San Diego Chargers Defeat Kansas City Chiefs, 37-20

Only these San Diego Chargers, Norv's Chargers, could make a beautiful game look so horribly ugly.

The story of the game was turnovers. John Pagano's defense and the Kansas City Chiefs offense combined to turn the ball over to the Chargers offense 5 times in the first half and 6 times overall. Matt Cassel, true to form, completed less than 60% of his passes and threw 3 interceptions against 2 touchdown passes. Once the Chargers built a lead, Pagano turned up the heat and blitzed to make Cassel less comfortable.

Jamaal Charles and Ryan Mathews looked like mirror images of each other. Both have the strength and speed to be incredibly dangerous weapons, but both have the capacity to screw up big time as well. Mathews was the backup to Jackie Battle to start the game, after his fumble last week, and was sent right back to the bench when he let a screen pass go through his hands for a fumble (that he kicked out of bounds). Still, Ryan got 16 touches and finished the game with 82 yards from scrimmage. Jackie Battle got 19 touches and finished with 81 yards from scrimmage, but scored 2 touchdowns against his former team.

Jamaal Charles didn't have the luxury of sharing the load with a sure-handed Running Back, with Peyton Hillis injured, and fumbled the ball to the Chargers twice in the first quarter.

The Chargers offense sputtered in the 3rd quarter, giving the Chiefs and the Arrowhead faithful hope for a comeback, before forcing a 6th turnover (a fumble by Shaun Draughn) and turning it into the final San Diego touchdown of the day. Nick Novak contributed as well, going 3/3 on FGs and 4/4 on XPs.

As we always do, we'll have more analysis of this game throughout the week.