Chargers HC Brandon Staley doesn't regret foregoing fourth-down field goals vs. Chiefs

The Los Angeles Chargers had three separate drives against the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night where they brought the ball inside their opponent's five-yard line, only to come away empty on the scoreboard. 

There were no missed chip shot field goals, however, as head coach Brandon Staley elected to keep kicker Dustin Hopkins on the sidelines each and every time the Chargers faced fourth down in scoring range during the team's 34-28 overtime loss.

On the first drive of the contest, Los Angeles couldn't covert on fourth-and-goal from the Chiefs' five-yard line, as tight end Donald Parham was unable to hang on to a bullet from quarterback Justin Herbert in the back of the end zone. On the play, Parham suffered a head injury that led to a frightening scene where he was eventually immobilized and carried out on a stretcher.

Later on, with the Chargers already holding a 14-10 lead, Staley again chose to forgo a short field-goal attempt on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line, but Herbert's pass to Keenan Allen was batted down as time expired to signal halftime. The last failed fourth-down call came on Los Angeles' opening drive of the second half from the Kansas City 28-yard line with just two yards needed to extend the possession.

"From where my mindset is, I know that the quickest way to win a game like that is to score touchdowns, not field goals, especially considering who's on the other side," Staley said, per NFL.com's Kevin Patra. "To me, when you feel like you're in an advantage situation, when you don't feel like it's a gamble, and you feel like this is an advantage for you, then that's going to be our mindset. I don't think that any decision that I made tonight was a gamble. We felt like it was an advantage situation for us. That's why we did it. If we didn't feel like that was the case, then we would have kicked a field goal or we would have punted. That's the way that we're going to do things around here. I know that our team embraces that mindset. We're going to continue to do it every game we play moving forward."