"The Season, the Playoffs, and LT" - Posted 1/26/08

MIAMI – It might well be only a fractional problem, a half a game being the issue.

“It would be scary if we ever play four quarters,” linebacker Shaun Phillips said. “It's going to come.”

Until it does – and at this point such constancy is just a fantasy – the problem is even scarier.

Sunday the Chargers were talking like a team that knows it.

“You come out and play as flat as we did, you find yourself down 17-3,” Antonio Gates said Sunday after the Chargers did just that before falling 17-10 to Miami. “ You can't keep playing catch-up. Eventually, it's going to catch up with you.”

When a player says his team came out flat, it is a way to convey the team got pushed around without actually saying such a thing, getting pushed around being perhaps the cardinal sin in football.

But Gates actually came right out and said this, too, regarding the Miami Dolphins: “Today, this team was a more physical team. It just showed up in every phase of the game.”

Gates was far from the only one.

“Honestly, they just came out with more attitude than we did,” linebacker Stephen Cooper said. “They were ready to play, play with attitude, and we didn't do that.”

The Chargers are not an unphysical team. They rolled the highly combative Raiders in the second half last week.

But the Chargers sure do take their time getting around to their aggressive side.

“We gotta get geared up to play a physical game instead of wait for the second half,” Cooper said.

It's not all about being physical, it's about executing. And the Chargers have mostly waited to do that until the second half in all but their easy victory over the Jets.

The Chargers trailed by 14 at halftime yesterday, the third time in five games they have been down by at least that big a margin when the second half began. Against the Raiders, they overcame a 15-point deficit. Against Denver and Miami, they could not come back from 14 down.

The Chargers have scored the most second-half points in the NFL this season while allowing the most first-half points. They have gained the second-most second-half yardage while allowing the second-most first-half yardage.

Acknowledging there other more complex issues, it is that contrast that best encapsulates why they are 2-3 and again two games back of Denver in the AFC West.

“We've got to be ready to start games,” safety Clinton Hart said. “And we just haven't done that.”

They don't have an explanation.

“It's pretty frustrating,” running back LaDainian Tomlinson said. “We don't know exactly what the reason is.”

Quarterback Philip Rivers and others flatly denied the coaches could better prepare or motivate them.

“Just go out and execute,” Rivers said. “I take a lot of responsibility. As a quarterback, you're rolling and going, everybody else is going to go. It's not like I've started off fast in these games.”

That's the only solution they offer – an assertion they need to play better.

“We can't keep starting out slow and putting ourselves in a hole,” safety Eric Weddle said.

It's true, though they are battling back. But the endings of games have been a little rough for the Chargers, too.

For the first time this season, the offense could not convert a goal-to-go-situation into points and also for the first time failed to take a fourth-quarter lead.

On the final play of the third quarter, Chris Chambers caught a third-down pass and fought for an extra yard to the Dolphins 1 but could not get in the end zone. On the next play, Tomlinson tried to go through the left side but was met by a wall of Dolphins and didn't get close to the goal line.

After that play, the Chargers had the Dolphins on the 2 with third-and-9 to go. A bomb by Pennington to David Martin was well overthrown, but Hart was called for pass interference, giving the Dolphins a first down at the 30. The Dolphins would punt then and once more before getting the ball back with 5:55 to play.

On a clock-killing march down the field, they converted third downs of 2, 4, 1 and 2 yards.

“We're just starting too late,” cornerback Quentin Jammer said. “And we need to get them off the field when it's time to get them off the field.”

Or else.

“Hopefully we get on a roll somewhere,” Tomlinson said. “We lost two straight, won two straight. We're this team that is up and down. This is not fun. This is not the kind of football we want to play. We're inconsistent. We need to find some consistency.”

MIAMI – Almost, again.

The Chargers lost their first two games by a combined three points. Their third loss, 17-10 to the Dolphins Sunday, was by a touchdown, but also by a yard.

And a half.

As in another horrific first half.

The Chargers have trailed at halftime in all but one game and in all three of their losses.

“We can do it,” Philip Rivers said. “But we're making it tough.”

The offense was stifled for the second straight game. The defense was excellent except when it mattered most.

So instead of continuing a win streak, the Chargers dragged a 2-3 record back across the country, their same five-game mark as last season.

This week, they play their nemesis, the New England Patriots, their only game at Qualcomm Stadium this month before a two-game trip to Buffalo and London, where they play the New Orleans Saints.

“We (fought) our way out of it,” LaDainian Tomlinson said of 2007. “Hopefully we can do the same thing this year. We've got a tough road. It's not last year.”

