The Chargers escaped Cleveland at 3-2 with a 30-28 victory over the Browns.
But a critical decision by head coach Brandon Staley produced an unfavorable result — and nearly cost Los Angeles a victory.
The Chargers had fourth-and-1 at their own 46-yard line with just 1:14 left in the game. The Browns didn’t have the ability to stop the clock, so a first down would have effectively ended the game. But not converting on fourth down would give the Browns extremely favorable field position with a kicker who nailed a game-winning 58-yard attempt in Week One.
Conventional wisdom would have said to punt it away, especially since the Browns are currently playing their backup quarterback. Or if the Chargers were going to go for it, running the ball would have been a good option as L.A. was averaging 7.0 yards per carry.
But the Chargers didn’t do either of those things. Quarterback Justin Herbert’s pass to receiver Mike Williams was broken up and fell incomplete, giving Cleveland the ball in plus-territory.
Quarterback Jacoby Brissett completed a 10-yard pass to receiver Amari Cooper, which set up a 54-yard, game-winning attempt for rookie Cade York.
York’s kick sailed wide right, bailing the Chargers out.
After the game, Staley was asked about his decision.
“I just wanted to finish the game with the ball,” he said, via Jake Trotter of ESPN. “I felt like we liked the play and we liked the matchup. We knew what coverage they were going to be in. We wanted to finish the game on our terms on third down. We felt like we had a good runup against that defense. We had a pass solution. They defended it well.
“Then on fourth down, it just really felt like the slant to Mike was going to be the play call there. It just didn’t go down for us, but I had a lot of confidence in our defense to go out there and get them stopped. That was a big motive because we knew that they would have to throw the ball to beat us. We felt like we could cover them.”
While neither Los Angeles’ offense nor its defense really got the job done at the end of the game, Staley continued by saying, “I love the way that our team finished that game.
“Obviously, the storybook would have been just to finish it right there and walk to victory lane, but that’s not how it went,” Staley said. “We had to go play defense. We had to go defend and our defense ended up winning us the game with that takeaway and that stop at the end of the game.”
Staley’s decision was even questioned on Twitter by receiver Keenan Allen, who was out with a hamstring injury.
Fortunately for the Chargers, they still came away with the win.