The Chargers fan base is somehow used these types of game, and that’s saying something when that “type of game” is one where your defense records five takeaways from the league’s best offense and still loses.
That’s what happened on Sunday in Buffalo.
MVP-frontrunner Josh Allen entered the game with nine total touchdowns and zero interceptions. Against the Chargers, he threw two picks and the offense fumbled the ball away three more times. The Bills lost the turnover battle 1-5, yet somehow the one turnover by the Chargers was vastly more impactful than any of their giveaways.
But that’s what this season has become in just three short weeks. After winning 22 games over the last two seasons, the Chargers are 0-3 and once again losing in historically-rare ways. In the seasons that led to the franchise eventually firing Anthony Lynn and Brandon Staley, the Chargers were dropping games they had no business losing at an alarming rate.
Every week there was a new stat proclaiming that the Chargers were “the first team to ever lose after \_\_\_\_\_\_” or “the Chargers are the first team since (pick a year) to lose after \_\_\_\_\_.”
Every week was deja vu. New week, new wacky found to lose a game.
This week, the Chargers became the third team since 2016 to lose a game despite winning the turnover margin by four or more. They only scored 10 points off their turnovers, including a missed 45-yard field goal by Cameron Dicker who is now 1-for-3 on kicks in 2026.
Chris O’Leary’s unit fought their tails off. Khalil Mack forced a strip sack and rookie Akheem Mesidor recorded his first full sack. Rookie safety Genesis Smith snagged the first two interceptions of his career against the league’s best quarterback. There were so many moments for the Chargers that, if they were any other team, would have given you supreme confidence that they were going to beat the Bills on the road despite the 0-2 start.
And for a moment, that was the case. It was surreal but you could feel the positivity bubbling up inside of everyone donning the powder blue.
But then Dicker missed that field goal which would have given the Chargers a 13-0 lead midway through the second quarter. Instead, the miss gave the Bill good starting field position and it was only a matter of time before Allen and Co. found their rhythm. The Bills scored 10 straight and it was a tie game at the break.
The Chargers looked energized coming out of the locker room and took the lead back with a field goal on the opening drive of the half. But that was the final points they’d score in the game.
To reiterate: The Chargers had FIVE(!) takeaways against the Bills, but somehow, someway, the turnover that felt like it had the largest impact on the game was the Chargers’ only giveaway. That was Herbert’s interception that came just three plays after the defense recorded the fifth turnover.
And it didn’t help that it was one of the most egregious passes thrown by Herbert this year, and maybe even his career.
Herbert, with three wideouts flanking his left, dropped back and scanned through his progressions. At the top of his drop, Herbert fired over the middle of the field to veteran and new Chargers receiver Marquez Valdez-Scantling who was crossing into the end zone. The problem? Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was hovering in the middle of the field the entire time and he swiftly undercut the pass before returning it 41 yards the other way.
The Chargers needed to create some distance and were still up by three following the latest takeaway, and Herbert essentially handed the ball right back to them in a pivotal and high-pressure moment.
You want to talk about the margins and how important they are in the NFL? Well, I guess those margins are only razor-thin when you’re the Chargers, because it sure didn’t matter for Buffalo on Sunday.
The Bolts’ quarterback finished with 226 passing yards, one touchdown, and the aforementioned interception on 20-of-34 passing. He also added 17 rushing yards.
Mike McDaniel leaned on Keaton Mitchell more against the Bills as he finished with eight carries for 52 yards (6.5 YPC). Omarion Hampton took 15 carries for 56 yards (3.7) in a quiet day against a top-10 run defense.
Tre’ Harris had one of his best games as a pro while leading the team with six receptions and 76 receiving yards. Ladd McConkey was behind him with four catches and 66 yards. Quentin Johnston, who had a costly drop on third down in the second half, finished with season-highs of three catches and 40 yards, 21 of which came right before halftime on a play essentially given to the Chargers to run out the clock.
Tuli Tuipulotu had 1.5 sacks to lead the defense while Khalil Mack and Akheem Mesidor each had one. Linebacker Daiyan Henley led the team with nine tackles and recorded the Chargers’ first fumble recovery of the day.
