NFL – A Brief Playoff History of the San Diego Super Chumps

Since the AFL/NFL merger, the Chargers have been to the big dance just once in their sordid history. In 1994 Stan Humphries and Junior Seau led the Chargers right in to a freight train named the San Francisco 49ers led by Steve Young. Super Bowl XXIX would not turn out the way San Diego had hoped, but it would certainly set the tone for the next 16 years of football futility in southern California. You may know them as the Super Chargers…but when it comes to the playoffs they’re more like the Super Chumps.

It’s why so many free picks experts (such as myself) are bashing their heads against their desks trying to figure out the Jets-Chargers Divisional Playoff tilt this weekend. Later this week, myself and the rest of the analysts in the BetOnline Locker Room are going to break down the game in full. But before I do that, let me get you caught up on why the Chargers aren’t as solid of a pick as you might think they are.

After the Super Bowl loss in 1994, the Chargers would make the playoffs as a Wild Card team the following year. Yet in 1995 they would lose to the Indianapolis Colts 35-20 and then experience an 8 year playoff drought before they returned in 2004 on the shoulders of their quarterback at the time, Drew Brees.

The Texas born quarterback was in just his third year as a starter and in 2004 Brees threw for 3,159 yards, 27 touchdowns and a passer rating of 104.8. It was his best overall season until the 2009 season. Still, Brees’ efforts as the Comeback Player of the Year would lead to a loss in the Wild Card slot against the New York Jets (uh oh…sounds familiar). If you’re a Chargers’ fan then you might not want to read this next part: the Jets were seven-point underdogs in 2004 and used a stiff return game and a strong defense to bully past the Chargers in overtime. The spread this weekend is the same.

Though San Diego would receive a huge boost with the drafting of Shawne Merriman, they failed to make the playoffs in 2005 with a 9-7 SU season. That would prove to be the final season that the Chargers would concede the AFC West as they’ve gone on to win their division decisively for the past four years.

The playoff results, however, haven’t been favorable. By 2006, Philip Rivers had arrived in town and LaDanian Tomlinson had rightfully earned his first MVP of the league. San Diego had thundered out to a league leading 30.8 points per game that season as well. Despite a decisive 14-2 SU finish, they lost to Tom Brady and the Patriots 24-21 in a mistake filled game for the Patriots.

In 2007, the Patriots would end another run by the Chargers but this time it would happen in the AFC Conference Championships. New England was a massive favorite at the time, entering the game with a -14.0 points spread. Though the Chargers covered the spread in the loss, they failed left the playoffs disappointed yet again.

During the 2008 NFL betting season, the Chargers averaged 27.4 points per game, ranking them again in the top-5 but that didn’t seem to matter in the playoffs. The Chargers would lose to the eventual Super Bowl Champion Steelers during the second round of the playoffs in a thrilling game.

Breaking this down very simply, the Chargers have ranked in the top-5 on offense every year for the past six years and that has produced them an overall record of 3-4 SU in the playoffs and zero Super Bowl berths. Considering how highly the oddsmakers regard them in our Super Bowl futures to win the AFC Championship, you’d think that the past five years hadn’t happened.

You can take two trains of thought: Either this is a result of inability by all the leaders in the locker room, or it is simply taking time for this team to reach their full maturity. Nothing has changed for the Chargers overall. They still have LDT, Rivers and Norv Turner. They still have an average 3-4 defense. Just like five years ago when they lost to the Jets, they were seven-point favorites.

The only difference this time around is that they are sick of losing. Don’t throw away your hopes yet, Charger fans. As the Cowboys-Eagles game proved last weekend, history is not always the proper indicator (unless you’re the Bengals). It’s an odd rarity in the NFL playoffs that doesn’t happen very often, but if the Chargers want to prove that they’re a prime Super Bowl bet in 2009 what better team to do it against than the team that handed them their first playoff loss in the new millennia? Sometimes the best way to fix things is to correct where things started.

Then again, sometimes history has a nasty habit of repeating itself.

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