Los Angeles Chargers: This year is different from others
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Chargers are 6-2 after eight games and are proving to be a completely different Chargers team than we are used to.
The Los Angeles Chargers are 6-2. That has not been done since the Chargers finished 14-2 in 2006.
Winning 14 games is a very lofty goal and as a Chargers fan, I would never realistically expect the team to hit that many games. However, for the first time in 12 years, it is at least possible to do so.
This year has been everything that Chargers fans have been waiting for the last two seasons. After winning just nine combined games in 2015 and 2016, the team entered the 2017-2018 season as many people’s dark horse.
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That did not go as planned as the Chargers dropped the first four games of the season and were not able to recover, despite winning nine of the team’s last 12 games. The Chargers were in a three-way tie that was ultimately granted to the Buffalo Bills.
This year the Chargers entered the season with similar expectations. After losing in Week 1 to the Kansas City Chiefs and losing in Week 3 to the Los Angeles Rams, this seemed to be yet another dreadfully slow start for the Chargers.
However, it wasn’t as the Chargers have won five games in a row to move to 6-2. The team trails the Chiefs by the same amount in the AFC West as it did after Week 1.
This year is not only different by the results, which definitely are different from past years. The same bad Chargers luck that usually significantly holds the team back has not been in play this year.
Some bad special teams in Week 1 and turnovers in Week 3 made many think that the Chargers would again “Charger” themselves. And while everything has been going against LA, as it normally does, the team is still winning.
The elephant in the room is the kicking disaster and the historically bad game that Caleb Sturgis had against the Seahawks that got him cut. However, the Chargers were also a two-point conversion away from losing to a far less talented Tennessee Titans team.
Those are games that the Los Angeles Chargers lose, at least in the past. This year, Philip Rivers and the endless supply of weapons on the offensive side of the ball say otherwise.
That is what makes me excited about the playoff this year and the team’s chance of actually making some noise. While the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots are the two powerhouses of the NFL, the Chargers can take either of those teams down with the immense amount of talent on the roster.
Usually, I enter playoff games thinking that the Chargers will blow a 14-point lead with just 30 seconds left in the game.
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This year — this year feels different. It feels like if the Chargers ever are going to win a Super Bowl with Rivers then it will be this year.