We’re officially in rare territory. The Chargers are 0-3 and head to Seattle in Week Four. They then face the Broncos and Chiefs before their bye in Week Seven. The issues they’re facing do not look like they can be fixed in the middle of a season. Three games is a large enough sample size to paint a clearer picture of who and what this team is.
Right now, in a results-based business, the Chargers are bad. They’re actually very bad and it’s not unheard of for teams to start making drastic moves to half the bleeding as soon as possible.
Will that happen in the days to come? Will they weather the storm and let the season play out before making such decisions? I would think everything is on the table right now.
Josh Allen and the Bills offense was up first after receiving the opening kickoff. However, that lasted just one play as defensive lineman Justin Eboigbe crashed down on running back James Cook to force a fumble that was recovered near midfield by linebacker Daiyan Henley.
With the sudden change in momentum just seconds into the game, Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense got to work. On the first play of the drive, Bills pass rusher Bradley Chubb was flagged for roughing the passer which pushed the Chargers 15 yards further into Buffalo territory. On their first third down opportunity, Mike McDaniel called a zone read play that Herbert took for a seven-yard gain to move the chains.
After mixing in some runs by Omarion Hampton and Kimani Vidal, the Chargers had first-and-goal at the Buffalo seven-yard line. Hampton took a handoff for four tough yards before inching forward another two yards to the one-yard line. On third down, Herbert handed a jet sweep to Keaton Mitchell who stutter-stepped by a defender before hitting the gas and beating the defense to the pylon for a touchdown.
The Bills began their second drive with a pair of eight-yard gains by wideout D.J. Moore and Cook. From their, the Chargers defense clamped down with Tuli Tuipulotu earning his first sack of the year by bringing down Allen on third down.
The second drive for the Chargers was a short three-and-out. After a qucik seven-yard pass to McConkey to get them ahead of the chains, Mitchell was dropped for a loss of six on second down after bringing in a swing pass. Los Angeles punted after a third-down incompletion.
Buffalo’s rough start on offense continued with Allen firing a pass over the middle of the field to Moore that was intercepted by rookie safety Genesis Smith who closed and undercut the route with haste.
With the ball back, Herbert and the offense went 30 yards in six plays before falling short on third down at the Buffalo-15-yard line. Dicker came on and converted his first field goal of the season from 31 yards out.
On the first play of the quarter, Allen faked a handoff before launching a deep pass to Moore on a post route. Moore was double-covered with Genesis Smith essentially playing the ball in front of him. Smith and Moore both grabbed for the ball but it ended up bouncing up and onto Smith’s stomach who clamped it down before it could touch the turf.
The Chargers turned that into a long and promising drive that went 63 yards in 11 plays.
With a healthy mix of the run and the pass, Herbert orchestrated his unit beautifully down the field. Unfortunately, they hit a wall once they got a fresh set of downs at the Buffalo 34.
Hampton took the first down tote for only a yard, then Herbert scrambled up the left side behind a blocking Vidal for a six-yard gain. On the scramble, Herbert looked to just take the easy yards before stepping out, but there was plenty of room for him to put a shoulder down and potentially move the chains.
Facing a third-and-three, McDaniel chose to pass over potentially using a pair of runs to get the first. Herbert threw deep to McConkey up the right sideline but he was covered well and could only get a single hand on it. Instead of going for it, Dicker came on to attempt a kick from 45 yards. The league’s most accurate kicker was far from that, slicing the ball wide left to leave points on the board.
The Bills took that momentum back from the Chargers and used it to go 55 yards in 10 plays before finally getting on the board with a short field goal. The Bolts’ defense got lucky on third down as Allen whipped an incomplete pass to Moore in the back of the end zone instead of running for the score with plenty of room in front of him.
Needing to answer, the Chargers offense couldn’t muster a long drive despite Mitchell running for 17 on the first play. The following three plays were an incompletion, one-yard gain, and a sack on Herbert before JK Scott came on to punt it away.
