I generally don't like to revisit or write about venues I have already seen, but the Chargers were hosting the Titans at SoFi Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Tickets were very cheap, so Sharpy and I headed over. There's an In'n'Out on Century Boulevard which makes a good starting point before walking over to the stadium.
I'm not going to talk much about the venue as it has not changed since we had the Club 124 meetup back in 2021. It is still the most expensive stadium ever built and at $5 billion, it might never be surpassed, considering the Intuit Dome cost 'just' $2 billion.
We picked up seats in Section 210 for less than 20% of face value and were treated to an old-school football game, just the type I like. Lots of long drives with more running plays (the Chargers ran 37 times against just 18 passes, Tennessee was 21 and 23). As such the game moved very quickly, with the first 28 minutes of play taking about an hour and the Chargers leading 13-7. Then Justin Herbert was strip sacked and the Titans returned it for a touchdown, only for a lengthy review to overturn the call, which I disagreed with. The last two minutes took about 20 minutes of real time as TV timeouts had to be taken.
Down 13-7 to begin the second half, the Titans marched 62 yards on 11 plays, taking 7:09 but only coming away with a Nick Folk field goal. The Chargers, wearing their beautiful powder blues, then used a great kickoff return from Derius Davis to get to the Titan 43, from where they ran 7 plays taking 4:27, finishing with a 16-yard touchdown to Quentin Johnston.
After the Titans punted, the Chargers took over at their 5 and then engineered one of the best drives I have seen, running the ball ten times and passing just twice, with the second one resulting in a pass interference penalty at the Titan 2. Two plays later, former Titan Hassan Haskins jumped over for a touchdown that made it 27-10. The drive took 7:10 and essentially ended the game. The Titans did score another touchdown but it was too little, too late as LA improved to 6-3.
The game took just 2:41, making it the quickest I have ever seen. It was a pleasure to see a team control the ball and the clock; to me that is much more entertaining than high-scoring games that most people enjoy. This one was well worth the money; the next day the Rams were costing six times as much, so I skipped it.
Best,
Best,
Sean
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