San Diego SportsTime Warped, Once Again San Diego is Playing the “What If” Game
Chargers Fall to the Ravens in Home Opener 31-26 On Sunday, the San Diego Chargers (1-1) lost to the Baltimore Ravens (2-0) 31-26 leaving Chargers fans feeling like they had had just been unwillingly abducted back in time to the 1980s. Philip Rivers threw for 436 yards and 2 touchdowns, but it was not enough. Despite Rivers’ robust numbers, ultimately the Chargers loss was due to a culmination of questionable play calling in the Red zone and a lack of discipline by the players, including some unfortunate rookie-like mistakes by Rivers. Now, despite an entire off-season of Norv Turner repeatedly stating his desire to get the Chargers off to a “fast start,” Chargers fans once again find themselves suffering from a Monday morning hangover that has them playing a cruel game of “What If” while questioning Turner’s abilities as a head coach. Like the Charger teams of the early 1980s, yesterday this team showed that it has the ability to frequently create big plays and potentially score from anywhere on the field. The Chargers started their second possession backed up behind their own 1-yard line. Rivers managed to move the ball out to the 19-yard line before perfectly throwing a short pass to Darren Sproles who was already running at full stride. With no one around him, Sproles bolted down the sidelines for an 81-yard touchdown giving the Chargers a 7-0 lead. Like the Chargers defenses of the early '80s, yesterday’s defense seemed to have no answers on how to stop the opposing offense. We also saw this in the first half of last week’s game against the Oakland Raiders. Like in the '80s, a high-powered Chargers offense mixed with poor defense were the perfect ingredients to create an exciting yet equally frustrating football game. Ravens Quarterback Joe Flacco continually answered the Chargers scoring drives by running a well-balanced offense. Following Sproles’ score, Flacco lead the Ravens on three touchdown drives within their next four possessions. Defense aside, the only reason the Chargers trailed 21-16 at the half was the inability of the offense to score touchdowns inside the Red zone. To end the half, twice in a 2:50 span, the Chargers stalled inside the Ravens 5-yard line and settled for field goals. The Ravens managed to score a touchdown between those possessions. The second stall-out created perhaps the biggest “What If” of the game. With no time outs and 0:19 to go in the half, Rivers found Malcolm Floyd for a first down inside the 1-yard line. On the play, a roughing-the-passer penalty was called on Ravens’ defender Trevor Pryce. This stopped the clock and moved the ball to nearly the goal line. The officials then chose to review the play to see if Floyd had made a touchdown on the reception. The review whistle blew as the Chargers were poised to hike the ball for what likely would have been a touchdown scoring quarterback sneak. Upon review, the ruling on the field was upheld leaving the Chargers with first and goal inside the one. Once the play clock restarted, Rivers did not realize the rule that it continued where it was paused prior to the review, rather then reset with a full 40-second countdown. This resulted in a delay of game penalty and the Chargers were backed up 5-yards. After two incomplete passes and a near quarterback sack, even though he still had 0:10 of game clock remaining, Turner elected to kick a field goal on 3rd down. This decision prompted boos from a stadium filled with irate fans. Similar to last week against the Raiders, Ron Rivera’s defense was much improved in the second half. The Chargers allowed just 10 points and these were the direct result of the Ravens getting great field position off of two intercepted Rivers’ passes. Rivers’ first interception came on the Chargers’ first possession of the second half. On 3rd and 6 from the Chargers own 24, Rivers was flushed out of the pocket and instead of taking a sack or throwing the ball out of bounds, Rivers uncharacteristically threw blindly down the field. Dawan Landry's interception gave the Ravens great field position on the Chargers’ 22-yard line. A few plays later the Chargers found themselves down 28-16. Rivers then managed to battle through sloppy play by his offense to bring the Chargers back. Late in the 3rd quarter the Chargers had a drive where they were penalized on three separate occasions after making a first down.This leadto a 1st and 15, 1st and 20, and 1st and 25. Rivers overcame the penalties by throwing a 35-yard touchdown pass to Vincent Jackson capping off a 60-yard drive and bring the score to 28-23. Antoine Cason then intercepted a Flacco pass on the Chargers 30-yard line setting up what appeared to be a go-ahead touchdown drive for the Chargers. Once again the Chargers stalled inside the Raven’s 10-yard line and the Bolts had to settle for a 25-yard Nate Kaeding field goal to bring the score to 28-26. In the Ravens' next possession they were again able to move the ball into Chargers' territory and the defense answered with a crucial stop by forcing a punt. The ball was now in Rivers’ hands on the Chargers 7-yard line with 4:45 in the game. Then on 3rd and 10, Rivers had a tipped pass intercepted by Antwan Barnes on the Chargers 13-yard line. Remarkably, the Chargers defense held the Ravens to a field goal making the score 31-26. With 2:48 to go in the game, Rivers now had an opportunity to win the game with a last possession touchdown and it appeared that he would be successful. With 0:52 seconds left Rivers completed a 8-yard pass to Legedu Naanee on the Ravens 15-yard line to set up a 3rd and 2. An incomplete pass brought 4th down. Then, despite Rivers having 436 yards of passing compared to only 58 total yards rushing on the day, Turner elected for Rivers to hand it off to Sproles who was dropped in the back field by Ray Lewis for a 5-yard loss. This secured the victory for Baltimore. In this “What If” game, if only one of several plays throughout yesterday’s game had gone differently, the Chargers would be 2-0. Now at 1-1 the Chargers must win their next two games to secure the much talked about “fast start." This will be a difficult task. Next week the Chargers' defense will once again be tested at home against the Miami Dolphins' (0-1) Wild Cat offense. The following the week the Chargers will travel to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers, the defending Super Bowl Champions. Player Notes: During the week the Chargers signed and placed on the 53-man squad, ninth-year veteran offensive lineman Dennis Norman who was cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars (0-2) at the end of Training Camp. On Saturday defensive tackle Jamal Williams was place on the injured reserved list and will miss the remainder of the season. Due to injuries, San Diego was missing running back LaDainian Tomlinson, center Nick Hardwick, right guard Louis Vasquez, and line backer Antwan Applewhite from yesterday’s game.
 Dan McLellan About the author: Dan McLellan is a San Diego native and Charger season ticket holder since 1993. He also has a weekly Charger podcast at www.DanMcLellan.com. More by this author Subscribe to Sports:
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