Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Diego Chargers Ten In-Depth Observations

Dec 28, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; San Diego Chargers wide receiver Eddie Royal (11) is unable to catch this pass while defended by Kansas City Chiefs strong safety Ron Parker (38) in the second half at Arrowhead Stadium. Kansas City won the game 19-7. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

9. Faced with a do-or-die situation in opponents territory, the Chargers failed to score the touchdown they needed and came up empty-handed after four passing attempts. The first was essentially a throw-away from Rivers and the second was a rightfully overturned touchdown call against Royal. That pass on third down made me feel sorry for Royal, because he did a great job of getting open against Ron Parker in the left corner on the end zone (possibly Rivers’s favorite part of the end zone yesterday, as he attempted three passes there in total) but looked silly on a drop that may have been the result of a pass interference. He also picked up a “nick” on the play, and this, again, came after an overturned TD, after which the camera caught him yelling some choice expletives about the call.

I’m sure Rivers was upset with the missed opportunity on the third down pass, because he threw a dime on that one (he also threw a nice over-the-shoulder dime to Royal in the first quarter, and Royal finished with a strong game despite the missed opportunities). That said, his throw into the end zone on fourth down was atrocious, as Husain Abdullah, who made three clutch plays on Sunday to add to his cred with Chiefs fans, saw Rivers staring down TD-maven Gates all the way and easily broke up the pass.

10. The Chiefs thoroughly out-played the San Diego Chargers, and that’s no short feat. Just as the Chiefs were forced to call an even more cautious gameplan than usual with Daniel starting, I wonder if the Chargers played it run-heavy due to concerns with Rivers’s back injury. Those must have been pretty big concerns in order to affect a do-or-die game, but Rivers did attempt an awful lot of passes in last week’s comeback victory over the San Francisco 49ers. There was no comeback this week, as the Chiefs defense did an amazing job of snuffing out every opportunity.

I did dislike how the Chargers decided to run back-to-back running plays up the gut on third-and-one and fourth-and-one, because why would you trust your beat-up, over-matched offensive line against the Kansas City Chiefs elite front seven mano-a-mano in such a critical moment in your season? It didn’t make much sense to me, but I’m sure the Chiefs aren’t complaining about that futile attempt to test the likes of Poe and Alvin Bailey.

Next: Where do the Chiefs and Chargers rank among the best franchises in history?