Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports writes about the special teams problems of the San Diego Chargers. So far this year, the Chargers have lost two close games on the road, and the difference in each has been special teams touchdowns allowed, as Dexter McCluster had a punt return for Kansas City and Leon Washington had two kickoff returns in the loss at Seattle last week. One of the reasons: special teams ace Kassim Osgood is no longer with the team, and is getting pistol-whipped in Jacksonville. Another reason: randomness.

How bad has San Diego’s start been?  Well, going back to 1940, no other team has given up two kick returns and a punt return touchdown in its first three games.  That shows how rare special teams touchdowns are in the overall grand scheme of things.  The good news for Chargers fans is this: other teams that have gotten off to a bad start with special teams return touchdowns have not continued to allow more returns than normal.

Thirteen teams have allowed two or more returns for touchdown in the first four games since 1978.  Those 13 teams combined allowed eight more total special teams returns over the rest of the season. To compare that, a special teams return happens in about 4.8% of team games over that span. If we took 13 random teams over a 12-game stretch for each (156 total games) we should expect 7.5 return touchdowns allowed. The Chargers have been burned by the special teams so far, but going forward, it doesn’t look like they are any more likely than other teams to continue to allow them. Over half of the teams that allowed two or more in the first four weeks did not allow any more for the rest of the season. [photo via Getty]