Allen and the Bills went to work with the break nearing as they put together a huge 10-play, 80-yard drive that resulted in their first touchdown of the day. With 26 seconds left, Allen found wideout Keon Coleman for 37 yards down to the one-yard line. UDFA cornerback Rodney Shelley was in coverage with veteran Deon Jackson questionable to return with a head injury.
The Bills used the tush push on the next play to finally punch it into the end zone.
The Chargers attempted a quick drive to get into field goal range with all three of their timeouts but Quentin Johnston did not get out of bounds on a 21-yard pass to end the half.
The Chargers came out of the locker room looking a bit more energized than they were before the break.
On first-and-10 from the Buffalo, Herbert booted left before turning and firing right to Tre’ Harris for a gain of 29 yards. Back-to-back 10-yard penalties on the Chargers set up a second-and-26 from the 36, but an 11-yard run by Mitchell got a chunk back to give them third-and-15 just outside the red zone.
Herbert escaped pressure on third down and threw late to McConkey who managed to create space near the left sideline. His leaping catch was completed with a tight toe-tap before being pushed out of bounds.
On the next play, Herbert looked to be picked off in the end zone but a defensive holding flag was thrown on Bills linebacker Terrel Bernard which inched the Bolts forward to the 3-yard line. A two-yard run by Hampton then set up second down at the one.
What happened next was an incredibly-unfortunate series of events brought about by the Chargers.
On second down, newly-signed tight end Hayden Rucci was called for a false start. After a pass for no gain, right guard Cole Strange was also flagged for a false start to make it third-and-11. Harris caught the ensuing pass for eight yards but that was well short of the end zone. Dicker was good from 21 yards to give the Chargers back the lead at 13-10.
Astonishingly, the Bills found a way to turn the ball over a fourth time on what may have been the wackiest play of an already-crazy game.
Allen found tight end Dalton Kincaid across the middle who then rumbled for 24 yards while dragging a Chargers defender. Before he was brought down, cornerback Tarheeb Still approached from his blindside and punched the ball loose. It took a hop and safety Tony Jefferson was the first player to jump on it.
Unfortunately for LA, the offense could not turn it into points before punting right back.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before.
The Bills turned it over for a whopping FIFTH time after Allen was stripped by Khalil Mack on the first play of the final quarter.
For the second time in as many turnovers, the Chargers couldn’t turn it into any points.
On third-and-five from the Buffalo 25-yard line, Herbert dropped back, read through his three-man progression on the left, and fired to wideout Marquez Valdez-Scantling who ran a post into the end zone. The problematic part was that Herbert seemingly forgot that safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was in the middle of the field the entire time and it wound up being a very ugly interception. CGJ then returned it 41 yards the other way to essentially undo the latest lost fumble.
Allen and the Bills finally capitalized on their own turnover, marching 58 yards in an up-and-down, 13-play drive that ended in another tush push for a touchdown to give them their first lead at 17-13.
Facing the most pressure they have all game long, the Chargers offense finally had to answer a Bills score that put them behind on the scoreboard.
After a sack on second down and an incommpletion on third, Herbert and the Chargers offense went for it on fourth-and-10 at their own 45-yard line. Herbert was pressured from all sides and just barely got the ball off but it fell far from any teammate and the Bolts turned it over on downs.
The Bills ran the ball at will on their next drive behind both Cook and Allen. Cook capped the drive with a three-yard plunge to give the Bills an 11-point lead.
With 3:05 left in regulation, Herbert and his group went to work.
The drive began with a 23-yard catch-and-run to Harris who made one heck of a pluck to catch the ball in a tight window. That was followed by a 14-yard pass to Vidal which brought the offense into Bills territory.
Herbert then found McConkey for a gain of 29 that got them inside the red zone to the 18. A three-yard pass to Harris on first down was followed by a pair of incompletions and the Chargers chose to kick a field goal to make it an eight-point (one possession) game.
However, they needed to bank on recovering an onside kick to pull out any sort of a comeback. That attempt failed and the Bills used their run game to run out the rest of the clock and seal their improbable come-from-behind win.