Chargers HC Brandon Staley using historic playoff collapse as motivation

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley wants his players to remember and bounce back from January's playoff collapse at the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

"What you've got to do is get your group back and you've got to get them ready for training camp, because you know you have what it takes," Staley recently told Dan Graziano of ESPN. "...And we talked about why things happened, and it's not about the football gods, it's not about, 'That just wasn't our day' -- it's just that we didn't play well enough. And we talked about why and faced it and took responsibility for it. And also what's important for perspective is, 'You know, guys, this is a part of pro sports.'"

The Chargers famously jumped out to a 27-0 lead before halftime of the postseason matchup at TIAA Bank Field but then couldn't prevent Jacksonville from completing a remarkable rally en route to earning a 31-30 victory. According to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN), it was the third-largest comeback in NFL playoff history. 

Since that fateful night, Staley has shown Chargers players clips from other well-known sports collapses to remind them they're not the only ones to gag a significant lead away in a massive contest. 

"You play long enough, you coach long enough, you compete long enough, you're going to have a tough game like this," Staley explained about his intended message. "But these teams have elite cultures, they have the elite players and coaching, and they have the belief that their way is really special. And here's the response. Here's what they did to get over it." 

Quarterback Justin Herbert told Graziano that Staley's words landed largely because the coach had to eventually address the figurative elephant in the room. 

"You have to learn from it, or else it beats you up over and over again," Herbert added. "So for us to be able to address it, talk about it, it was really valuable. Hopefully, we've learned as much as we can from it." 

How the Chargers recover from January's disappointment will help determine if they reach or even exceed the expectations hovering over them this summer. As of Friday afternoon, OddsClecker listed Los Angeles eighth among the betting favorites at +1400 odds to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LVIII in February.