Down 17-3 at halftime, the Chargers got to 17-10 on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Rivers to Chris Chambers. On the ensuing kickoff, Jacob Hester forced a fumble and recovered it. The Chargers drove to the 1-yard line in five plays, but on the first play of the fourth quarter, Tomlinson was stopped on fourth down.

The Dolphins converted five crucial third downs in the final quarter, including four as they ran out the final 5:55 of the game.

“We just got flat-out beat early,” cornerback Quentin Jammer said. “And then we couldn't get off the field at the end.”

MIAMI – It's the old magician's trick. Once he has you looking for the sleight of hand, he's got you overlooking the obvious.

Even though the secret was well out of the bag on their so-called “Wildcat” offense, the Miami Dolphins did seem a little too eager to show the Chargers a lot of it, using direct snaps to running back Ronnie Brown on their second, third, fourth and sixth plays of the game. Just enough to produce a field goal – and perhaps a bit of a false sense of security within the Chargers.

“We talked all week (about the 'Wildcat'),” said coach Norv Turner. “ 'Don't be distracted by the six or seven plays they run out of that offense.' ”

The Dolphins actually used it a lot more than that, but it was their ordinary, everyday Miami offense that beat the Chargers, albeit with only 17 points. A greater indicator was the time of possession, Miami eating up 36:41 overall with Brown rushing for 125 yards and Chad Pennington being his usual efficient self, completing 22-of-29 passes for 228 yards.

“They weren't doing a lot of different stuff,” said inside linebacker Stephen Cooper. “They were controlling the clock. They weren't really trying to attack us downfield too much. They were trying to control the ball by running the ball.”

The longer the game went, too, the better the Dolphins seemed to get at it. Miami had its extremely nervous moments in the fourth quarter as the Chargers seemed poised for another of their second-half comebacks, but there literally was no stopping the Dolphins down the final stretch of nearly six minutes.

Four times in a drive that started at their own 15-yard line, the Dolphins had third downs with four yards or less to cover. They gained 11, 14, the necessary 1 and 3 yards for first downs in each case, calling on the “Wildcat” for none of them.

“It was stuff we've been working on all week,” said cornerback Quentin Jammer. “We know it's coming. It's ridiculous (stuff) like that that is getting us beat. It's everybody, a mistake here, a mistake there. Mistakes caused the first touchdown. Mistakes caused the second touchdown.”

As it happens, that latter 5-yard score did come off the single-wing formation in which Brown takes the direct snap and does what he will with the ball. In that case, he faked a handoff to fellow running back Ricky Williams, went looking for a hole in the middle, then suddenly performed the neatest sidestep and found sufficient daylight on the outside for a clear jaunt to the end zone.

“When they go from a regular formation and come into 'Wildcat,' he (Brown) is so patient with it, you can't just shoot a gap,” said Chargers safety Eric Weddle. “You have to all be assignment-sound. He just sits there and picks his way and finds a gap and hits it. He's a good runner, a smart runner and patient.”

As of only a couple of months ago, the Dolphins also have a quarterback who plays a patient, lower-risk type of game. When he was with the New York Jets, Pennington beat the Chargers in the regular season and postseason of 2004 with similar performances. Nothing flashy. Almost nothing deep.

Pennington's unbeaten in four starts against the Chargers, most notably leading the Jets to a playoff upset victory in San Diego. His passer rating for those four games is 112.7, including a preposterous 74-percent completion rate, six touchdowns and zero interceptions.

“He's poised,” said Cooper. “He didn't panic at all. He sat back there and threw the ball, threw the ball accurately and controlled the offense.”

Ultimately, though, the Chargers came away thinking they'd all made the Dolphins look better than they really are.

“It's not one person,” said Jammer. “Everyone is on separate pages (messing) up. It just seemed like one person after another was blowing a play. We can't have it.” Staff writer Kevin Acee contributed to this report.

MIAMI – As varied and rich in talent as the Chargers offense is, it is nonetheless built around the spectacular abilities of two primary players.

And those two players, Antonio Gates and LaDainian Tomlinson, are battling injuries they won't let be excuses but that are clearly limiting their effectiveness.

Tomlinson, a week after showing so much burst and explosion in gaining 106 yards against Oakland, was again less than himself Sunday. The Dolphins stepped on him, and his big toe was twisted into the ground, aggravating the injury he suffered in the season opener. And Gates continued to battle a hip stinger that yesterday greatly affected his ability to get open.

