A dark-horse preseason pick to ride back to the playoffs in a deep AFC West, the Los Angeles Chargers are wallowing in winless muck through the first quarter of the season.
Following Sunday's loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, coach Anthony Lynn went off on his team's surprising 0-4 start to the season.
"Never in a million years did I think we'd be here at 0-4, but we are," he said, via the team's official website. "I look at football in four quarters, just like a game. And we just stunk the first quarter of our season. We've got three quarters left to figure some things out and get this thing turned around. There's going to be a lot of evaluating going on tonight and into tomorrow. There are some things that are going to change. But we're going to get this figured out and moving in the right direction."
On paper, the Chargers boast talent on both sides of the ball. Philip Rivers, Keenan Allen, Melvin Gordon on offense provide a playmaking trio. On defense, L.A. has the best pass-rush duo in the NFL in Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa.
Despite the talent, the Chargers continually falter in close games. Sunday marked the third loss of three-or-fewer points this season and L.A. has lost 12 one-possession games since 2016 (4-12 in one-possession games in that span).
The Chargers have lost nine straight games dating back to last year, and it's the franchise's first 0-4 start since 2003 -- the following season, Rivers joined the team.
One thing both Rivers and Lynn agreed was that of all the team's struggles to start the season, the effort isn't lacking.
"I've never questioned that," Rivers said. "Again, this team is still growing together, but I don't think there's any lack of fight, want-to or desire to care. That's never been a problem here. I don't sense that it is at this point in time. Guys are fighting, scratching like crazy. We just haven't been able to overcome it yet."
Now the Chargers need to find a way to turn that effort into Ws.
