On first down, the menacing rain clouds rolled in over Nissan Stadium.
The impending doom was already palpable. It always is when you are watching the Los Angeles Chargers in the fourth quarter or overtime. But Mother Nature, in a bout of morose humor, felt it necessary to give that feeling a literal representation. The darkness crept and crept over the field until it felt like someone had turned off the lights.
That is when Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill took the shotgun snap from the Chargers’ 37-yard line. Tennessee needed a field goal to win the game, and comfortable field goal range was 5 yards away. Receiver DeAndre Hopkins was aligned in the slot. The defender covering him, safety Alohi Gilman, was 8 yards off the line of scrimmage. Tannehill sprinted right on a designed rollout. Hopkins, with a free release, beat Gilman to the sideline on an out route. Tannehill hit him. And as Hopkins touched both toes down and ran out of bounds, the skies opened up with a torrential downpour.
Three plays later, kicker Nick Folk drilled a 41-yard field.
The Chargers lost, 27-24, on Sunday to begin their season 0-2 for the first time since 2017. The rain stopped shortly after Folk’s kick, but not before it washed away the Chargers’ dreams of a convincing response to one of the most epic meltdowns in NFL history.
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