The game started about as well as it possibly could have with Philip Rivers marching the Chargers offense down the field for a touchdown. Austin Ekeler Keenan Allen Color Rush Jersey , in particular, looked unstoppable, and Keenan Allen finished the drive off by getting wide open for a score.The defense looked a little sketchy at first on the Bengals’ first drive, but they eventually stiffened up and held the Jeff Driskel-led 49ers to a field goal attempt that Randy Bullock converted.The Chargers offense picked right back up where they left off with Ekeler, Allen, and now Justin Jackson all picking up chunk yardage en route to a powerful touchdown run by Ekeler.The teams traded punts, and then the Bengals, starting near midfield, marched 50 yards for what initially looked like a touchdown run by Driskel. Luckily, the new rule about quarterbacks “giving themselves up” caused him to be ruled down inches short of the goal line. Then, after a false start, the Bengals elected to try a field goal which was good.Once again, the offenses stalled with the two teams combining for three consecutive three-and-outs. Unfortunately, the Chargers’ second failed drive gave the Bengals the ball at the Chargers’ 35 and the defense was unable to survive the hole the offense left them in as John Ross ended up scoring an easy 6-yard touchdown. The Bengals attempted to go for 2 LaDainian Tomlinson Color Rush Jersey , but Derwin James was having none of that as he made a strong open field tackle to prevent it.Desmond King sparked the offense with a quality kick off return to the Chargers’ 32-yard line. A pair of 11-yard passes to Travis Benjamin and Allen had the offense in position to attempt a Hail Mary, but the Bengals jumped offside. That extra 5 yards allowed Anthony Lynn to consider a field goal attempt. Michael Badgley rewarded him with a 59 yard field goal (the longest in franchise history).The Bengals appeared ready to be held to a three-and-out on their opening drive of the second half, but Marvin Lewis surprised everyone by going for it on 4th down in his own territory. The Chargers defense stepped up big time with a tackle for loss by Michael Davis and Jahleel Addae.The offense nearly stalled out immediately, but Ekeler go the call on 4th and short and converted. Eventually, the vanilla offense of the Chargers was held to a field goal attempt by Badgley who converted from 31 yards out to stretch the lead to 8.A big 24-yard reception by C.J. Uzomah in front of Addae got the Bengals across midfield, but the defense held strong and force a 4th & 7 that the offense stayed on the field for. After a false start, though, Lewis elected to punt the ball away.The Chargers took over after the punt on their own 4 and were only able to gain 19 yards and burn 3 minutes of clock before another bad Donnie Jones punt returned the ball to Cincinnati.From their own 39-yard line, the Bengals maneuvered into field goal range with a 13-yard reception by Tyler Boyd and a 14-yard from Core. Adrian Phillips made a key pass breakup to force a 4th down and Cincy elected to try a field goal. Bullock cut the lead to 5.Allen got things going the right way early on the next drive catching a long pass by Rivers for a 37-yard gain. Ekeler picked up 5 yards on 1st down, but was mobbed 5 yards behind the line on 2nd down. Mike Williams kept the drive alive, though, with a great catch over the middle for 17 yards. A rare Allen run was stuffed for no gain followed by Tyrell Williams not trying to get up field on 2nd down which left the offense needing 3 yards on 3rd down. A blatant pass interference on 3rd down that went uncalled allowed the Bengals to get off the field as the defender tackled Allen before the ball arrived. Badgley kicked a field goal to stretch the lead back to 8.Down by 8 points, Jeff Driskel led the Bengals on an 11-play, 69-yard touchdown drive that culminated in a 1-yard Joe Mixon touchdown after an Addae penalty gave them 1st & goal instead of 4th & goal from the 1. A Darius Philon sack on the ensuing 2-point attempt Jatavis Brown Color Rush Jersey , however, kept the Chargers ahead by 2 points, and set up an onside attempt that was unsuccessful, but also resulted in an injury to Austin Ekeler.Following the recovery, the Chargers offense was just running Justin Jackson into the line to force the Bengals to burn their final time outs. On 3rd & 5, they elected to let Rivers run a read option. It worked about as well as you might expect. Badgley then kicked another field goal to make the score 26-21.The Chargers kicked the ball back to the Bengals with 49 seconds on the clock.The Bengals with no time outs, had 43 seconds to go 77 yards for a score. An Uchenna Nwosu sack effectively ended the game. Fans of the Chargers are waking up from a six game win streak hangover today. Most are probably wondering where that hot chick that they crashed with last night is and who snuck this ugly lady into their bed.Oh yeah.Sunday felt that bad. The Chargers laid an egg against the Broncos on Sunday. What