INGLEWOOD – In this case, travel wasn’t an excuse.
Was there one, actually?
Another Los Angeles NFL team came out flat on opening day. This time, the Chargers were on home turf, well rested, facing an Arizona Cardinals game with a new coach and new quarterback, favored by 9½ points in Las Vegas and given a win probability of better than 75 percent by at least one source before Sunday’s game started.
Boy, did that change as the game wore on.
And so the co-hosts – in name only, at least – of Super Bowl LXI are both 0-1 a week into the season, and each produced a stinker of an opening game. The Rams were embarrassed last Thursday (Friday Melbourne time) by the San Francisco 49ers, a team that you can at least envision playing here on Valentine’s Day 2027, as much as Rams fans might cringe at the thought.
But the Chargers, losing to the Arizona Cardinals? That’s truly confounding. Sunday’s 26-14 victory by the visitors, with Mike LaFleur making his debut as head coach and journeyman Jacoby Brissett starting at quarterback, had people shaking their heads as the afternoon continued and many heading for the exits well ahead of the final whistle.
“Didn’t come out to play today,” all-pro safety Derwin James said, and that pretty much summed it up.
“It just didn’t feel right,” he said. “… It was us, bro. We didn’t get off the field on third down. Too many third and shorts, I think special teams got a punt blocked. Offense, I mean, it was a complete team loss, bro. So, starting with the defense (it’s got to) get better.
“It just wasn’t us today.”
Maybe, strangely, it came down to a decision to go for it that backfired spectacularly. Both teams scored touchdowns on their opening possessions, and the Cardinals went ahead on Chad Ryland’s 27-yard field goal midway through the second quarter – after he’d doinked a 54-yarder off the right goalpost at the start of the second quarter.
And when the Chargers got deep into Arizona territory late in the half, and Justin Herbert scrambled for 7 yards on third and goal to put the ball on the Cardinals’ 3 at the two-minute warning … well, what would you do? Take the sure three points and the tie and regroup at halftime, or take the risk and go for the touchdown?
Jim Harbaugh took the risk, and it backfired. Herbert was sacked for a 10-yard loss on the fourth-and-3 play, Arizona took over with 1:55 to go in the half, and Ryland nailed a 44-yard field goal on the final play of the first half. Arizona 13, Chargers 7, and it wasn’t going to get any better.
“The ball being at the three, two minutes left in the (half), the thought was, (if) we get the field goal then kick it off to them, they get the ball (with) plenty of time to get a field goal of their own,” Harbaugh said. “So yes, my thought (was) go for the touchdown, get the seven. And then if we didn’t get it, then. We got them backed up and a chance to get the ball back if we could get a stop. So that was the thinking.
“We definitely need more stops.”
Sunday afternoon, they needed a lot of things.
Consider: The Chargers were 2 of 8 on third down conversions and failed three times when they went for it on fourth down – that play noted above, and two more at the end of the game which suggested that offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, who was supposed to unlock the greatness in Herbert’s game, was flailing just as much as anyone else in Chargers blue.
One of those came on this offensive sequence, with a little over 4½ minutes left and the Chargers down 23-14 but still within range if everything were to break right: A false start by center Jake Slaughter. A false start by wideout Quentin Johnston. An offensive holding penalty on Slaughter that nullified a second down completion, all on second down. Then, with a fourth and 18 at their own 23, an offensive pass interference penalty on tight end David Njoku on a play where the Chargers only gained 15 yards, allowing Arizona to decline the penalty and take possession.
It’s not always the number of penalties. It’s the timing. And when the same things keep happening, it translates into either desperation or utter sloppiness, your choice.
Of the seven Chargers’ penalties, three were false starts, two were holding penalties, one was offensive pass interference and one was for having too many defensive players on the field. Oh, and add a lost fumble and a blocked punt.
“A lot to get better at, a lot to fix,” Harbaugh said afterward. “Some just uncharacteristic things happened. Give them (the Cardinals) credit for making them happen. But … yeah, I’d call it sloppy at times, too sloppy. And that’s (what) we’re gonna get fixed.”
Did this have anything to do with this being the opener, the first time the regulars were out there for a full game and playing for keeps?
“You never know what’s gonna come at you, but you gotta be prepared for anything,” linebacker Daiyan Henley said. “So that’s the mindset that we enter this week (with). We know that it doesn’t matter what they throw at us, we just hae to be able to battle back.”
If there is a positive that comes out of such a desultory performance, it would be that Harbaugh and his staff now have the players’ full attention. If that game didn’t do it, the film session that follows almost certainly will.
“One play, one penalty here, one guy loses leverage here, we give up a first down here,” James said. “It’s just, you never able to get the momentum back, and we wasn’t our best today.
“Our offense over there, they’re drinking water, they’re hungry to get out there, bro. So we just got to do a better job getting those three and outs and getting off the field.”
And if all of that doesn’t get their attention? The Raiders are in town next Sunday.
jalexander@scng.com