Chargers Strike Up 42-21 Win : Players Say Unity and Workouts Kept Them Ready
So that was what the real Chargers have been doing lately.
Illuminating football’s newest cliche--the team that strikes together, strikes together--on Sunday the Chargers played their first game in a month as though they’ve been doing this every day. They rolled over the Kansas City Chiefs, 42-21, improving their AFC West-leading record to 5-1, their best start in 19 years.
One reason for it, perhaps, was that they have been doing this every day. They were one of the NFL’s most unified teams during the strike. No regular roster player crossed the picket line; instead they played early-morning touch football two hours a day, five days a week, on a wet field in La Jolla.
Two-hand touch or tackle, in front of 47,972 wary fans at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, they immediately made it clear there was no difference.
They scored the first time they had the ball. And the third time. And the fifth time. And the sixth time.
They scored on a drive of 91 yards. And 75 yards. And 71 yards.
They even scored when they didn’t have the ball, on a sack of Bill Kenney and a resulting fumble in the end zone.
Twenty-two minutes into the game, the score was 28-0, Dan Fouts had thrown for 195 yards, the Chiefs were breathless, and it was over.
“This was a tribute to the players who kept this team together during a real ordeal,” said Charger Coach Al Saunders. “You can see, we handled the strike with a great deal of maturity.”
“Supposedly,” said nose tackle Chuck Ehin, “We were out four weeks not doing anything. Well, we were doing something.”
All of it was almost enough to make you forget about the AFC’s top replacement team, the guys that went 3-0 and put the Chargers in this dandy spot to begin with.
Not so fast. A Charger win would not have been complete without a touchdown by a replacement.
On that Bill Kenney fumble following an end zone blind-side hit by safety Martin Bayless, the loose ball was covered by replacement linebacker Les Miller.
It beats the heck out of working in a factory tacking handles on ice chests, which is what Miller did before he joined the club fresh out of Fort Hays (Kan.) State.
“The was my chance,” Miller said, “and I’m wasn’t going to let anybody take it away from me.”
Other than that, in terms of the strike, it was an afternoon spent pretending there wasn’t one.
“Layoff?” asked quarterback Dan Fouts. “You got to understand, we didn’t have a layoff. We spent the strike practicing the same game plans we used today. And we ran. After practice, during practice.
“So much of what we do is timing, so we also worked on timing. Because of our work, we came in today and had that timing down.”
Fouts, who is not a member of the players union, was the team ‘coach’ during the strike.
He certainly showed Sunday that he can still be a splendid leader and a pretty good quarterback. He completed 22 of 38 passed for 328 yards with 2 touchdowns and a first-half stretch that, age-wise, set him back years.
He completed 10 of his first 14 passes for 162 yards and a touchdown, and not all screen or loft-over-the-head jobs. Six of those 10 passes were caught the hard way, by Charger tight ends. This included three by Pete Holohan, who had only caught four in his previous two games combined, and one by rookie top draft pick Rod Bernstine, the first professional catch of his life.
Fouts, 36, even completed a touchdown pass while being pulled down, two incidents which, for him, don’t occur much on the same play anymore. In the best and crowning feat of his afternoon, with 1:29 left in the half, with the Chargers on the Chief 19-yard line, Fouts ran around the backfield for several seconds and was finally grabbed by a frustrated Bill Maas. About that time, he somehow spotted Kellen Winslow in the corner of the end zone. Just before Fouts fell, he threw. Winslow caught it over his shoulder while carrying 238-pound Jack Del Rio. Touchdown, 35-7 lead, and Fouts never saw it.
“I was running out of choices, but Kellen has always been such a tremendous choice,” said Fouts with a smile. “Still, I was kind of surprised we got it.”
“I didn’t know where he was!” said Winslow. “Typical great Fouts pass.”
Earlier in that first half Fouts had some real fun. He scored from the one-yard line on a sneak, only his 12th running touchdown in 15 pro seasons.
“I saw the linebacker playing back, I figured I’d get six inches,” said Fouts. “I got seven.”
The half ended with the Chargers leading, 35-14. They were content to spend the next 30 minutes just holding the Chiefs up. Although the Chargers outgained the Chiefs only 391-371, they held the ball for 14 more minutes, had nine more first downs, and held their new-and-improved running game to just 66 yards. Rookie Christian Okoye, who rushed for 105 yards in the Chiefs’ 20-13 win in this season’s first game, was held to 44.
“You could tell we were in better shape than they were, from all we had done,” said second-year Charger tackle James FitzPatrick. “They were a little bit slower, and they weren’t doing the extra things that all pro teams do.
“Give credit to our older players for this. They held us together during the strike. I was so depressed, if I had it my way, I would have just sat at home for four weeks and done nothing. But the older guys took us by the hand and got us out there.”
Explained assistant player representative Gill Byrd: “We have a bunch of guys who were here in 1982 and knew about striking. We told the rest of the team, don’t look at it like a strike, because it could end any day. Look at it like a normal year, and stay in San Diego, and come to practice. And they did.” Oh yes, we’re still talking about the strike. No matter how hard the players tried Sunday, it still lurked.
They took the field to a canyon full of boos. They had to sit through replacement game replay videos that drew loud cheers. But on the game’s third play from scrimmage, Fouts hit Timmie Ware over the middle for a 23-yard completion, and things were never inhospitable again.
And how’s this for a last word? On the Chargers’ first score, catching a 10-yard touchdown pass over the middle was player representative Wes Chandler. Clinging fruitlessly to his back was Kevin Ross, the only Chief to cross the picket line.
“I’m hoping that we have a split season,” said Kenney, “We’re 1-5 and it’s almost the halfway point.”
The Chargers threw five different cornerbacks at him, and Kenney still went 22 for 38 for 328 yards, 260 in the second half.
“We still have to learn to play with a pointed advantage,’ said Saunders, which translated means, this club still can’t handle a lead.
However, don’t compare this with the last time these real Chargers played together, when they almost blew a 28-0 halftime lead in a 28-24 win over St. Louis. The Chiefs were never close.
The Chiefs’ scored their first touchdown, midway through the second period, only after Thomas Benson tackled Kenney approximately two days after Kenney had thrown an incomplete pass. The penalty moved the ball 15 yards to the Charger 14, from where Carlos Carson immediately beat Byrd for a 14-yard scoring catch.
The Chiefs scored their second touchdown while the Chargers were still feeling the euphoria of their fifth touchdown. With 1:11 left in the first half, on the first play following Fouts’ 19-yard scoring pass to Winslow, Carson ran past cornerback Danny Walters, caught a loft from Kenney, and kept running for a 63-yard touchdown.
The Chiefs’ third touchdown? It, too, was hardly earned. It came after three consecutive penalties by Charger cornerback Charles Romes, accounting for 54 yards. Personal foul, pass interference, and holding. He’ll have a ball in the film room Tuesday.
Then again, everybody should be in a pretty good mood. Next up, at Jack Murphy next Sunday, playing on five days rest, are the Cleveland Browns. Five of the club’s final nine games are at home. Dare we begin to think playoffs? “Well,” admitted Steve Ortmayer, the club’s director of football operations, “We’re halfway there.”
