"Not Happy, But We'll Take It"
SAN DIEGO, JANUARY 4TH, 2021: Arizona's kicker Jake Elliott missed the potential game-winning field goal from 34 yards out with no time left on the clock to hand the Chargers a gift win, 30-28 in the first game for both teams.
Until that point, the Cardinals looked like they had done everything necessary to rally from a nine-point deficit in the final seven minutes, taking the ball away from rookie quarterback Daniel Jones of the Chargers twice in the fourth quarter.
"We'll take the win," Charger head coach Hank Sienzant said after the game, "but there's a lot of things we need to clean up before next week. We need to be able to not only put teams down, but keep them down. We're happy with the outcome, but we're not happy with the way we achieved it."
Through the first three quarters, the Chargers twice took a nine-point lead with a dominating running attack and judicious passing from Daniel Jones, but it all unravelled for the Chargers in the fourth quarter, before they escaped the crushing jaws of defeat with the win.
The lead changed hands with every score in the first half, with the Chargers getting on the board first via a Stephen Hauschka 40-yard field goal to end a 14-play, nearly nine minute drive. The possession gained only 53 yards, but the Chargers got as close as the Cardinals five yard line before a holding call and a sack derailed the march and forced the field goal from the Cardinals 22 yard line. On the possession, the Chargers gained 37 yards on the ground and 21 through the air. In a harbinger of things to come, there was a fumble involving Daniel Jones, but the fumble on the exchange was charged to center Matt Skura.
The two teams exchanged touchdowns on their next two possessions, with the Cardinals ending a seven-play, 75-yard drive wih a Patrick Mahomes 11-yard run on a bootleg that completely fooled the Chargers defense. The touchdown (and point after by Elliott) put Arizona up 7-3, but the Cardinals lead only lasted for the next 2:33.
On a drive starting late in the first quarter and ending early in the second, the Chargers roared back to score on a long bomb to Courtland Sutton of 49 yards, putting San Diego back up by a score of 10-7. Prior to the touchdown, the Chargers gained 29 yards on four rushes, with rookie running back David Montgomery rushing twice for 15 and fellow rookie Josh Jacobs twice for 14.
After an exchange of punts, the Cardinals came back to score another touchdown, with rookie wide out Michael Gallup catching two for 39 yards, including the touchdown from 11 yards out to retake the lead at 14-10.
In another long drive immediately thereafter (ten plays, 75-yards, nearly six minutes off the clock), the Chargers retook the lead at 16-14 on a one-yard Montgomery run (followed by a Hauschka missed extra point attempt) with 1:06 left in the half. The drive featured eight runs, gaining 60 yards, and two passes for the other 15. The biggest play of the march was a 28 yard run down to the Arizona two yard line by rookie running back Josh Jacobs, who gained 42 yards on the possession.
With 1:06 to go in the half, the Cardinals came out throwing and got as close as the Chargers 43 with 20 seconds left, but with no time outs left on the Arizona ledger. After a spike and an incomplete left nine seconds on the clock, a long pass from Mahomes to Corey Davis was complete inside the Charger 25, but Davis was tackled in the field of play, and the half expired before the Cardinals could get another play off, leaving the score at 16-14 in favor of the Chargers. The failure to get the field goal on the board would loom large at the end of the game.
Free agent acquisition Tyus Bowser sacked Mahomes to abort the opening possession of the second half by the Cardinals, and the Chargers took immediate advantage, ripping off runs of 19 (by Montgomery), 12, and 11 (both by Jacobs) before Daniel Jones hit Sutton for the second time on a scoring toss, this time from 13 yards out to open up a nine-point lead at 23-14 just 4:17 into the second half.
But Arizona came right back to score a touchdown of their own on their next possession, driving 75 yards in 11 plays to cut the Chargers lead to just two again, at 23-21. The biggest play in the drive was a 17 yard scramble by Mahomes followed by a 15-yard unnecessary roughness call against rookie safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson that moved the ball to the Chargers 21 yard line. The touchdown came on the next play, with Mahomes hitting Sterling Shepard down the sideline and Shepard tip-toeing it just inside the field of play for the score.
On the next San Diego possession, the Chargers unleashed Jones a bit with the running attack working so well. Throwing on every down, the rookie quarterback showed why he was drafted third overall, first hitting Albert Wilson for 36 to the Arizona 44, then completing three more passes for another 36 yards to move the ball to the Cardinals eight yard line. Josh Jacobs finished off the possession with a run untouched up the middle for the score to extend the Chargers lead back to nine points at 30-21.
After forcing an Arizona punt, the Chargers tried to extend their lead and put the Cardinals away, but it was not to be. The football gods are fickle, and switch sides easily. After a David Montgomery nine-yard run resulted in a fumble forced by Justin Coleman and recovered by San Diego tight end Ricky Seals-Jones, the Chargers thought they had dodged a bullet. They did, but didn't see the next one coming, as linebacker Anthony Barr stepped in front of a Jones pass intended for Jacobs on the next play, and returned it 19 yards to the Charger 31 with 10:29 to go in the game.
But it was the Chargers who the gods favored next, as rookie linebacker Bobby Okereke's sack pushed the Cardinals back, and Jake Elliott missed the 55-yard field goal that could have cut the Chargers lead to six. While a 55-yarder is difficult to make under any circumstances, this miss would also loom large in the Cardinals rear view mirror.
