How Thursday’s Chargers-Raiders game made history

How do you explain your team losing by more than 40 points on national television?

Following an embarrassing 63-21 showing in Las Vegas on Thursday Night Football, Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley attempted to simply put it all in perspective: “Sometimes games like this happen.”

Actually, coach, they don’t.

Unfortunately for Staley, who, along with general manager Tom Telesco, was fired on Friday, his squad’s disastrous effort had quite literally never been seen before. The game’s 63-21 ending total was the first such result in NFL history, marking the league’s 1,083rd unique final score.

There’s a term for such unprecedented statistical achievement: “Scorigami.”

What is Scorigami?

First created and observed by Jon Bois of SB Nation, Scorigami is a concept for tracking final scores that have never previously occurred in NFL history.

“Due to the unique nature of how points are scored in (American) football, where it is impossible to score 1 point on its own, as well as the rarity of the 2 point safety and 8 point touchdown and 2 point conversion, there are a lot of scores that are possible, but have never happened,” reads the official Scorigami website.

The Raiders’ drubbing of the Chargers notched the eighth instance of Scorigami thus far in 2023, joining these fellow scoring anomalies:

• Baltimore 25, Houston 9 (Week 1).

• Miami 70, Denver 20 (Week 3).

• Philadelphia 25, Tampa Bay 11 (Week 3).

• Dallas 43, L.A. Rams 20 (Week 8).

• Houston 39, Tampa Bay 37 (Week 9).

• Denver 29, Cleveland 12 (Week 12).

• Miami 45, Washington 15 (Week 13).

An account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, tracks the likelihood of Scorigami in real time throughout every NFL game, giving each contest a calculated percentage chance of ending in Scorigami along with what the most likely such result would be.

What led to the Chargers-Raiders Scorigami?

The Raiders pounded Los Angeles early and never looked back, scoring 21 points in both the first and second quarters and leading by 49 before the Chargers could get points on the board.

Las Vegas rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell threw for four touchdowns on the night, with the Raiders scoring twice on defense as well. The Chargers coughed up five total turnovers, including four lost fumbles.

Former BYU defender Michael Davis recorded six tackles with two passes defended for Los Angeles at cornerback. Orem High product Alohi Gilman made three tackles for the Chargers as well.