone. The officials wanted a second look.
Ekeler’s butt had touched the ground when the football was inches short of the goal line.
The play was reversed. No touchdown. Tough break.
Two snaps later? On first-and-goal from the 1? Chargers back Melvin Gordon got low and dived for the end zone.
“Touchdown!” Eagle exclaimed. “Melvin Gordon powers in. The Chargers go in front.”
Except they didn’t.
A replay review showed Gordon’s knee down before the ball broke the plane.
Once again, the play was reversed. No touchdown.
The next play? Second-and-goal, less than a foot from the end zone with 22 seconds left? Gordon again took a handoff, was hit near the end zone and …
“Did he get in?” Eagle wondered.
No. No he did not. And not only that, but upon further review by the replay official, Gordon also fumbled when he was hit. The Titans had the ball. Game over. Heartbreak city.
Not only had the Chargers fallen to 2-5, those improbable and wild final 44 seconds left them reeling.
Lynn was asked Wednesday how he was feeling in real time as that chaos unfolded.
“Ohhhh,” he said. “I really don’t want to go back there. But since you asked …” The misery was real. Very real.
“You thought you won the game,” Lynn said. “Twice. Or it’s overtime. And then you get the ball on the 1-yard line and there’s no excuse for not scoring there. It was tough. It was a tough loss. I’ve been in this league a long time and that was probably one of my toughest losses.”
Like most NFL coaches, Lynn is hoping the hard-luck defeat will galvanize his team. He’s also aware the opposite might happen. So when asked what he has learned as a head coach about stabilizing his team after a loss like that, Lynn laughed.
“You know,” he said, “you take it for what it is. Like I said, I’ve never had a loss like that. So I was in new territory there. Don’t get me wrong. It took me a day to get out of the funk on that one, as bad as we needed that win or wanted that win.
“But when the smoke is all settled, you just have to go back to (understanding) not one play ever wins or loses a game.”
Right. Sometimes three plays can win or lose a game. And on occasion, a loss like that can cause the bottom to fall out of a season.
The Bears, at 3-3, are facing a similar bounce-back challenge as they try to regroup from a two-game losing streak that included last week’s 36-25 face-plant against the Saints, the first double-digit loss of Nagy’s tenure as coach.
No wonder there are similar sentiments bouncing around the buildings of both teams.
Said Lynn: “Our leadership is really going to show right now.”
Sound familiar?