Chargers continue their streak of historically heartbreaking, infuriating losses

The 2-5 Chargers are better than their record would indicate. The problem is a historic series of late-game implosions — a franchise trend.

If you were to take an objective look at the now 2-5 Los Angeles Chargers, you would say… there’s no way a team this good has a record this bad, right? Rookie quarterback Justin Herbert is performing at a record pace, and he’s got weapons everywhere. The defense ranks 12th in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted metrics (at least for now), and head coach Anthony Lynn is a smart guy and a great motivator — we saw that in this season’s Hard Knocks series.

But the Chargers stand at 2-5, and outside of the Falcons, no NFL team has a predilection for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory like this one. This continued on Sunday, when Denver quarterback Drew Lock hit rookie receiver KJ Hamler for a one-yard touchdown pass with no time left on the clock.

It took a while for the officials to rule that Hamler was in bounds (one butt equals two feet), which just added to the agony. That touchdown tied the game at 30-30, and Brandon McManus’ game-winning extra point was a mere formality, though the Chargers’ illegal formation penalty on the kick (declined by Denver, of course) just made it worse.

Here’s the kicker: The Chargers have lost their five games by a total of 19 points, and all of the losses have been one-score games. If this team had half a clue how to hold a lead, they’d be dangerous. But they don’t, as they have proven in unfortunately historic fashion:

Even in a season that’s seen an unusual amount of late double-digit comebacks, this is really bad. And the Chargers have had a problem with this for a while. Last season, Philip Rivers led the league by a crushing margin with six interceptions in the last two minutes or games, which led to enough heartbreak on its own. Now, defensive implosions seem to be the order of the day.

Stat of the Day: Philip Rivers’ two-minute disasters

The players are certainly frustrated…

And Lynn is now fielding questions about his job security.

Fair enough when you can’t close the deal. The Chargers are much better than their record would indicate, but these late-game collapses point to issues that will mark them out of the postseason for the second straight year.