Cameron Dicker made a bad mistake for the Chargers. (AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)
The Los Angeles Chargers had one of the odder drives in NFL playoff history on Saturday.
Down 23-6 against the Houston Texans in the fourth quarter with their odds of a win slipping away, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert took a sack, then another sack, and then… threw an 86-yard touchdown to rookie Ladd McConkey to narrow the deficit to 11 points.
That was the good for the Chargers.
The bad came on the extra point, when the Texans got a hand on Cameron Dicker’s kick and set it flying straight up in the air. Dicker was in perfect position to get the ball as it came down and decided to bat the ball down rather than catch it.
That would have been the correct decision, had he thrown the ball or had it crossed the line of scrimmage.
Unfortunately for Dicker and the rest of the Chargers, the ball was still live when it hit the ground, because it never crossed the line of scrimmage. Texans special-teamer D’Angelo Ross then caught the ball on the bounce and ran it all the way back to get the Texans another two points. Judging from how some of the Chargers ran, they weren’t aware the ball was live.
And then the Texans offense got the ball back.
That’s the fun part about touchdowns. You can gain as many as eight points on one, but you can also be left with effectively four if you screw up the extra point enough. The Chargers went on to lose 32-12.
Not many football fans would have known whether the ball was live, but Dicker not realizing he had to catch the ball is quite the gaffe for a player who has been doing this since he was in high school. He is currently in his third season with the Chargers after a collegiate career with Texas that saw him earn All-Big 12 first-team honors.
Per Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, the play is the first blocked extra-point return since at least 2000, and the ninth overall in that span. It also happened one more this time this season, in Week 4 between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
That was only one of the miscues for the Chargers on Saturday. Four interceptions by Herbert, and plenty more miscues in all three phases of the game, spelled doom for a team that was favored to win.