As Buffalo Circles Wagons, Chargers Circle Drain

Justin Herbert threw 29 touchdowns to Keenan Allen in the 68 games that they played together.

From the very beginning of his career, he could always look for number 13 in a sea of defenders and find harbor in the hands of the man who has caught more passes than anyone in the history of the Chargers' franchise.

So, if you were the type inclined to make an excuse for Herbert, then you could argue that maybe his heart skipped a beat seeing the number 13 in the red zone again Sunday.

Leading 13-10, facing third-and-five from the Buffalo 25-yard line, Herbert dropped back, read a three-man progression, and tried to squeeze a pass to the wideout wearing the number 13. Journeyman Marquez Valdez-Scantling, signed days prior after a series of receiver injuries, ran a post pattern and flashed open near the goal line.

Herbert didn't see safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, or perhaps trusted his arm to get the ball past him. Johnson told reporters in the locker room after that he had been "fishing" all day.

"What's that thing they use when they're fishing? Starts with the letter "B"?" said Johnson.

"Bait."

Regardless of the thought process, the outcome was disastrous for the Chargers. Johnson easily undercut Temu Keenan Allen and intercepted the pass, returning it 41 yards the other way to flip the game.

"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, said Johnson."

“So no disrespect, just that’s what it is.”

As the Chargers sit at 0-3 and continue to search for evidence of improvement, Johnson's blunt assessment is difficult to refute. Publicly, the team insists that they will not point fingers or make excuses, and that the hard work, effort, and discipline to their craft will soon pay dividends.

But if you were inclined to make excuses, had tight end Oronde Gadsden not dropped a third-down pass for hit him in the hands, and if the offense could have converted short fields into touchdowns, and if Cameron Dicker made a 45-yard field goal, then perhaps the game would have gone differently.

On a 3rd-and-three in the red zone, Herbert sailed a pass over Ladd McConkey's head, and the Chargers had to settle for another field goal attempt.

When the team takes a look at the film, they will discover that the Bills had only ten players on the field and that on the backside at least one of his options was wide open.

In summary: The Bills turned the ball over five times, defended a red zone third down with only ten players, wore some of the ugliest alternate uniforms in NFL history, and still covered the 7.5 spread.

Prior to Sunday, teams were 2-119-1 when losing the turnover battle by four or more (per Sumer Sports). But it gets worse.

The common denominator? Across three Chargers iterations, with three head coaches and two general managers, the common denominator is the lightning bolts on the helmets.

It is the kind of statistic that the Chargers have been on the wrong side of too many times for their fans to count. It is the kind of statistic that Jim Harbaugh was supposed to have fixed.

“Wasn’t good enough. The defense played so well, forced so many turnovers, and the offense didn’t help them out. We don’t feel good about it, and it starts with me," said Herbert.

“Anytime something doesn't work, you wish you would've run a different play. That's football."

The offense continues to gift the opponent yardage for procedural penalties, and against the Bills those infractions cost dearly. Facing a second-and-goal from the one the Chargers backpedaled to the 11 with two false starts in three snaps. The ensuing field goal felt like another missed opportunity and kept the Bills within striking distance.

The Chargers forced four of their five takeaways in the first half, yet those opportunities netted only 10 points. The Bills took a measure of relief going into halftime tied at 10.

“Sitting there to be tied at halftime felt like a dream, to be honest,” said Bills quarterback Josh Allen. “Our defense played fantastic. It’s not a game that you expect to win, but we’ll take them any way we can get them.”

The Chargers were supposed to have the offensive firepower to hang with the elites in the conference like Buffalo, but through three games have combined for more punts (10) and committed more turnovers (six) than scored touchdowns. That doesn't count the two interceptions dropped by the Bills, or the one negated by a penalty.

“That's something that we have to figure out, and we're going to do our best to keep listening to our coaching and do everything we can to stick together and understand that it's a long season, and we gotta turn our stuff around. So whatever the reason is, we have to find a way to fix it," said Herbert.

Unfortunate drops from receiver Quentin Johnston, tight end Oronde Gadsden, five offensive penalties just in the third quarter, and even another missed Cameron Dicker field goal attempt beg the question: Why does the offense look so disjointed?

“I don’t think we’re disjointed,” said Herbert. "I think we’re just making mistakes and making it harder on ourselves.”

"When you lose the game, you would have rather done the other," Harbaugh said. "I really don't mind, at all, the question or the second-guessing because I'm not doing it to myself.

"We didn't win; we didn't get enough points. Had we gone for that, that would have given us a chance to get four more on that drive," Harbaugh added. "Yeah, I'd like to see how that would have played out."

As Fox reported during the broadcast, the last time Buffalo won a game despite committing five turnovers was in 1997 against the Indianapolis Colts, who squandered a 26-0 lead; the Bills came roaring back with the second-largest comeback in an NFL regular-season game.

The common denominator? The man under center for the Colts that afternoon was Jim Harbaugh.