Chargers lost Monday Night Football in the most “Chargers” way

Heading to a new city, this season has a lot of promise for the Los Angeles Chargers. However, this new campaign brought back old memories.

The Los Angeles Chargers are easily the most talented “bad” team in the NFL. Quarterback Philip Rivers may go down in the Hall of Fame along with Antonio Gates. The wide receiver core may be one of the deepest in the NFL. The defensive line, padded by Joey Bosa, Corey Liuget and Melvin Ingram is dangerous. Still – the team has won nine games the previous two seasons combined.

Los Angeles’ 24-21 loss to the Denver Broncos was a painful reminder that, despite playing in a new city, these Chargers are still the Chargers.

This team is still the Chargers that was infamous for blowing leads late in games. The same Chargers that easily could have won nine games last season. No matter what happened in the three quarters prior, the Chargers seemingly found any way possible to lose a football game late in regulation.

While the Monday Night Football matchup may not have fit this same narrative as last season, the end result and the way it happened certainly did.

Los Angeles was trailing 14-7 heading into the second half. Heading into the fourth quarter Los Angeles was down 24-7, with many concluding that the game was a foregone conclusion. However, unlike what we saw last season, these Chargers stormed back.

The defense held their own. Whether it was a goal line stand or forcing fumbles, the defense gave Philip Rivers and the offense all the chances to get back in the game. Rivers responded in typical Rivers fashion, finding both Keenan Allen and Travis Benjamin in the end zone; both of which were following Bronco turnovers.

Just five minutes after they were trailing by 17 points, the Chargers were now only down a field goal.

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Los Angeles got some help from a missed field goal by the Broncos. After trading punts, Philip Rivers and the offense had two minutes and one time out to drive down the field. After a fourth down run and pass interference the ensuing play, the Chargers had the ball at Denver’s 34-yard line with 17 seconds left.

Rivers found Allen on the sideline for an eight yard gain. After wasting some clock with a throwaway play, rookie kicker Younghoe Koo’s first attempted field goal in the NFL was a 44-yarder to tie the game.

Then, to the surprise of many Charger fans, something went their way and he nailed it. Except, in typical NFL fashion, a timeout was called to ice the kicker. Fans didn’t even get to see if the nerves set into Koo, as Shelby Harris plowed through Dan Feeney to block the game tying field goal.

Just like that, Charger fans were taken back to the past two season. For once, it was their team that made the comeback, their team that would steal the victory.

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But that wasn’t the case. The Denver Broncos exited week one undefeated, the Chargers exited in the loss column. Next week Los Angeles will host the Miami Dolphins, needing a victory to avoid falling behind in the tough AFC West early.