Wild stat shows why Chargers choke was worst of all time

How bad was the Los Angeles Chargers Wild Card loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars? Well, they lost despite leading 27-0 at one point. We could just stop there. Amazingly, though, it’s another stat that shows why Saturday’s loss in Jacksonville might have been the worst in not only Chargers franchise history, but in the history of the NFL.

As bad as losing a game you once led 27-0 is, we’ve seen similar losses. The Houston Oilers blew a 35-3 third-quarter lead against the Buffalo Bills, which remains the greatest collapse in postseason history and until Week 15, 2022, was the biggest in NFL history. The Kansas City Chiefs lost a playoff game to the Indianapolis Colts after leading by 28 points. And of course, the Atlanta Falcons led the New England Patriots 28-3 late in the third quarter of Super Bowl LI.

But those comebacks all had something in common — the team coming back to win was aided by a turnover. To erase such a big deficit in a short period, turnovers have to be part of the equation, right? Until Saturday, we would have said, absolutely. But the Chargers introduced a new blueprint for blowing such a lead. They not only blew the 27-point without committing a single turnover, but lost despite forcing five of their own. That’s a first.

Warren Sharp of the Ringer noted that “this is the FIRST TIME IN NFL PLAYOFF HISTORY a team was +5 in turnover margin and lost the game.”

“Charger-ing into history,” Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated tweeted.

“This entire game was absolutely unreal. EPIC,” Romi Bean of CBS News Colorado said.

“An all-time playoff loss. It didn’t feel like it as it was happening and then all of the sudden Dicker missed the FG at 30-20 and the blood started coming out of the walls of the Chargers Amityville Horror house,” the Ringer’s Bill Simmons added.

One Chargers fan, though, summed it up better than anyone, saying “we’re in the record books for ALL the wrong reasons everytime.”

[Warren Sharp on Twitter]