PRO FOOTBALL : Chargers’ 40-7 Win Wasn’t All That Easy

The Chargers fumbled three times on their first series. They allowed 271 yards in the first half, along with the obligatory touchdown in the two-minute drill. They seemed determined to win as ugly as possible.

If so, they failed.

The Chargers toyed with one of pro football’s crummiest teams, the Buffalo Bills, Sunday. They won, 40-7, ending a two-game losing streak.

How easy was it? Well, the Charger defense got on the scoreboard for the first time all year on a 75-yard interception return by John Hendy.

Hendy seemed unsure of how to act. As he pranced toward the end zone, he swung his right arm in a big arc, as if to incite the crowd. After scoring, he dropped to his knees and crossed himself, as if seeking to be absolved for embarrassing the Bills.

How easy was it? Beleaguered kicker Bob Thomas, who missed six of his last nine field-goal attempts and watched five hopefuls audition for his job last week, was nearly perfect. He hit two field goals, but missed an extra point. Picky, picky.

“Easy?” said Dan Fouts, who threw three touchdown passes. “We struggled offensively in the first half, and it was all our own doing.

“It may have looked like a laugher, but you never feel it’s easy when you’re out there.”

It didn’t look particularly easy to Coach Don Coryell, either.

“We were pretty shaky in the first half,” he said.

“The defense had to pull us out of it. The defense turned the game in our favor with the turnovers.”

The Bills, for all the yardage they got in the first half, scored only with the aid of their “Refrigerator,” 280-pound rookie Bruce Smith. Doing his emulation of William Perry, he took out linebackers Billy Ray Smith and Derrie Nelson as Joe Cribbs plowed two yards for a touchdown late in the first half.

It wasn’t a very artistic homecoming for Buffalo’s Bruce Mathison, who spent the last two years as San Diego’s No. 3 quarterback.

Making only his fourth pro start, Mathison was picked off four times. He single-handedly made the Charger defense look like the most menacing west of Chicago. For a day, at least.

“The Chargers kicked the crap out of us,” Buffalo Coach Hank Bullough said.

“Bruce is going to have days like this until he doesn’t feel as if he has to carry the team. We’re going to have to live and die with him until he gets some experience.”

There was a good reason for the Chargers to be somewhat concerned about their ability to handle Mathison. After all, Houston’s equally untested Oliver Luck burned them for nearly 300 yards in a 37-35 win last week.

Mathison wound up with 271 yards through the air, but the numbers meant nothing. The Chargers had him figured.

“He makes up his mind where he wants to throw,” San Diego linebacker Linden King said. “He has such a rocket, he can really zip it in there.”

What King was saying, as gently as possible, is that Mathison needs experience. He needs to learn how to look off a defender.

Hendy had a hunch what was coming on the play he turned into a 75-yard touchdown.

“I heard Bruce audible a color that I knew was going to change the play,” Hendy said. “Then he called out No. 85, which they had used earlier. I thought it was going to be a 10-yard out by their receiver, and I just jumped on it.”

San Diego defensive players aren’t often called upon to diagnose a victory, but they handled the chore without a hitch.

“That was fun,” King said. “I had a real good time out there. It was a relaxed atmosphere. There’s so much pressure in this business, you like it that way for a change. Now we’ve got to try to finish up the season like this.”

Defensive back Gill Byrd offered a deep theory on how the Chargers were able to reverse two straight emotionally-draining defeats.

“We were just overdue,” he said. “It’s been a long time since we had fun like this. I hope now we can salvage our season with a winning record.”

As Coryell said, the Chargers had their shaky moments.

Starting much as they had a week ago, they fumbled not once, not twice, but three times on their first series. Despite two bobbled laterals, they got to the Buffalo eight before surrendering the ball on Buford McGee’s fumble.

They played it straight to get their first score. After a 25-yard interception return by Byrd, the San Diego offense got moving. A 23-yard run by Gary Anderson was followed by Fouts’ 38-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Joiner to make it 7-0.

Barely three minutes after the Byrd interception, Mathison misfired again, this time to Hendy. The Chargers turned this opportunity into three points on a Thomas 24-yard field goal.

The San Diego defense kepts its shutout intact early in the second period when Jerry Butler dropped what should have been an easy touchdown pass, and Scott Norwood failed on a 31-yard field-goal attempt.

A poor start by Mathison got a lot worse when Hendy picked off his second pass of the day and returned it 75 yards for a 17-0 spread.

The Chargers stretched it to 24-0 on a short run by Tim Spencer late in the half.

The San Diego defense, always generous to a fault in the two-minute drill, permitted an 87-yard march on six plays, the biggest of which was a 36-yard pass to Butler.

Cribbs scored on a two-yard run as Smith cleared the way.

The second half was a yawner, an anticlimax. The San Diego defense worked a shutout in the third and fourth quarters, so there was absolutely no suspense.

In an effort to put this laugher in perspective, Ron Nay, adviser and mouthpiece for owner Alex Spanos, said: “It’s tough to get beat two weeks in a row and get it going again. A lot of teams would have hung it up after the game we had at Houston last week.

“What I’m saying is, our players have character. And I think our defense realizes they have a chance to become a pretty good unit.”

Fouts said he’s had a good feeling about this team all year, regardless of the record.

“We don’t have a loser’s attitude,” he said. “We know we’re a good team. We just have to concentrate and play hard each week.”

Unless they happen to be playing Buffalo. The Chargers are 2-0 against the Bills this year. Anyone for a three-game series?