PRO FOOTBALL : Now It’s Real Tackle, but Chargers Show They Have the Touch, 42-21
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 if 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.
And guess what. They have been doing this every day. As one of football’s most unified teams during the strike--no regular roster player crossed a picket line--they played early-morning touch football two hours a day, five days a week, on a wet field in La Jolla.
Two-hand 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.
During that stretch, they even scored when they didn’t have the ball, on a sack of Kansas City quarterback Bill Kenney and ensuing fumble in the end zone.
They scored on a drive of 91 yards. And 75 yards. And 71 yards.
Twenty-two minutes into the game, the score was 28-0, the Chiefs were breathless, and it was over.
“Supposedly we were out four weeks not doing anything,” said nose tackle Chuck Ehin. “Well, we were doing something, all right.”
“Layoff?” said quarterback Dan Fouts. “You got to understand, we didn’t have a layoff. We spent the strike practicing the same game plan 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.”
The non-union Fouts was the team “coach” during the strike, a job he claims the Chargers front office ordered him to do, which is why he has threatened to sue them if he is not paid for the strike period, but that’s another story.
Fouts certainly showed Sunday that he can still be a splendid leader and a pretty good quarterback. He completed 22 of 38 passes 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. These included three by Pete Holohan, who had only caught four in his previous two games, and one by rookie top draft pick Rod Berstine, the first pro catch of his life.
Fouts even completed a touchdown pass while being hammered, two incidents which rarely occur on the same play anymore for the 36-year-old man. In the best and crowning feat of his afternoon, with 1:29 left in the first half, with the Chargers on the Chief’s 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 while virtually carrying 238-pound Jack Del Rio. Touchdown, 35-7 lead, even though 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!” exclaimed Winslow. “Typical great Fouts pass.”
Earlier in that first half Fouts even scored from the one-yard line on a quarterback sneak, only his 12th running touchdown in 15 pro seasons.
“I saw the linebacker playing back, I figured I’d get six inches,” Fouts said. “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, and had nine more first downs.
“You could tell we were in better shape than they were, from all we had done,” said second-year Chargers 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.”
Oh yes, the strike. It could be forgotten in that one of the Chargers’ early touchdowns, on that fumble recovery in the end zone, was the day’s only NFL touchdown by a replacement player.
Linebacker Les Miller, who before he joined the replacement team had worked in a factory putting handles on ice chests, fought through a crowd to pounce on the first score of his pro career.
“It was my chance and I’m not going to let anybody take it away from me,” he said.
