The Chargers have not gone winless in the preseason since 1999, when Mike Riley was their coach, Jim Harbaugh was their starting quarterback and Joey Bosa was still in preschool.
This month, the team has rolled out two ugly losses at StubHub Center, stumbling against the Seahawks and the Saints. With only two more chances left for an exhibition victory, including Saturday’s game against the Rams, should the Chargers reassess their strategy?
“Winning is always important to me,” Coach Anthony Lynn said. “But I also have an objective and agenda this training camp, and I want to evaluate this team as best I can, and I’m not going to compromise that.”
This is not a unique philosophy. For many NFL coaches, a good preseason is measured not by wins and losses, but by well-appraised depth charts and short injury reports. And according to a few different statistical studies, there is little correlation between a successful summer and victories in October, November and December. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has suggested reducing the preseason from four games to three. Some have even advocated for abolishing the preseason entirely.
But Saturday’s 5 p.m. kickoff at the Coliseum is significant for another reason. It will be the first meeting between two Los Angeles-based NFL teams since 1994, when the Raiders notched a 20-17 win over the Rams. Tensions bubbled over in the Anaheim Stadium stands that day, resulting in 14 arrests and 55 ejections from the stadium.
This weekend’s event will likely feel much calmer. The Chargers and the Rams have held two joint training-camp practices together, with three skirmishes marring their session at UC Irvine two weeks ago. One participant that day, former Rams cornerback E.J. Gaines, has since been traded to Buffalo. Others, like Chargers receiver Keenan Allen, have said that they don’t expect similar tensions at the Coliseum.
Both teams have bigger concerns.
In one week, NFL teams must trim more than a third of their rosters, cutting 90 names down to 53 in preparation for the start of the regular season. For the Chargers, several tough decisions still loom. Will Cardale Jones beat out Kellen Clemens for the No. 2 spot — or at least stay on the active roster as a third quarterback? Could undrafted rookie Younghoe Koo push out incumbent kicker Josh Lambo? And might injuries doom veteran tight ends Jeff Cumberland and Sean McGrath, neither of whom have played a snap this preseason?
“I know what they’re capable of doing,” Lynn said, “but not being out there certainly doesn’t help.”
And really, trying to, not nearly to same degree of regular season, do some of the prep work, third-down breakdowns, like you do during the regular season.
Even those with secure roster spots have work to do. Quarterback Philip Rivers has only played one series this preseason, sitting out all of Sunday’s loss to the Saints. Over the course of his career, the 14th-year veteran has learned how to simulate regular-season conditions in August — even though he knows he’ll be pulled before the third quarter.
“I’ve gotten better at trying to treat it like I’m gonna be in there the whole game,” Rivers said. “I used to not do very well with that. I’d go, ‘Uh oh, this is probably my last series, my last pass,’ and try to make a big play, or do something silly that I immediately regretted.
“Then you’re sitting there for three quarters going, why the heck did I throw the ball?”
