National Football League

Osweiler struggles again as Chargers beat Texans 21-13

Published Nov. 27, 2016 6:53 p.m. ET

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HOUSTON (AP) Brock Osweiler was so bad in a loss to San Diego on Sunday that Houston Texans coach Bill O'Brien was asked twice after the game if he'd considered benching him.

Osweiler threw three interceptions and failed to move the offense for most of the day in a 21-13 win by the Chargers.

O'Brien said that Osweiler would not be benched in favor of Tom Savage, but didn't elaborate or criticize his quarterback. Osweiler however, had plenty to say about what he did wrong on Sunday.

''I need to play better for us to win,'' he said. ''I feel like our team gave us the opportunity to win today and I didn't play up to what I'm capable of doing, and that's on me and I'll get that cleaned up.''

The Chargers were up by four in the fourth quarter when Philip Rivers evaded the rush and delivered a 25-yard pass to Inman. Kareem Jackson was flagged for unnecessary roughness for a helmet-to-helmet hit on the play, leaving San Diego at the 12-yard line. Rivers delivered a touchdown pass to rookie Hunter Henry on the next play to push the lead to 21-10.

Osweiler's second interception came after that when he badly overthrew C.J. Fiedorowicz and Dwight Lowery made the easy grab.

Houston added a field goal with 37 seconds left and recovered an onside kick. But Osweiler's first shot at the end zone was knocked down, and the second one was intercepted as time expired.

''We started out pretty well, but just couldn't do anything consistently on offense,'' O'Brien said. ''Defense was out there quite a bit. I thought they played hard. Gave up some plays here and there, but just disappointing to lose. It's horrible.''

Sunday wasn't the first time Osweiler has struggled. He's failed to play consistently throughout his first season in Houston after leaving to Denver to sign a $72 million contract. He has 12 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Despite his inconsistent play and a second straight loss, the Texans still have a half-game lead on Tennessee in the weak AFC South .

''I know we've had some ups and we've had some downs and you'd like to see steady improvement, but sometimes that doesn't take place,'' Osweiler said. ''But I'm very optimistic about what this football team can accomplish. All of our goals are right in front of us to accomplish.''

To do that they'll need to figure out how to win on the road with games at Green Bay and Indianapolis coming up in the next two weeks. Sunday was their first loss at home, but they've won just one of four games away from Houston, at Jacksonville.

''We're going to try to work to make sure we have a good game plan for Green Bay, teach it to the players,'' O'Brien said. ''Hopefully we can coach it good enough and execute it good enough that we can go out there and play better on offense against Green Bay.''

Along with taking better care of the ball, the Texans must take advantage of trips in the red zone. On Sunday they had a first down at the 6-yard line before the offense stalled and they settled for a 19-yard field goal. That cut the lead to 14-10 early in the fourth quarter.

''We just got to capitalize,'' running back Lamar Miller said. ''Once we get down there we have to make plays.''

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For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL

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