Restocked Chargers to take AFC West test
It was ugly last season.
And the year before wasn’t much better.
The Chargers lost all six AFC West games in 2015, their first winless year in the division since 1984. That pushed a divisional drought to eight straight losses, as 2014 ended with defeats to the Broncos and Chiefs in the final three weeks. A win in either, including the finale in Kansas City, would’ve qualified San Diego for the postseason. It didn’t come.
But that is done.
Over. History.
A new season is here, one in which the Chargers can buck their division-play trend.
What a time for a return to Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chargers are set to open the regular season Sunday, and they’ll jump right into it, kicking off against an AFC West opponent that outscored them 43-6 last year. This Chargers roster looks much different than the one that last visited the Chiefs. Time to see if the result will vary, too.
In 2015, it wasn’t just that San Diego went 0-6 in its division.
It was how.
The team was outscored 147-78. Remove a fourth-quarter surge after being down 37-6 against the Raiders, and the margin was 147-55. The Chargers didn’t score a touchdown in 15 of 16 quarters at one point. They enter Sunday not having scored a touchdown against the Chiefs in 10 quarters, dating back to 2014.
“We’ve struggled with division games, to say the least, over the last two years,” quarterback Philip Rivers said. “This is a great opportunity and challenge to get off to a good start. … It’s like we always say: You’ve got to win division games. If you lose all six division games but win the rest, you still might be OK. So, in some regard, they all count the same.
“But at the same time, I say that and then say this: It’s not necessarily true. You’ve got to win games in your division. The times we have, we’ve made it to the postseason. The stretch we’ve been where we haven’t, other than in ’13, we don’t make the postseason.”
That goes for the rest of the NFL, too.
Of the 120 teams to qualify for the playoffs in the past decade, only seven, or 5.8 percent, did so with a losing record in their division. The Chiefs, at 2-4 in the AFC West in 2013, are the only one of 48 playoff teams in the past four years to have had a losing record in their division.
Such is the beauty of a new year.
These Chargers are 0-0.
And quite noticeably, they carry little resemblance to the team that lost 10-3 in Arrowhead on Dec. 13.
Keenan Allen (kidney) was out for the season. Two of the team’s other four top wide receivers, Stevie Johnson (groin) and Dontrelle Inman (neck), were out.
The three wide receivers who ran routes for Rivers that day were Malcom Floyd playing through a torn labrum, Javontee Herndon who’d been promoted from the practice squad a month earlier and Vincent Brown who’d been signed five days earlier, coincidentally on Rivers’ birthday.
Left tackle King Dunlap then aggravated a high ankle sprain and exited in the first quarter. Trevor Robinson was the starting center, and right guard D.J. Fluker (concussion) was inactive.
The list goes on.
On Sunday, the Chargers enter with a healthy 53-man roster. No player is listed questionable, doubtful or out on the injury report. Allen is back. Travis Benjamin, a more developed Tyrell Williams and Inman are at wide receiver.
The offensive line is at full strength, veteran Matt Slauson set to make his regular-season team debut at center. Rookie tight end Hunter Henry will make his NFL debut.
Likewise, on defense, defensive end Corey Liuget (foot, knee) and cornerback Brandon Flowers (knee) were placed on injured reserve a day before last year’s game. Nose tackle Brandon Mebane was a Seahawk.
This is a new team.
A new year.
While looking Sunday for a new result, the Chargers do so with perspective. This is their first chance, after a 4-12 season, to show what they can be in 2016.
It is not their last.
“It’s a good test early for this team with everything that happened last year with it,” said safety Dwight Lowery, who was with the Colts in 2015. “And it’s (a chance) for us to reveal to ourselves where we’re at and how we respond to adverse situations. But in no way, shape or form, in my opinion, will this dictate the season. It can’t, win or lose. There are still 15 games to play. We’ll still play the Kansas City Chiefs again.
“So, the most important part of this game is, obviously, number one, winning it but also just getting a measure of where the team is at, maybe some of the things we need to work on. … I just hope, if things don’t go our way or whatever, we don’t revert to what happened last year or the fact we haven’t won a division game in whatever games. We can’t focus on that. The only thing we can focus on is getting better for the next week.”
