Chargers Descent Continues, Chiefs Beat Chargers In OT

There seemed to be two camps for Charger fans going into Monday night's game against the Kansas City Chiefs.  One camp of fans still have optimistic hopes for the Chargers.  The loss to the Jets was just a bump in the road and the Chargers would correct their problems and the steam roll towards the Super Bowl would begin with a beat down of the Chiefs... a team that was once 0-3 and considered to be among the worst in the NFL, but was on a 3 game win streak and the winner would leave Arrowhead stadium with the AFC West lead.  The other camp of fans were those that thought the game against the Jets exposed exactly who the 2011 Chargers are and, that is, a fairly below average, to bad football team.  So when the Chargers literally had to take a few snaps and set up for the game winning field goal to end the game but instead, Phillip Rivers fumbled a snap, the Chiefs recover and promptly beat the Chargers in overtime...fans that were already prepared for the worst were not too shocked or stunned by the outcome.

No, as I posted last week, I am resigned to the fact that this Charger team is not any good.  Looking at their remaining schedule, where prior to the season I had the Chargers going 9-7, I think they maybe lucky to go 6-10.  Yes, going from 4-1 to 6-10 is what I think could very well happen.

Lets start with Phillp Rivers...there has to be something going on.  He looks absolutely horrible.  Even on the passes that he completes, many don't look very good.  His interceptions are as ugly as they look, badly overthrown passes and in some cases, like in the Jets, it looks as if he threw it right to the opponent.  Rivers then tops off his 2 interception game against the Chiefs with the game losing fumble with time running out.  I have continued to say that I like Phillip Rivers because he is a winner, but he is, at least for now, stripped of that title.  A "winner" would never make such a huge mistake to cost the game.

Then there's the defense.  The Chargers win the coin toss in overtime and go 3 and out, punt the ball and push the Chiefs into their own territory.  The Chiefs proceed to move the ball at will down the field and make kicking a game winning field goal look routine against the porous Charger defense.  Cheifs QB Matt Cassels, who is not noted for running, had a big gain as he ran through 4, 5 miss tackles from lowly Charger defenders.  The Charger defense offers barely any resistance even against some of the worst NFL offenses.

There seems to still be the two camps, but the camp where fans are still optimistic for this season is seeing its faithful dwindling and the camp that sees this season of Charger football as another disappointing one is beginning to grow.

Green Bay comes to San Diego this week and the early line was Chargers +5.5 and many Charger fans are saying to take the Pack and the points because it is going to be a beat down.  And my thoughts are just that as well.  The Packers, coming off a bye week and have looked mostly unstoppable.  Unless they look past the Chargers, they should have little problem beating the Bolts this weekend.