“Obviously there are some things I need to do physically,” said Gates, who had one catch for 12 yards. “But once you decide to get on the field you have to put everything else behind you.”

Tomlinson, too, offered no justification.

“I know my toe is hurt, but there is nothing I can do about it,” he said. “I just have to continue to go out there and fight.”

But there is no denying he is not the same, showing his trademark spinning move on just one 11-yard gain Sunday and totaling just 35 yards on the ground.

“The toe is a vital part of the foot,” said Tomlinson, who did lead the Chargers with five receptions (for 22 yards). “It's something you need. When that part is injured and it lingers on, it takes away from you being able to be productive in certain things.”

Hurting homecoming

With Tomlinson and Gates hurting, it is certainly not good news that Chris Chambers, the Chargers' leader with five touchdowns, suffered an ankle sprain on the final play of the fourth quarter.

Trying to battle into the end zone for what would have been his second score of the game, Chambers had his leg rolled over.

He was gone from the locker room after the game, his first against the team with which he spent his first six-plus seasons before being traded to San Diego last October.

Cooper returns

The Chargers' regular defense was as complete as it's going to get Sunday, Stephen Cooper returning to his inside linebacker spot after serving a league-mandated suspension over the first four games.

Cooper, who led the Chargers in tackles last year, recorded seven Sunday and assisted on another while playing most of the Chargers' 70 defensive snaps.

“Physically, I was fine,” Cooper said. “Mentally, I was kinda slow with my reads and stuff. I'm gonna get stronger and stronger as the season goes. I'm not worried about myself. I'm worried about this team coming out next week and playing well.”

Camarillo haunts old team

Greg Camarillo, who spent 2005 on the Chargers' practice squad and played in four games with them in 2006, caught his first touchdown of the season yesterday. Blanketed by Quentin Jammer, Camarillo leaped and caught the ball despite Jammer touching it.

“I've been waiting on this day since the schedule came out,” said Camarillo, who had six catches and leads the Dolphins with 17 this season. “ It's always fun to beat your friends.”

Hester shines on kicks

Rookie Jacob Hester has carried the ball just once this season and has seen just spot duty as a fullback. But he has put together two excellent back-to-back games on special teams.

A week after making three tackles on kicks, Hester reached in on a kickoff return, stabbed the ball from Davone Bess and fell on the ball at the Dolphins 25.

“That's my role,” Hester said. “I've just got to take it like you're a starter. It's my job on this team. I've got to take it serious and do it like you do anything else.”

The turnover almost set up a game-tying score before the Chargers were stopped at the 1.

It was just the second turnover that did not result in a Chargers touchdown this season.

Cro almost picks again

Antonio Cromartie got in the way of a short, late pass from Chad Pennington to Ronnie Brown in the end zone in the second quarter. But with no one between him and the other end zone, the ball clanged off Cromartie's hands – a sight never seen last year but recurring this season.

“If I catch it, it's going to be six,” Cromartie said. “But I didn't. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.”

Nuts 'n' Bolts

– The Chargers lost the opening coin toss for the fifth time in five games. The Dolphins, however, chose to defer and the Chargers started the game by receiving the kick. When Nate Kaeding kicked a 34-yard field goal, it was the first time the Chargers scored on their opening drive and the first time they scored before their opponent.

– Tight ends again hurt the Chargers, as Anthony Fasano and David Martin caught four passes for 72 yards, all of them for first downs. A total of 10 tight ends have caught 33 passes for 426 yards against the Chargers.

– Tomlinson fell 19 yards short of reaching the 11,000-yard mark for his career.

– With a half-sack Sunday, Shaun Phillips is now tied with Jyles Tucker (who was active for the game but did not play) for the team lead with three on the season.

– Jammer left the game for a while in the second quarter after getting poked in the eye on a stiff-arm from Brown. Cletis Gordon replaced him.

– The Chargers had the ball for just 23 minutes, 19 seconds. It's the fourth time they have lost the time of possession battle in five games.

– The Chargers scored one touchdown in three red zone trips and are now at 50 percent for the season, having gotten in the end zone just nine times in 18 times inside the 20.

– After being sacked just twice through three games, Philip Rivers has been sacked six times in the past two.

Chargers Team Report
Yahoo Sports, October 10, 2008

Inside Slant

Can we get down-home folksy here? Are the Chargers all hat and no cattle?

The New England Patriots travel to San Diego on Sunday with the Chargers’ season clinging to a cliff.

The Chargers, over the past few years, have loved to yap about having the most talented roster in the league. About their top-notch skill players. About a defense which is controlled chaos, forcing turnovers and collecting sacks. About having enough Pro Bowlers to charter a private jet to Hawaii.

