Anthony Lynn: “It’s Not The Same Old Chargers.” Then Prove It!

Stop me if you heard this before, but the Chargers have started out the season 0-2 after a pair of devastating losses. The beginning of the 2017 NFL year has an eerie similar feeling to last years heartbreaking season. After the first two weeks, Chargers fans can be found crawled up into a ball, in the fetal position, muttering, “This is deja vu all over again!!”

Even the players are in disbelief after the last two losses. Following the defeat by the Miami Dolphins, Chargers star defensive end, Joey Bosa, was quoted, “It’s kind of hard to believe how it can be happening like this still.”

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Clearly, there is an elephant in the Chargers’ locker room and earlier in the week, rookie head coach, Anthony Lynn, addressed it with ESPN’s Chargers’ beat writer, Eric D. Williams (the same Eric D. Williams who has blocked me on twitter for no reason #ImStillBitter):

“We talked about that a little bit in our team meeting...Some people say Same old Chargers. It’s not the same old Chargers. We lost a couple of close games. We have 14 games left. We’ll see. We’ll see at the end.”

Well, the end might be a lot closer than Lynn realizes. Chargers fans can recite the frustrating stats ad nauseam; the Bolts are 1-10 in one-score games since the beginning of 2016 (4-18 if you go back to 2015).

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It doesn’t get much easier this Sunday, as Los Angeles host their division rival, the Kansas City Chiefs; a team they have lost the last 6 meetings to. If Anthony Lynn is going to convince his players and the fans that these aren’t the “same ole Chargers” then he needs to do so this Sunday with a convincing win against the Chiefs.

You hear the cliché all the time, but this is a must-win game for Los Angeles. Not to be dramatic, but a loss this week will pretty much end any hope for the Chargers to make the playoffs. This isn’t the NFC East where an 0-2 team (New York Giants) can still win the division if they lose to a division rival this week (due to the fact that every team in the division has 1 loss). This is the AFC West, where every team is 2-0, and could all easily be 3-0 after this weekend. That would be an insurmountable lead for Los Angeles to overcome.

I apologize if I come across skeptical, but I am not hopeful this weekend or for the season. It is not like the Chargers have had any success against their AFC West counterparts (1-11 over the last 12 games). I was never as optimistic as the rest of the media has been with the Chargers. Sure they are talented, but there was simply too many obstacles for L.A. A rookie head coach, taking over a team that was in the middle of relocating while playing in the toughest division in all of football, whose team’s rosters and coaches are all better than the Chargers. I am not saying that L.A. is a bad team. They will be “the best division loser in the NFL” or “the best 6-10 team ever.”

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because it is. I personally am in a “see it to believe it mode” with Los Angeles. And frankly, my imagination will not bring me to a Chargers victory on Sunday. I like what Anthony Lynn will bring to the table for the future of the Chargers but I am sorry, coach, this is the same old Chargers. You want to prove me wrong, then WHY DON’T YOU WIN A HOME GAME AGAINST YOUR DIVISION RIVAL THAT YOU HAVE HAD A 6 GAME LOSING STREAK AGAINST!

What do you think Chargers fans? Are these the same old Chargers? Vote in the poll and tell us why you voted the way you did.