really stings here is not just that they lost, but how they lost. The dreams of home field advantage for the playoffs are out the freaking window.The hopes of winning the AFC West are smashed to pieces.It will be a difficult road to the Super Bowl for the Chargers. Here is why they will not make it:Lack of disciplineThis has been a mark of the Chargers for the last decade.They have had plenty of talent but they never seem to get out of their own way. Sunday was no different as the Chargers committed 14 penalties for a total of 120 yards. The most harmful ones came in the first quarter when penalties single-handedly stalled two drives and the Chargers had to settle for field goals.Then there was the end-of-game meltdown. Melvin Gordon ran the wrong way on second and three. If he hadn’t, the Chargers would have run the ball on third down. Even if they didn’t get a first down, they would have run 40 more seconds off the clock.However, one mistake led to another.On third and seven the Broncos sniffed out the screen, and Rivers chucked it into the dirt instead of scrambling or taking a sack, which gave the Broncos 40 seconds of much needed time.You need to focus when it matters most, and the Chargers have lacked this discipline for a long time.Poor special teams playThe season started with a Tyreek Hill punt return for a touchdown.Later that game Rayshawn Jenkins Color Rush Jersey , the Chargers fumbled a punt that the Chiefs turned into a touchdown.Then Caleb Sturgis took center stage.The Chargers, in what could be considered one of the most bizarre football moves in the last decade, fired their punter. It comes as no big surprise that this didn’t solve the problem. One of the Chargers’ top goals at the end of last season was to fix their kicker problem, but now they have regressed and need to fix their punter problem and their kicker problem.The Chargers did catch a bit of luck on special teams when they moved Desmond King into the punt returner role.However, in true Charger fashion they have mysteriously replaced him with Travis Benjamin who has historically made poor decisions in returning punts. Special teams has been a problem for the Chargers for too long of a time.I know George Stewart is a good friend of Anthony Lynn, but I’d rather Lynn have a friendly beer with him on the weekend than ask him to run the special teams unit.Strange personnel decisionsIf you thought getting rid of Caleb Sturgis would have removed the elephant from the room, you were wrong. Jahleel Addae is the new elephant. You only need to look at two big plays from the Chargers game to see why. On Phillip Lindsay’s 41-yard touchdown scamper, Addae was playing 15+ yards deep and yet he failed to see Lindsay come straight up the middle of the field.He was one-on-one with him with a 15-yard head start and he failed to get within 5 yards of Lindsay. The other play is Keenum’s pass to Sanders on the final drive. After the completion, Addae totally whiffed the tackle, which allowed Sanders to pick up an additional 25 yards. This play was similar to the whiff that Addae made in the Titans game on their last drive of the game which allowed Lewis to run for 36 yards.The knock on Addae is he takes bad angles, he misses tackles, he has poor tackling fundamentals, he is always lunging instead of keeping his feet and wrapping someone up, he is poor in coverage and he does not have good speed.Yet for some reason Justin Jones Color Rush Jersey , he still plays 100% of the defensive snaps. I do not see how Adrian Phillips could be any worse.My only guess is that someone is trying to save face because they gave Addae a fat contract.You can also put Travis Benjamin on this list.The team was better when he was inactive.He has been back the last two weeks taking offensive snaps from Mike Williams and punt returning duties from Desmond King.A downgrade at both positions.Poor play callingI am not sure how the wide receiver screen is even on the table when you are facing third down and seven yards.The wide receiver screen is one of those all-or-nothing plays.It’s a gadget. You use it on first down to catch a team off guard.When you need seven yards, you put the ball in the hands of one of your best players, Philip Rivers.You give him protection and time to make a good decision.With Allen, Williams, Williams, Ekeler and Gordon as possible threats it seems that odds would be in the Chargers’ favor to get one of them open and make a completion.The problem with Whisenhunt is that sometimes he tries to trick the other team instead of just lining up and saying, “We are better than you. Here it comes. Try to stop us.”The Chargers were the better team on Sunday but they tricked themselves into a loss. During their six-game winning streak the Chargers might have been able to hide their blemishes, but they showed them on Sunday.The Chargers’ road to the Super Bowl will go through Pittsburgh, Kansas City and New England.It will be a tough task for the Chargers to hide their blemishes under the bright lights of those stadiums.