The Los Angeles Chargers kicked off their NFL preseason campaign on a bad note, as they picked up a 24-17 road loss at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday.
Although the game was merely an exhibition, Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn voiced his frustrations over how his men fared on the field, especially when it comes to taking care of the football, per Ricky Henne, managing editor of Chargers.com.
“You could tell that it was definitely preseason week one,” he said. “It was too sloppy. You look at the time of possession and we had the ball two minutes longer and we had twice as many yards. Penalties and turnovers will get you beat every time. It doesn’t matter who’s on the field, it was just sloppy football. We’ll go back watch the tape and we’ll learn from this. We’ll figure out where we’re at, where we need to go and that’s what we’ll work on and all the things in between.”
The Chargers recorded a total of four turnovers in the game, with their quarterbacks being responsible for three of those. Geno Smith went 14-of-23 for 218 yards with a touchdown but also threw an interception and fumbled the ball once. Cardale Jones completed six of 12 passes for 50 yards and also lost a fumble, while fullback Derek Watt had the other fumble, which the Cardinals’ stop unit converted into a defensive touchdown.
If anything, the errors, particularly of the quarterbacks in that game, only adds to the challenge of deliberating who between Jones and Smith will win the primary backup role to Philip Rivers.
The Chargers have an entire week to get it together and put themselves on the same page before taking on the Seattle Seahawks at home next Saturday.
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