The Sports Report: What was Chargers coach Brandon Staley thinking?

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Dylan Hernández: A couple of questions into his postgame news conference, Chargers coach Brandon Staley was asked whether receiver Mike Williams could have returned after departing the game in the second quarter with a back injury.

“Possibly,” Staley said, “yeah.”

Unless Staley uses an unconventional definition of “returned” or received inaccurate information from the team’s medical staff, he lied.

Quarterback Justin Herbert’s most explosive target, Williams was unable to walk on his own power later on Sunday when he made his way to the team bus from the visiting locker room at Empower Field. His arm was draped over the right shoulder of a Chargers’ staffer, who held him around his lower back. Williams shuffled his feet slowly.

Staley was fiery and defensive in his address after a 31-28 defeat to the Denver Broncos, his unusual demeanor reflecting the magnitude of the self-inflicted damage his team sustained in its regular-season finale.

What a debacle.

What an absolute Charger of a debacle.

With the Chargers locked in as the AFC’s No. 5 seed before kickoff, the game was a meaningless exercise until Staley decided it wasn’t, and they now could be forced to play their postseason opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars without Williams, linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr. and edge rusher Joey Bosa.

Staley didn’t just play his starters in a game that didn’t count. Herbert played three quarters. Many of the team’s defensive starters played into the fourth. Receiver Keenan Allen played the entire game.

This was the coaching equivalent of throwing into quadruple coverage, an unforced error that could compromise the championship ambitions of a team that was trending the right way on multiple fronts.

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Chargers: First look at AFC wild-card opponent Jacksonville Jaguars

CHARGERS POLL

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NFL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

All times Pacific
Wild-card round
Saturday
Seattle at San Francisco, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes
Chargers at Jacksonville, 5:15 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Universo

Sunday
Miami at Buffalo, 10 a.m., CBS, Paramount+
New York Giants at Minnesota, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes
Baltimore at Cincinnati, 5:15 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Universo

Monday, Jan. 16
Dallas at Tampa Bay, 5:15 p.m., ESPN/ABC, ESPN2-Manningcast, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes

RAMS

From Gary Klein: As the defending Super Bowl champion Rams sank deeper and deeper into irrelevancy during their lost season, one thing remained constant.

Each week, as losses and injuries mounted, coach Sean McVay conducted a videoconference with reporters from his office, a message plastered on the wall above his head:

URGENT ENJOYMENT

Little, if anything, was enjoyable for McVay, who wore a pained or anxious expression throughout a disappointing season that ended Sunday with a 19-16 overtime defeat to the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field.

“This year has been, in my opinion from just what I can control, professional failure,” McVay said last week, clarifying a few days later, “That doesn’t mean that I feel like a failure. It means that we haven’t lived up to the expectations.”

How did a team that frolicked in celebratory confetti last February nosedive to a 5-12 record, the worst season-after performance by a Super Bowl champion in history? How did an organization that proclaimed its intention to “Run it Back” after winning the title at SoFi Stadium stumble instead to a season of ruin?

Here is a look at why it went so wrong:

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CLIPPERS

From Andrew Greif: The coach’s words before tipoff sounded like a rallying cry.

His lineup choices led to a changing of the guard.

What followed Sunday was a second-half rally that had all the hallmarks of a season-changing moment — until all the early energy devolved into blown opportunities and a sixth consecutive loss.

Stuck in neutral and still battling injuries at the schedule’s midway point, with one All-Star wing asking for smarter, faster play and their coach pleading for more consistent defensive performances, the Clippers endured 48 minutes that felt like a microcosm of their previous 41 games, an authoritative start led by a new starting lineup devolving into a blown lead before a resuscitation this franchise desperately needed — only for it all to fall apart in a 112-108 loss to the Hawks.

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UCLA vs. USC

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Rayah Marshall stood in the corner and watched with her arms folded across her chest. At midcourt, Gabriela Jaquez wrapped Londynn Jones in a hug, the smiles on the UCLA freshmen’s faces inspired by joy and relief while the scowl on Marshall’s face showed the disappointment of another rivalry opportunity gone.

UCLA clawed back from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat USC 61-60 on Sunday at Pauley Pavilion, securing its eighth consecutive win in the crosstown rivalry and second straight rivalry victory by one possession.

