Brandon Staley's seat was warm at kickoff all the way back in Week 1. Now, that seat is probably hotter than the surface of the sun, especially after the Chargers suffered arguably their worst loss in franchise history on Thursday night. In the Week 15 opener, Los Angeles fell to the Raiders, 63-21. By every measure, the Chargers came up short and were decimated from the get-go, allowing Las Vegas to jump out to a 42-0 lead at halftime.
Staley noted in his press conference that the first half was "the worst that you can play."
"Just didn't have a good game tonight," the head coach said to open his presser. "Just didn't have it from the beginning to the end. Just one of those games where nothing went right for us. We've got a good group of guys, but it was just one of those games where all three phases ... the worst thing happened to us tonight."
In the first half, the Chargers fumbled twice and muffed a punt. Each of those turnovers led to a Raiders touchdown drive. Outside of those possessions, they either punted or turned the ball over on downs after failing to convert on fourth down. While they found the end zone three times in the second half, that was with some of the Las Vegas starters on the bench and the miscues on offense continued as a fumble and interception were both returned for Raiders touchdowns, capping off the embarrassing defeat.
Naturally, this loss put Staley even further into the crosshairs, and the head coach was peppered by reporters at Allegiant Stadium about this job status going forward. Staley said he didn't believe that there was a disconnect between himself and the players in the locker room. He also said that he didn't know when asked if he expects to be the coach going forward, though when asked if he thinks he should be, he answered, "Yes."
"Everything," Staley said when talking about what he could've done better to prepare his team for this game. "I didn't do anything well enough to get us ready to play tonight."
After that answer, Staley was asked, under that logic, why he believes he should remain as the head coach.
"Games like this happen in the NFL," he answered. "To every coach that's ever coached in this league. You can look at any great coach that's ever coached in the league, sometimes games like this happen. I don't need to retrace history, but it's part of sports. Sometimes there are games where it doesn't go right. None of it. And you got to put it behind you and move on to the next thing."
The 42-point deficit was tied for the second-largest halftime lead in NFL history. The 63 points allowed were also the most in Chargers franchise history. Staley was given those stats by reporters following that answer to emphasize that this isn't a normal loss.
"No. Tonight was not a normal occurrence," Staley said. "Everything that could have gone wrong in all three phases went wrong."
Staley, who has been the head coach for the Chargers since 2021, said that he typically speaks to ownership 24 hours after every game. This upcoming meeting will be fascinating to monitor as a performance that was rolled out on Thursday night certainly opens the door for ownership to make a change.
