The day did not start off well. After buying a couple of tickets off of StubHub on Friday, today was supposed to be filled with tailgating with Wonko and hopefully a Chargers victory. Instead, the late morning was spent wandering around the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot drunkenly while Wonko fought against traffic. He was eventually turned away, told that the parking lot was full, before turning around and going home.
At some point, I ended up bumping into the just-as-beautiful-in-person Annie and did something for her "Out & About" feature. I was just drunk enough that I don't remember what I said, but just sober enough to remember that afterwards she told me "That was great! I can edit out the F bomb later." I can't wait to see it.
Eventually I headed into the stadium alone. You know what's worse than watching a football game alone? Watching a football game alone, surrounded by Raider fans. You know what is even worse than that? Watching a football game alone, surrounded by Raider fans, while the Raiders beat the crap out of the Chargers for what seems like the 8th straight time. How is it that every time the Chargers are heading into a game against the Raiders everyone seems to forget that their offensive and defensive lines always play fantastic against San Diego?
Anyways, not the point. Part of me wants to do two sets of "5 bad things" tomorrow because there was really nothing good going on all game. Ron Rivera had a terrible game, as did both lines. Norv Turner and Philip Rivers had bad games. Mike Tolbert was just barely better than Ryan Mathews' ghost.
For those that missed it, here's a summary of the game:
Darren Sproles fumbles punt return and the Chargers defense stinks. The Chargers offense is worse. The Raiders go with the ultra-complicated "run the ball up the gut until they stop it" offensive gameplan, and the super-creative "sack Philip Rivers as much as possible" defensive gameplan. Both of these work swimmingly.
Somehow, things begin to turn around with a few minutes left in the 4th Quarter. The Chargers kick a FG and there's seemingly enough time to stop the Raiders, score a TD, stop them again, score again and then convert a 2 point conversion for the tie to send the game into overtime. The Chargers force a 3 and out.....until a flag comes flying out, a holding call that Dan Fouts admitted was a bad call, that gives the Raiders an automatic first down. After that, just imagine the Chargers defense replaced with a Pop Warner team and you won't be far off.
For the Chargers to make the playoffs at this point, they need to three things to happen. One, they need to win the rest of their games. Two, they need the Chiefs to lose at least one of their last three regular-season games. Three, they need the Raiders to lose at least one of their last four regular-season games. Not impossible, but with the Chargers losing their first December game with Rivers as the starter it's hard to believe that all of the late-season luck of the last few years is still in San Diego.