NFL 100: Which losing teams can turn it around and who is done for the year?

#4 Los Angeles Chargers – The season is over

Obviously at 2-5, it would be a tall task for anybody to make a run at the playoffs, but for a team that finished 12-4 last year and with most of their talent returning, usually, I wouldn’t rule them out. However, this team has been a huge disappointment when you look at some of the areas they were supposed to improve in but didn’t and how they have gotten back to losing games in excruciating fashion, after pulling through in a bunch of close contests last year.

Overall, I think the Bolts have let chances to win three games slip out of their hands already. Philip Rivers threw away that Lions game when they were already in range for a game-tying field goal, but he forced the ball to a double-covered Keenan Allen. They turned the ball over twice inside the opposing two-yard line to give a 0-4 Broncos team their first victory. Finally, they had one of the craziest finishes I have seen in a while against Tennesse last Sunday, where they allowed themselves to get into some trouble by running the ball with Melvin Gordon despite having no timeouts, instead of taking three shots to one of the top red-zone receiving corps.

The Chargers’ interior run defense has been awful, the coverage has been susceptible without Derwin James playing split safety and in the slot, they are trying to force-feed Gordon even though Austin Ekeler had a monster start to the season and Rivers’ arm seems to have really fallen off, when you look at some of the early inaccuracies in this most recent matchup.

Looking at the schedule, I just don’t see them finishing the season with a better record than 6-10, which would be half of their win total from 2018. I know the Bears offense looks inept, but after all the comments about the lack of a run game, Matt Nagy will feel like he has to run it down the throat of this LA team. That trip is followed up with a red-hot Aaron Rodgers coming to town, then it will be the Black Hole hosting a divisional foe and potentially the reigning league MVP coming back just in time, before going on their bye. After that the Bolts have trips to Denver and Jacksonville on the horizon, they host the Vikings and Raiders and then finish up against Patrick Mahomes at Kansas City.

As much as it pains me to see, because I think this team is up there with some of the very best purely based on talent, they might have already missed their window and with a top ten pick at hand potentially they might move on from Rivers.