The San Diego Chargers punchline isn't even funny anymore. It's just sad.
Sunday in Oakland the Chargers built an eight-point second-half lead, lost it in a blink of an eye, battled back and had a chance to tie the game with a field goal with two minutes remaining. The snap slipped through the hands of rookie holder Drew Kaser. There was no game-tying attempt. The Chargers lost 34-31 in regulation, falling to 1-4 on the season.
The scene in the San Diego locker room sounded depressed.
"I don't know," defensive end Corey Liuget told The San Diego Union-Tribune's Kevin Acee of his mindset. "My mind is racing so hard right now. ... (Expletive). (Different expletive). We've got to (expletive) win. My heart hurts, my head hurts. I got all these aches and pains. If we'd have won, it wouldn't hurt."
Added receiver Travis Benjamin: "I came from Cleveland, so you know what that's like, losing at the end and turning the ball over and just dumbfounded like, 'How could it happen?' ... It gets frustrating. We feel like we can win, then the unbelievable happens for four or five weeks straight."
"Just when you think you've seen it all," an exasperated McCoy said, "something like that happens."
Philip Rivers seems at his wit's end over watching his prime years wasted.
"If I didn't have my faith or my family, I don't know how people do it," he said. "I would literally be a lunatic. I know I get crazy some, but I would be out of my mind. Because I was having these thoughts of coming in here and screaming and hollering and saying things I don't say."
Then Rivers spun positive, because what else can a competitor do when fate seems designed against his team?
"Maybe we're going to go on an unbelievable run, who knows?" Rivers queried. "Maybe we're getting all these out of the way, so we can, you know, what, win 10 in a row?"
That streak needs to start Thursday against the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. Otherwise, McCoy might be out of a job this time next week.
