How many more opportunities can the Chargers fritter away?

Their latest opportunity to close the gap on the Denver Broncos , and put themselves in position for the postseason, sailed over the uprights and into the darkness Sunday evening, courtesy of the Indianapolis Colts' Adam Vinatieri. His 51-yard field goal as time expired gave the Colts a 23-20 victory and shoved the Chargers deeper into the hole they've dug for themselves.

San Diego is 4-7, and while it remains two games behind in the AFC West thanks to Oakland's 31-10 victory at Denver, one more precious week has fallen from the calendar.

"Rather than two back with six to play, we're two back with five to play because neither of us did anything," said Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, who was 24 of 41 for 288 yards and two TDs.

"I don't know how many more opportunities we're going to get. We had the ball in our court. We controlled our fate. But we didn't get it done."

As has often been the case in a season marred by a series of close losses, lots of little things contributed to the outcome.

For instance, after the Chargers reached the Colts 9 early in the third quarter, tackle Jeromey Clary was called for a false start on third-and-7. Rivers was sacked and fumbled on the next play, and the Chargers came away with nothing.

A few minutes later, after the Chargers' defense had stuffed Indianapolis on three straight running plays at the goal line, the Colts' Dominic Rhodes froze linebacker Stephen Cooper with a fake at the goal line and caught Peyton Manning's pass in the end zone en route to a 17-10 lead.

Two key pass interference penalties, by Antonio Cromartie and Clinton Hart, kept alive the Colts' next drive, as did a play that was ruled an incompletion but looked like a fumble by Anthony Gonzalez. The Colts came away from that one with a field goal to make it 20-10 with 11:48 left in the game.

Rivers drove San Diego to a touchdown with 5:36 left, on a 1-yard pass to Jacob Hester. And after a big defensive play by Shaun Phillips on a third-and-1 run by Joseph Addai, the Chargers got the ball back and marched quickly down the field - but a false start penalty by Kris Dielman stalled the drive, and LaDainian Tomlinson dropped a Rivers pass in the open field on second-and-15.

San Diego had to settle for a 37-yard field goal by Nate Kaeding with 1:30 left, on a fourth-and-2 situation from the 29. It was second-guessable not only because the Chargers settled for the tie but also because Coach Norv Turner called a timeout to set up the field goal.

And that decision turned out to be critical when Manning marched his team 38 yards in 1 minute and 28 seconds with just one timeout available, setting up Vinatieri for his crucial kick.

A year ago when these teams played here, Vinatieri faced a 29-yard game-winner at the same end of the stadium and pushed it wide right.

This time he split the uprights.

Reach Jim Alexander at 951-368-9543 or jalexander@PE.com