The Patriots have often heard this chatter and failed to return fire. Instead, they have concentrated on eliminating the Chargers from the playoffs the past two years.

The two forces meet Sunday night, and the Chargers know they need a win more than convincing others that they really are good.

Coming off Sunday’s stunning loss in Miami, the Chargers are working without a net. They sit at 2-3, two games off the pace in the AFC West and a killer stretch staring them in the face.

How critical is Sunday’s game? LaDainian Tomlinson has called it a “must-win”.

In mid-October for a team some expected to play in early February? Yikes!

That underscores the urgency for the Chargers, who are no longer playing the “it’s a long season” card. Or fall back on last year, when they sat at 5-5 before catching fire and winning their last eight in advancing to the AFC championship game—against the Patriots, who gave them the cold shoulder on a bone-chilling day.

What was supposed to be a Sunday grudge match has become a contest in which the Chargers have to be concerned about their play, not their opponent’s.

The coat of confidence in which the Chargers entered the season with is evaporating fast. The cockiness is giving way to an unsettling feeling that the Chargers are getting too close to the third rail, a misstep or two from seeing super dreams be electrocuted.

Sure it’s early and you can’t win a championship this weekend. But in some ways, the Chargers could come close to losing one with another home loss, which would send a snowball of momentum rumbling in the wrong direction.

But coach Norv Turner—who is starting to feel some heat—expects his squad to rebound.

“I think the strength of our football team is the same thing I would have answered a year ago at this same time: the type of character we have, the resiliency of our guys,” he said. “I know they’re disappointed … but I don’t see anyone point their finger. I don’t see anyone looking the other way. I don’t try to see anyone trying to get out of this deal.”

The real deal is the Chargers need Sunday’s game in the worst way.

Series History:   34th regular-season meeting. Patriots lead series, 18-13-2. Not only have the Patriots ousted the Chargers from their last two playoff appearances, but they have defeated them in 11 of the past 13 regular-season games. The Chargers do have one league title and it came against the then-Boston Patriots in 1963, when the Chargers prevailed for the AFL crown.

Notes, Quotes

- The Chargers are 12-1 at home against the AFC since 2006.

- This is the Chargers’ last home game until Nov. 9 against the Chiefs.

- The Patriots stayed on the West Coast after beating the 49ers last Sunday.

- Patriots S Rodney Harrison first made his mark with the Chargers. He was a fifth-round pick of then-GM Bobby Beathard and spent the early part of his career trying to convince then-Chargers coach Bobby Ross he was more than a special teams player. The Chargers were convinced he was on his last legs when they released him after the 2002 season.

- Coach Norv Turner said he is warning his players that history doesn’t always repeat itself. The 2007 Chargers were 2-3 before going on to the AFC Championship Game. “I’m going to be very careful in assuming that just because we were able to do it last year that it’s just going to happen.”

- SS Eric Weddle had a game-high 10 tackles Sunday, but he couldn’t celebrate with the team dropping its third game in five weeks. “We got to know every team is going to give us their best shot,” Weddle said. “We have to play our ‘A’ game to win games and realize that wins in this league aren’t as easy as you think. We got to fight for it.”

- The Chargers will be trying to break the Patriots’ 12-game road winning streak. They broke their 21-game home winning streak with a win at Foxboro in 2005.

- The Chargers have trailed in four of their five games this year. “It’s pretty frustrating because we can’t put a finger on it,” Tomlinson said.

- Ex-San Diego State QB Kevin O’Connell is No. 2 behind New England starter Matt Cassel.

- Patriots WR Wes Welker, who set a franchise record with 112 receptions last year, was waived by the Chargers in 2004.

- OLB Shaun Phillips has three sacks in the three games.

By The Numbers:   4—Chargers postseason wins since 1994; the Patriots have 17 over that span.

Quote To Note:   “I don’t think there is any question about that. I would never question these guys. We work too hard to not be committed to winning.”—RB LaDainian Tomlinson, when asked if every Charger was committed to winning right now.

Strategy And Personnel

What was expected as a one-week absence will go on longer for outside linebacker Jyles Tucker.

Tucker tweaked his hamstring in the win over Oakland two games back and the injury is worse than originally feared.

Tucker signed an extension early in the season when the Chargers realized Shawne Merriman probably wouldn’t last the season with his knee injury. But the Chargers’ plan of the transition to Tucker—who does show promise—took another turn.

