The Los Angeles Chargers have been plagued by situational mistakes all season, and they committed another huge one in Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons.
The Chargers had the ball deep in Atlanta territory at the end of the first half with no timeouts remaining. Facing 3rd-and-1 with 22 seconds remaining, they called a handoff to running back Kalen Ballage, who was stuffed for no gain. Chargers players must have thought Ballage got the first down, because they then hustled to the line to run another play. By the time they all realized what was going on, it was too late and time expired.
You can see the embarrassing sequence below:
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THIS IS PEAK CHARGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/dhgVySUoT4
— . (@RespectDaBeard1) December 13, 2020
Head coach Anthony Lynn tried to get the kicking unit onto the field, but it was too late. Rookie quarterback Justin Herbert clearly had no idea what was going on and walked off the field in slow motion. Lynn was irate on the sideline and could be seen throwing his hands up in the air.
Herbert appeared to think L.A. had a first down, so he was probably trying to get up to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball. That wasn’t an option since the ball was marked short. The end result was a 17-10 halftime deficit that should have been 17-13.
The Chargers also showed incompetent clock management in their loss to the Buffalo Bills a couple weeks ago, so this is nothing new. Lynn is likely to be fired at the end of the season, and those types of situational blunders might make ownership’s decision easier.
