Chargers comically botched chance to kick a short field goal before halftime on Sunday
The Chargers beat the Falcons 20-17 on Sunday so, as John Candy wryly noted in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” they can laugh about it now because they’re all right.
No one was laughing when the Chargers went to the locker room at halftime having bumbled away a chance at a short field goal.
With 22 seconds remaining in the first half, the Chargers faced a third-and-1 from the Atlanta 8-yard line. Despite not having any timeouts, the Chargers ran the ball and didn’t get the first down.
They couldn’t spike the ball to stop the clock, because it was fourth down, but rookie quarterback Justin Herbert tried to run a quick play. But as the offense lined up, the field-goal unit ran on the field.
“Let me tell you this, and I don’t want to elaborate on it, but you cannot run the ball in that situation,” Chargers coach Anthony Lynn told reporters after the game. “You just can’t.”
Hindsight is 20-20, but that should have seemed pretty obvious in the moment.
Granted, the Chargers may not have gotten a great spot from the officials on the third-down run. But announcers Joe Davis and Brock Huard couldn’t believe what they were seeing and it was funny moment.
“Now they’re going to rush the field-goal team out,” Davis said.
“Oh no,” Huard said.
Davis continued: “This is looking like a disaster. Oh what a disaster for the Chargers, who will not get it off. Flags fly as they scramble. In kind of a snapshot of their season, they will not get the field goal off.
The clock ran out on the Chargers, who also were penalized for illegal shift.
At one point, there were no fewer than 14 Chargers players on the field (to be fair, that was one fewer than the Ravens on Monday night). Still, it was quite a moment for the Chargers:
“That’s an area where we have got to improve as a coaching staff, communication-wise,” Lynn promised. “And we will.”