With Tucker down, Marques Harris gets another start. He had a 1/2 sack last week and displays a good burst off the line as well. But whenever a team—any team—gets down to a third-stringer on the depth chart, it usually raises a red flag.

PLAYER PERSONNEL NOTES

- RB Darren Sproles figures to get more carries with the uncertainty around LaDainian Tomlinson’s toe.

- WR Craig Davis should be in the mix more with Chris Chambers (ankle) expected to be out. Davis has caught passes in only two of the Chargers’ five games.

- DT Ryon Bingham is being used more inside—he also plays end—with the Chargers trying to keep Pro Bowl DT Jamal Williams (knees) fresh.

- ILB Tim Dobbins continues to steal reps from Matt Wilhelm with his play.

- FB Jacob Hester, a second-round pick, is having trouble getting in on the base offense. But it hasn’t hampered his play on special teams, where he is being noticed; he forced and recovered a fumble on a kickoff last week.

Game Plan:   Get after Matt Cassel. The Chargers have been reluctant to blitz much and the result has been a very tepid pass rush—we know replacing Shawne Merriman is a tough deal. But the Chargers have to get after Cassel to keep him from casually going through his reads and picking apart a pass defense which is ranked dead last in the NFL.

Matchups To Watch:   Chargers CBs Antonio Cromartie and Quentin Jammer, vs. Patriots’ passing attack and WR Randy Moss. Cromartie and Jammer will be tested by the Patriots, as they seemed to have rediscovered Moss last Sunday on the deep routes. The Chargers’ play from the cornerbacks has been uneven. And when looking for help from the safeties, Eric Weddle is in his first year as a starter, and Clinton Hart is nursing a sore shoulder and a left hand, which was broken earlier this year. Cromartie and Moss is a matchup that features two of the best pure athletes in the NFL. But Cromartie needs to be careful here in that he doesn’t go out of his way to showboat his abilities in going for a big play instead of supplying solid coverage against Moss.

- Chargers kickoff return team vs. Patriots kick return team, led by Ellis Hobbs. The Chargers have had trouble containing returns, ranking No. 31 in the league with opponents taking over, on average, on their 30-yard-line. The Chargers defense is on its heels of late and it needs the return team to do a better job in delivering some decent field position. But Hobbs will test that with a 34.2-yard average—nearly three yards better than any other returner in the NFL.

- Chargers running game with RB LaDainian Tomlinson and FB Mike Tolbert, vs. Patriots run defense with S Rodney Harrison. The Chargers need to get their struggling running game back on track and they will try to do just that if Tomlinson’s sore big right toe is willing. If so, Tolbert, an undrafted rookie, needs to have a big day against Harrison, one of the hardest-hitting safeties in NFL history. Harrison is well-versed in how Tomlinson, a former teammate, likes to run. And while Harrison doesn’t cover the ground like he once did, he still is dynamite in stopping the run. Plus, with WR Chris Chambers not expected to play, Harrison can cheat toward the line of scrimmage even more in trying to plug a gap Tomlinson wants to hit. The battle between C Nick Hardwick and DT Vince Wilfork is also worth watching.

Injury Impact:  

- WR Chris Chambers (ankle) didn’t practice Thursday and appears to be out for Sunday. “I’m always optimistic; I consider myself a fast healer,” Chambers said. “We have a great training staff and I’m going to get back as fast as I can. I’m not going to rush anything now and hopefully I’ll be on the field very soon.”

- WR Vincent Jackson, who has a team-high 17 catches, was also out. He tweaked his knee in Wednesday’s practice and stayed off it Thursday. “There’s a difference between playing with soreness and soreness you can’t play through,” Jackson said. “The knee is just pretty sore … get some rest and see if we can get the inflammation out of there and hopefully by tomorrow I can practice.”

- TE Antonio Gates (hip) worked but he’s been having trouble getting separation and yards after the catch in games.

- CB Antonio Cromartie is again being slowed by a hip ailment that restricted him earlier in the year. He’ll likely play Sunday, but he could be compromised in trying to track Randy Moss.

- FB Mike Tolbert can’t shake the sprained ankle that has been bothering him. He, like CB Antonio Cromartie, was a limited participant in Thursday’s practice.

- RB LaDainian Tomlinson (toe) also was restricted in his work. That said, he was moving pretty well.

- OLB Jyles Tucker (hamstring) is out at least this week and possibly longer.

- OLB Marques Harris, who was a third-stringer at the beginning of the season, will start in place of OLB Jyles Tucker.

- RG Mike Goff (knee) is a go for Sunday.

- LG Kris Dielman (thigh) will start Sunday.