It doesn’t happen here. Get down 24-7 to the Broncos in Invesco Field, and your world of hurt is stacked a Mile High. You’re going to lose, brothers and sisters. You’re going to crawl out of this place to the plane gasping like a bloodhound chasing Cool Hand Luke. You’re getting beat, that’s all there is to it.
It’s all but expected. The Broncos lose at home about as often as Mike Shanahan gets a toothy smile commercial. The Chargers win here when the Broncos wear vertical striped socks, which happened to be in the early 1960s.
So the Bolts come to Mile High, where they were 2-17 in their last 19 tries, up here on national television, with first place in the AFC West on the table, and proceed to stink to the point where they wouldn’t be welcome in a bait tank.
Their run defense, allowing 89 yards a game, gives up 95 yards in the second quarter to two running backs who went undrafted.
They’re outgained by Denver, which basically has no offense to speak of – the Broncos were averaging 17.6 points a game and allowing 12.3 – 177-9 in the second quarter.
The hosts score 10 third-quarter points in 5:35 to go up 24-7 after San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers tosses a horrible pass picked by corner Darrent Williams and returned 31 yards for a score. The Chargers were done. Finished. Kaput, in the toughest place in the NFL to win a football game.
The defense was beaten like bad steak.
“I don’t remember all the injuries. I just remember them coming to me and saying, ‘We don’t know if we have enough guys to go out there,”‘ Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer would say. But the visitors, who are nothing if not spunky, came right back, with Rivers finally discovering that tight end Antonio Gates actually made the trip and wasn’t skiing in Aspen. Tailback LaDainian Tomlinson, who is rewriting history like Bob Woodward gone berserk, scored from 3 yards out.
It was apparent by then the Chargers had lost track of exactly where they were, in Denver, The League’s electric chair.
“Nobody panicked,” said Rivers, who did it again, completing 19 of 26 passes for 222 yards, including a 51-yard thing of beauty to Tomlinson, which would be L.T.’s third touchdown of the evening. “It’s a unique bunch.”
Said Tomlinson, who had his first big game here: “Obviously we made a statement going down and scoring right away. We’re a relentless group of guys.” And so, despite some last-minute brain flatulence, the Chargers were everything they needed to be in the second half. Relentless. Right.
Rivers’ shot to L.T. made it 24-21. The Broncos got a fourth-quarter field goal from Jason Elam, whom I believe once played for Curly Lambeau. Then Michael Turner returned the kickoff 45 yards. Then L.T. ran for 15. Then Rivers found Gates for 16, and then 10. And then, from 5 yards out, Rivers found wideout Vincent Jackson in the corner of the end zone. 28-27, Chargers.
Then Drayton Florence picked the terribly unpredictable Jake Plummer. L.T. ran it in again, from the 1. 35-27. Final.
And so now the Chargers are 8-2, leading the West, winning in a place you usually must go through to get to the playoffs, and they are starting to cuddle up to history.
Some 13,000 NFL games have been played and never has a team come from at least 17 points down in back-to-back games (see the Bengals, up 28-7 on San Diego last week). Tomlinson scored four times for the second straight game and is now the first player with three consecutive games with three or more touchdowns. He has 22 TDs in 10 games. Ridiculous.
“There are chronicles that haven’t been written about the struggles here,” Schotten- heimer said.
And more to be written on the fast life and times of L.T.
Tomlinson: “I’m going along for the ride.”
Since when does the horse become the jockey? Now that’s historic.
