Chargers start strong, show fight under interim coach Giff Smith before another heartbreaking loss

By GREG BEACHAM

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) - When the Chargers recovered Buffalo's fumble on a punt return and punched it into the end zone four plays later to take a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter Saturday night, SoFi Stadium's large contingent of Buffalo snowbirds fell silent — and the often-outnumbered home fans roared.

Giff Smith's career as the Chargers' interim head coach was off to an auspicious start in those heady moments. Although it ultimately didn't last against a playoff-contending Bills team, the longtime assistant was proud of his turmoil-plagued team even after Buffalo rallied for a 24-22 victory on a last-minute field goal.

“I think the team responded to the message that the organization and the staff had,” Smith said. “There's not moral victories in any of this, but they really achieved fighting for each other, and what that feels like.”

The injury-plagued Chargers (5-10) were competitive and occasionally impressive while playing eight days after head coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco were fired late in Staley's hugely disappointing third season.

Even while missing superstars Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen and Joey Bosa due to injury, the Bolts gave a major scare to a Buffalo team desperately fighting for a postseason berth and a shot at the AFC East title.

The Chargers were a double-digit home underdog for the first time in 25 years after losing their previous two games by a combined 87-28, but they were a handful of plays away from an upset win. Buffalo's Tyler Bass hit a 29-yard field goal with 28 seconds to play to add one more heartbreaker to a season full of pain for the Bolts.

“We started out fast, which is great,” said Austin Ekeler, who had 65 yards rushing and 21 yards receiving. “That's one step, but we've got to put a full game together. Unfortunately, we came up short, but we're going to keep fighting.”

The Chargers couldn't score another touchdown after quarterback Easton Stick's 1-yard dive 1:11 into the second quarter, and they never mounted a drive longer than 46 yards after their 90-yard march on their first possession. Los Angeles settled for five field goals by Cameron Dicker, with Smith discarding Staley's swashbuckling preference to go for it on fourth down in scoring position.

The Bolts blew a double-digit lead for the ninth time since 2020, but Stick played capably in the second start of his five-year NFL career, going 23 of 33 for 215 yards and no touchdowns.

“(Smith) was awesome all week,” Stick said. “He told us. That was the plan going into it. Let’s get this thing to the fourth quarter and find a way to win it, and obviously came up a little bit short, but just the way he rallied the guys this week — you saw how hard we played, and that’s a credit to Giff.”

Los Angeles gave up a 64-yard drive in the 5 1/2 minutes leading to Bass' go-ahead field goal, but the Chargers lamented what happened four plays earlier: Khalil Shakir made a key catch for a first down with 2:29 to play when the Bolts' defense made a key coverage mistake, and then he appeared to get up and score a touchdown that would have likely put the Bills up by six or seven points.

Video review determined Shakir was actually touched down before he started running, but the ruling was more bitter than sweet for a team that's used to bad breaks.

The Chargers would have loved to get the ball back with more than two minutes to play and one timeout, instead of the 23 seconds and no timeouts they eventually had. Smith acknowledged the Bolts thought about attempting to allow the Bills to score a touchdown after Shakir's catch.

“When they review the call, there's a part of me that was hoping they were going to say he wasn't down — let him score so we'd have more time,” Smith said. “But Coach (McDermott) over there does a great job, and they would have slid if we would have tried to let them through. But we did have that discussion.”