With a nine-point lead and a strong running attack and only nine minutes left in the game, you'd think the Chargers would come out running. You'd be wrong. They put the ball in the hands of Jones and paid for it, as three passes gained only two yards and turned into a quick three-and-out and gave the ball back to Arizona with 8:01 left in the contest.
But the Chargers defense held up again, forcing an Arizona punt after a three-and-out by the Cardinals. And once again, the Chargers put the ball in the hands of Jones, this time with disastrous results. After two incompletes, Jones scrambled right up the middle for a big 17-yard gain and what would have been a big first down with just over seven minutes left, but Justin Coleman forced the fumble at the end of it, recovered it, and then returned it 21 yards to the Chargers 25.
Mahomes went to work, and four passes later, hit Marquise Goodwin on a short pass that Goodwin took to the house to book the touchdown and cut the Chargers lead to 30-28 with 6:27 still left in the contest.
Still, the Chargers didn't turn back to to their running attack, at least not immediately. A short pass to John Ross gained ten and a first down to the 35, and a long pass to Courtland Sutton drew an interference call good for another 19 to the Cardinals 46. A 15-yard run up the middle by Jacobs moved it to the Cardinals 31, and a 17-yard completion to Ross got it down to the 14 with 4:35 to go in the contest. A holding call against Donovan Smith moved the ball back to the 24, and three consecutive runs by David Montgomery gained 18 of the needed twenty. Facing a fourth and two from the Cardinals six, football history says kick the field goal, take the five point lead, and force your opponent to score a touchdown to beat you. But modern statistical analysis says otherwise. The Chargers trusted the analysis and went for it, and a short slant intended for Courtland Sutton was slapped away by Larry Ogunjobi to give the ball back to the Cardinals at their own six with 2:12 to play.
You know what you can do with your modern football analytics.
The Chargers were seemingless powerless to stop the Cardinals assault mixing in the run and the pass. Unrelentingly, the Cardinals moved the ball downfield, starting from their own six and converting a fourth and two as well as a third and two, until they got to the Chargers 16 yard line and called their final time out with three seconds to go. Time to send in Jake Elliott to boot the game-winning field goal and send the Cardinals back to Arizona on a very raucous flight home.
But the flight home would prove to be very silent indeed as Elliott somehow inexplicably shanked the potential game-winning field goal from 34 yard out to send the Chargers home as the winners.
GAME NOTES: The Chargers ran 28 times for 230 yards and dropped back 31 times for 239 yards, an almost perfect balance of run and pass old school Hank Sienzant strives for, gaining 469 yards from scrimmage on 59 plays and picking up 27 first downs. Arizona gained 106 on the ground, and 301 through the air for a net of 407 yards on 70 plays, with 22 first downs. The Chargers were guilty of some very loose ball handling, fumbling four times and recovering three.
Despite Jones two fourth quarter turnovers, as the winning quarterback he got the nod as the MVP for his 19 of 30 for 246 yards and two touchdowns, with one pick, one sack, and another 36 yards rushing on four carries. Jones finished with a respectable 97.4 passer rating.
Patrick Mahomes didn't get a lot of run support until the Cardinals final drive (36 of their 106 yards came in the final 2:12), until then they were just 19 rushes for 70 yards (3.7 per rush).
Mahomes was - of course - the big star for the Cardinals, completing 29 of 43 for 316 yards and three touchdowns, adding another 29 yards and another touchdown on five rushes. Aaron Jones was Arizona's leading rushing with 13 for 63, with nearly half of those 63 yards (29) coming on the Cardinals ill-fated final drive.
The Chargers triplets made it look easy on the ground. Josh Jacobs ran 12 times for 107 yards (8.9 per carry), with a long of 28 and caught one pass for another five yards. David Montgomery also ran 12 times, gaining 87 yards (7.3 a tote), scoring once and adding nine yards on one reception, and Jones added his 36 yards on four scrambles. Overall, on 28 rushes, the Chargers averaged 8.2 per rush with the three rookies handling all the rushing load.
Courtland Sutton was the biggest receiving target for the Chargers, hauling in five of nine targets for 99 yards and a 19.8 average, scoring twice. Three different receivers scored on passes from Mahomes, with Michael Gallup (5 for 75, one score) and Sterling Shepard (five for 73, one score) doing the most damage.
Cornerbacks Levi Wallace and Marshon Lattimore were the leading tacklers for the Chargers with seven, with Bowser and Okereke getting six each and a sack apiece. Coleman was the shining star on defense for the Cardinals, with 11 tackles, two passes defensed, and two forced fumbles.
NEXT MAN UP: The Chargers lost nickel cornerback Jimmy Smith for the next month or so, while Arizona was hit hard, with both running back Dexter Williams and safety Derwin James going down in the fourth quarter, both with severe injuries that will keep them out for most of the season.
A LOOK AHEAD: The 0-1 Cardinals travel to Philadelphia to face the Eagles, who have yet to play the Washington Football Team formerly known as the Redskins in their week one matchup. The 1-0 Chargers travel to the land of cheeseheads to face the 0-1 Green Bay Packers.
Posted on 12 Jan 2021 by Hank-Chargers
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