Turns out, Josh Lambo was holding out on us.

As we saw Sunday, he can boom kicks into (and beyond) the end zone with a consistency unseen around here in more than a decade.

In the preseason, Lambo was largely working on placing his kicks and at times holding back to allow coaches to assess players on the coverage team.

In 10 preseason kickoffs, the rookie booted just four touchbacks, including one in his final seven.


That was what had us – well, me, plus a few players who were handicapping the kicker competition – thinking that veteran Nick Novak was the obvious choice.

The Chargers are just one game into Lambo’s first season. Let’s remember he missed a 38-yard extra point try and that his 2-for-2 on field goal attempts leaves him 15 from matching Novak’s start in 2014.

But what happened on kickoffs indicates the right choice was made.

While Novak and his 86.3 percent field goal success rate would have been the safe choice, it also would have been the dangerous choice.


That was underscored this past Sunday.

Four times – more than in all but one Chargers game ever outside the mile-high air of Denver – the Chargers watched as the Lions’ kickoff return team became a kickoff watch team.

“It’s awesome,” Eric Weddle said.

He and others know that the more touchbacks Lambo kicks, the fewer hits they will take and the fresher the defense will be.


More immediately tangible, touchbacks eliminate the possibility of a field-position blowup.

The Chargers kickoff coverage team was basically a liability when given the opportunity to be one on Sunday.

The Lions’ Ameer Abdullah had returns of 48, 34 and 24 yards. Only the latter was acceptable. It was just a couple players at fault on the 48-yarder, but that’s all it takes. The 34-yarder was returned from eight yards deep in the end zone, and the hang time wasn’t great, so Lambo can’t entirely be excused from fault on that one either.

“You can’t say he’ll do it every time,” Stuckey said of Lambo booming touchbacks. “The team still pays 10 other guys to cover kicks.”


Those 10 guys must be better. Or at least have their opportunities to stink limited.

“I had three kicks that did not go out of the end zone,” Lambo said this week when asked for a critique of his performance.

That’s why he’s here.

Lambo was targeted by the Chargers as an undrafted free agent. He wasn’t guaranteed a job when they were wooing him, but he was guaranteed the legitimate chance to earn one. Lambo believed what the Chargers said and believed the data his agent had collected showing how awful the Chargers kickoffs were in 2014.


That data may have included such tidbits as Novak’s 10 touchbacks in 2014 being the fewest in the NFL, and that Chargers’ opponents scored touchdowns on 50 percent of drives started beyond the 29-yard line -- and on just 6.3 percent of drives started inside the 21.

Given that the Chargers decided to make it a competition, it is simple to see in hindsight that Lambo all but sealed the job in the second preseason game. That night in Arizona, he nailed three field goals, including a 53-yarder as time ran out at the half and a game-winner from 47 yard as the fourth quarter expired.

The Chargers had seen the leg power from his first day of offseason workouts, when he launched kickoffs over heads and onto the façade of the team’s headquarters. Then they saw composure. In that preseason game, which carried career-path implications for Lambo, they saw he could be accurate under pressure.

It was still a risk, but risk is often the overlooked ingredient in success.


And it was a calculated risk. They figure he can handle the success and inevitably harsh failures of being an NFL kicker.

Lambo carries himself like a quarterback who has been starting in the NFL for six years. And not a friendly QB like the one we’re used to. Honestly, Lambo is like Mike McCoy without the effort McCoy makes to exude a shred of warmth.

Whether that demeanor comes from genes or his experience as an amateur and professional soccer goalie, Lambo doesn’t say.

“I’m just here to do a job,” he said, staring at the questioner and pursing his lips.


That sort of confidence and aloofness cocktail doesn’t make for a good interview. So what? With an atomic right leg to go along with his manner, it might be the makings of a great career.

Told that he’s unlike any kicker I’ve met, Lambo quickly said: “Damn right.”

Sitting at a locker beside Lambo, rookie running back Melvin Gordon laughed heartily and let out a “Whooo.”

The Chargers’ special teams players and coaches are letting out a collective “Ahhhh.”


For those of us who thought Novak was the right guy, it seems at this point, we should be saying, “Aha!”