The San Diego Chargers are the most talented team in the NFL and watching them self-destruct before they reach their peak is one of the ugliest tasks a football writer must endure.

With an ugly 31–24 loss to the Green Bay Packers yesterday, the Chargers are now 1–2 and have been outscored by a total of 30 points. What’s wrong? I haven’t a clue, except to observe that their offense was terrible in the opening week win over the Bears and their defense was terrible in the second week loss to the Patriots — they scored just 14 points in each — and both their offense and defense were pretty bad against Green Bay. I suppose if you’re a Chargers fans, you can find some sort of balance there.

The question that’s likely to be debated after this season is over, though, is: Couldn’t they have found someone better than Norv Turner to replace Marty Schottenheimer? Turner’s record as a head coach before this season is an uninspiring 59–83–1, and his teams have made it to just two postseason games (where they went 1–1). At least Schottenheimer’s teams made it to the playoffs before collapsing.

Quarterback Philip Rivers hasn’t yet made San Diego fans forget the departed Drew Brees, but his good but not great 7.0 yards per pass average is no worse than his mark last season. LaDainian Tomlinson’s numbers, on the other hand, are dreadful. The man by consensus the best back in the league has rushed for just 130 yards in three games and his yards per rush average, 2.3, is more baffling than Larry Craig’s legal defense. Last year Tomlinson averaged 5.2 yards a carry; at this rate he will have to average better than 6.0 for the rest of the season just to equal last year.

Turner is supposed to be using the same offensive schemes as Schottenheimer, yet everyone looks out of sync. The Chargers had eight penalties against the Packers, six on offense, costing them five badly needed first downs. Tomlinson’s longest game was just 11 yards, and on 21 other carries he gained only 50. The problem is not with him: nine times he was hit before he could make it back to the line of scrimmage, sort of an indication that the Green Bay linebackers knew what was coming. Then, the strength of the Chargers is supposed to be that their opponents know what is coming and can’t stop it. What usually comes is Tomlinson on a slant off left tackle behind reliable guard Kris Dielman and gifted rookie tackle Marcus McNeill. Last year, the play was the Chargers’ bread and butter; this year, it’s toast. The Packers often had two linebackers and a safety crowding the left side of the San Diego offensive line, and neither Turner nor anyone on his staff seemed to notice.

The only problem with Rivers’s passing seems to be that he’s doing too much of it on third and long. Against Green Bay, he threw 36 times for 306 yards and three TDs, which set up a thrilling shootout with Brett Favre, who averaged 8.2 yards and also had three TDs. But between the penalties, which negated four of his completions, and the holes in his offensive line, which resulted in two sacks and eight knockdowns, Rivers had a rough day. His only bad pass came in the fourth quarter when Packers middle linebacker Nick Barnett stepped in front of a ball intended for Tomlinson and returned it 38 yards to the Charger’s two. The Packers scored the game winning TD two plays later.

Right now the Chargers are a mess and the only sign of creativity in Turner’s offense is in finding spectacular ways to blow games. If San Diego loses to Kansas City next week, they may be too far behind the AFC’s elite teams — New England, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh — to find their way back. And San Diego’s front office will have no one to blame but themselves for hiring Turner.

* * *

So far in 2007, the league’s most elite team is the Patriots, and if the season ended today, they’d be favorites to win the Super Bowl by about two touchdowns. The Patriots just could be that good, if only because it doesn’t seem like anyone could be good enough to beat the Jets (10–6 last year), the San Diego Chargers (14–2 last season), and the Buffalo Bills (just 7–9 in 2006, but thought to be an improved team this year) by a whopping 79 points.

There was nothing to their Sunday game against Buffalo. The Bills’ starting three defensive backs were all injured, and though Buffalo had a brief 7–3 lead in the first quarter, their defense looked as if it was trying to hold back a tidal wave. Buffalo did manage to rush for 110 yards, but you got the impression that the only reason they were running the ball was because they couldn’t throw it. With quarterback J.P. Losman sustaining a knee injury on the game’s first play, replacement Trent Edwards looked like General Custer trying to find a friendly face at the Little Big Horn as he tried to find his receivers amid the New England pass rushers. He netted just 65 yards passing in 22 attempts.

Meanwhile, Tom Brady, with 311 yards passing against the Bills, could be approaching one of the greatest seasons in NFL history with 887 yards gained, 10 TDs to one interception, and a phenomenal 10.1 yards per throw. To get an idea of what level football Brady and the Pats are playing, consider that New England has won three Super Bowls with Brady at the helm, and he has never exceeded 7.8 yards a throw in a season. That’s what having Randy Moss to throw to can do for the right quarterback. With 403 yards, Moss currently has 45% of New England’s yards through the air and caught half of Brady’s TD throws. It’s frightening to think what the Patriots could do in two weeks against the Cleveland Browns’ defense. But next week the Pats’ own D will get their first substantial test when they face Carson Palmer in Cincinnati.

Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”