Stadium spat, 5-game losing streak wrecks Chargers season
SAN DIEGO (AP) - The San Diego Chargers' long, cold winter - by Southern California standards, anyway - has already begun.
The Chargers' season has been undone by a five-game losing streak that has left them at 2-7, closer to the first overall pick in the draft than the AFC West lead.
When Philip Rivers and the rest of the Bolts emerge from their bye week, the only things left to play for will be pride and, perhaps, a farewell to the city they've called home for 55 seasons.
The Chargers have turned off their fans with poor play.
Even worse is the scorched earth policy team chairman Dean Spanos has used in his attempt to move the team to the Los Angeles area.
Contentious for more than a decade, the issue of a new stadium for the Chargers has gotten downright nasty this year. The Chargers have tried to undermine city officials every step of the way since Mayor Kevin Faulconer formed a citizens advisory group in January.
The latest counterattack came Wednesday. Hours before Faulconer and other officials gave a stadium update to NFL owners on the league's Los Angeles, stadium and finance committees, the Chargers and Oakland Raiders announced that Disney CEO Bob Iger has agreed to lead the effort to build a stadium in the industrial suburb of Carson, on the site of a former toxic waste dump.
It was bad enough in February when the Chargers and the hated rival Raiders announced their intentions to build a joint, $1.7 billion stadium in Carson if they can't get new stadiums in their home markets.
Then the up-and-coming Raiders embarrassed the Chargers three weeks ago, racing to a 37-6 lead in the third quarter before holding off the Bolts 37-29.
The Chargers claim the chatter about L.A. isn't a distraction.
Although the team said season ticket sales were up this year, more and more tickets are making their way into the hands of fans of visiting teams.
The Chargers noticed the tens of thousands of Terrible Towel-waving Steelers fans, the usual horde of Raiders fans and then thousands of Chicago Bears fans in consecutive home games. The Chargers lost all three games.
They've been in close games, but haven't figured out ways to win them.
"We just don't have the answers right now," Rivers said. "It's not surrendering and saying we're not good enough. I'm not saying we're surrendering, but we are what we are, and right now, that's 2-7 on a five-game skid. That's just who we are right now."
Coach Mike McCoy certainly doesn't have any answers, either, other than his usual cliches and coachspeak that the Chargers haven't made enough plays.
Rivers has had a brilliant season, throwing for 3,033 yards and 19 touchdowns, with seven interceptions.
But there are problems everywhere else.
Keenan Allen, one of the NFL's leading receivers, is out for the season with a lacerated kidney suffered when he landed hard after making a spectacular touchdown catch in a gut-wrenching loss at Green Bay on Oct. 18. The Chargers haven't disclosed the severity of the shoulder injury wideout Malcom Floyd suffered diving for a pass in the Chicago loss.
Running back Melvin Gordon, the team's first-round pick, has yet to score a touchdown or have a 100-yard game.
The offensive line has been manhandled at times and can't stay healthy.
The supposedly hard-hitting defense has had just 16 sacks.
In the AFC West, the Chargers still have to play Denver and Kansas City twice, and at Oakland. The Raiders embarrassed the Chargers in San Diego two weeks ago. The Broncos and Chiefs swept the Chargers last season.
Tight end Antonio Gates also is trying to grasp the reality of being all but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs with seven games to go.
"This is a very uncommon situation for us to be sitting at 2-7. It's one of those things where you learn from it," Gates said. "I think your character normally shows up when you're in a situation like this. It shows a lot about what you stand for, what you're about. We'll get a chance to see who we can depend on and who we can't."
This is the longest losing streak under McCoy, who's 20-21 in three seasons.
Rivers said he plans to take more of a break from football than normal during the bye.
"When you've lost five in a row, it's pretty sickening," Rivers said. "It's usually kind of fun to watch football if you have a winning record and you're rolling. You want to watch as much of it as you can because you're feeling pretty good about yourself. When it's like this, you kind of want to just dig a hole and hide for a little while."
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