Jones led the Bruins with a career-high 22 points off the bench as the No. 12 Bruins (14-2, 3-1 Pac-12) limited USC to just two-of-eight shooting in the fourth quarter and escaped after forcing a contested three-point shot by Destiny Littleton on the final possession that resulted in a harmless put-back basket.

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HORSE RACING

From John Cherwa: Everyone knows the wagering strategy of betting the “other Baffert,” a reference to not playing the Hall of Famers heavy favorite but his second choice. But on Sunday in the Grade 3 $100,000 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita, the winning strategy was to back the “other, other Baffert.”

Bob Baffert had three horses in the race and it was 16-1 longshot Reincarnate, who won the Kentucky Derby points race, though Baffert horses are not eligible to receive Derby points.

Reincarnate broke smartly and stayed near the front for the first half of the race mostly in a duel with Spun Intended. Reincarnate pulled in front approaching the far turn and then moved through the stretch to win by a neck. He paid $35.00, $9.00 and $3.60. Newgate was second, followed by favorite National Treasure and Packs a Whalop, giving Baffert the top three finishers.

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DUCKS

David Pastrnak had three goals and an assist, Hampus Lindholm scored a goal in his Anaheim homecoming, and the Boston Bruins completed a perfect three-game trip with a 7-1 victory over the Ducks. David Krejci had a goal and two assists in Boston’s fourth straight win overall. After Pastrnak secured the sixth 30-goal season of his career with a first-period score, he wrapped his 13th career hat trick with two goals 17 seconds apart in the second period.

Trevor Zegras scored and John Gibson stopped 35 shots for the Ducks, who failed to secure their first three-game winning streak since November 2021.

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1942 — Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer with four seconds left in the first round at Madison Square Garden in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.

1977 — Oakland wins their first NFL championship and the Minnesota Vikings drop their fourth Super Bowl as the Raiders post a 32-14 triumph.

1988 — Anthony Carter catches 10 passes for an NFL postseason-record 227 yards to lead the Minnesota Vikings to a 36-24 victory over the San Francisco 49ers and advanced to the NFC title game.

1991 — Dean Smith collects his 700th coaching victory as North Carolina routs Maryland 105-73. Smith is the sixth Division I basketball coach to reach the 700-win plateau and does so in the shortest time.

1996 — The Toronto Raptors set an NBA record by not making a single free throw in a 92-91 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. The expansion Raptors shoots 0-for-3 from the foul line.

2004 — Brian Boucher of Phoenix posts his fifth consecutive shutout in a 2-0 win over Minnesota. He stops 21 shots and passes Bill Durnan’s NHL mark of 309:21, early in the third period.

2006 — Kobe Bryant of the Lakers scores 45 points against Indiana, making him the first player since Wilt Chamberlain — in November of 1964 — to score at least that many in four straight games.

2007 — Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mark McGwire, whose 583 home runs ranked seventh on the career list, does not make it on his first ballot.

2008 — Golf Channel suspends anchor Kelly Tilghman for two weeks for saying a week earlier that young players who wanted to challenge Tiger Woods should “lynch him in a back alley.”

2010 — Peyton Manning becomes the first player to win The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player honors four times.

2010 — Detroit’s Ben Gordon scores 20 points, including the 10 millionth point in NBA history, in a 104-94 loss to Philadelphia.

2012 — Jeremy Shelley kicks five field goals and Trent Richardson breaks a 34-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter as No. 2 Alabama beats No. 1 LSU 21-0 — the first shutout in BCS title game history.

2013 — No one is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. For the second time in four decades, baseball writers fail to give any player the 75% required for induction to Cooperstown. Craig Biggio, 20th on the career list with 3,060 hits, appears on 68.2% of the 569 ballots, the highest total but 39 votes shy.

2016 — Quarterback Carson Wentz, out since mid-October with a broke wrist, returns to lead North Dakota State to an unprecedented fifth straight FCS championship with a 37-10 victory over top seed Jacksonville State.

2016 — Chris Boswell kicks a 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds remaining as the Steelers somehow pull out an 18-16 victory over Cincinnati in the AFC wild-card game. Pittsburgh moves into field goal position after a pair of 15-yard penalties on the Bengals, one on linebacker Vontaze Burfict and another on Adam Jones after Burfict hits defenseless Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown.

Compiled by the Associated Press

And finally

Tony Gwynn gives his Hall of Fame induction speech. Watch and listen here.