ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Cover one eye and the Chargers had a gem of a game Sunday, forcing five turnovers by the Buffalo Bills and shocking one of the best teams in football.
Open both eyes and an undeniable reality came into focus.
No matter how well their defense played, the split-personality Chargers didn’t have the offensive juice to capitalize on those takeaways.
They seized the football, spun their wheels and corkscrewed even deeper into the NFL basement with a demoralizing 24-16 defeat.
“I’m used to this,” said Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, a former Philadelphia Eagles standout who made a key interception Sunday. “I’ve been in two Super Bowls, conference championships. It ain’t nothing new. Teams like [the Chargers], that ain’t really been to the top, they don’t know how to finish as well. And we got playmakers over here that know how to finish.
“So no disrespect, just that’s what it is.”
Now, in the midst of a particularly rough stretch of opponents, the winless Chargers (0-3) are left to scratch their heads, scan the horizon for a victory and wonder, “Just when, baby?”
As the losses pile up, urgency is giving way to exasperation for a team with an especially challenging schedule of upcoming opponents: at Seattle, Denver, at Kansas City, at Rams, Houston, at Baltimore.
For the visitors, the productivity was a maddening mirror image.
Four trips to the red zone for the Bills: three touchdowns, one field goal.
Four trips for the Chargers: three field goals, one touchdown.
“Obviously not where we want to be,” said Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, his answers flat and robotic. “It starts with me. I’ve got to play better and allow our offense to score more points.”
Asked to assess the play of Herbert, Jim Harbaugh said: “I’m not singling out anybody, negatively or positively. There was good play. There were good moments that created opportunities. Ultimately, the win or loss is the team.”
A withering moment came early in the fourth quarter with the Chargers leading, 13-10, and in prime position on the heels of a strip sack of Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Operating from the Buffalo 23, Herbert tried to thread a ball to the recently-signed Marquez Valdes-Scantling at the goal line.
It was another hyphenated player who thwarted that. Gardner-Johnson stepped into frame and reeled in the interception, returning it 41 yards and igniting the crowd at the just-opened Highmark Stadium. That set up the 13-play, go-ahead touchdown drive for the Bills, which ended with a one-yard scoring plunge by Allen.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen scores one of his two rushing touchdowns against the Chargers on Sunday.
(Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
In each of their first two games, the Bills gave up 31 points. Sunday, they nearly cut that in half.
“It was the ultimate team win,” linebacker Bradley Chubb said. “I feel like, the first two games, the defense we didn’t play well. It wasn’t up to our standard, and the offense took care of us. Today, [the offense] had their woes, they had the start that they had, but we had to take care of them. That’s what team football is.”
With all their motions and misdirections, the Chargers are developing a knack for making simple situations look dauntingly complex. The addition of new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel has yet to pay dividends.
On a third-and-one play against the Las Vegas Raiders, for instance, the shotgun snap caromed off the knee of receiver Tre’ Harris, who was running closely behind the line from right to left.
Sunday, the Chargers had a second-and-goal from the one and moonwalked back to the 11 with two false starts in three snaps. The ensuing field goal felt like another missed opportunity.
For three quarters, Allen looked nothing like the devastating double-threat quarterback who tore through the first two games, wins over Houston and Detroit in which Buffalo scored a combined 77 points. He had no scrambles and just three yards rushing. He came alive in the fourth quarter as the Bills (3-0) took their first lead then inched away.
The Bills made it through the first two weeks without committing a turnover, then survived a landslide Sunday.
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, left, and coach Jim Harbaugh take part in a postgame news conference following a 24-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
“It’s frustrating to lose a game like that,” said Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley, who forced one fumble and recovered two. “But at the end of the day, this comes down to all three phases. We need everybody to contribute to a win.”
Chargers safety Tony Jefferson, who broke up a pass and recovered a fumble, emphasized the importance of the locker room staying a cohesive unit.
“Really, it’s just picking each other up,” he said. “Stay positive. Good teams don’t blame the other side of the ball or special teams. Just gotta focus on your side.”
The Chargers had four of their five takeaways in the first half, yet turned those into just 10 points. It would have been more had Cameron Dicker not hooked a 45-yard attempt early in the second quarter.
Regardless, with a field goal and a touchdown in the final six minutes of the first half, Buffalo evened the score and had new life heading to the locker room.
As Fox reported in its broadcast, the last time the Bills won a game despite committing five turnovers was 1997 against Indianapolis. The Colts built a 26-0 lead in the first half of that game, before the Bills came roaring back with the second-largest comeback in an NFL regular-season game.
The Colts’ quarterback on that day? Jim Harbaugh.
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