The Chargers Gain Too Much to Lose, Not Enough to Win

The coach walked away from the game looking like the game. Al Saunders’ sculpted blond hair was blown madly across his head and into his eyes. His white shirt was rumpled underneath a sweater. His usually smiling face was reddened and tight.

After three hours in cold wind gusts in the 30 m.p.h. range, after four lost fumbles and three missed field goals and a touchdown scratched because of a penalty, Saunders and his Chargers walked away from the game Sunday on speaking terms with the end of their rope.

They had received their fourth-straight loss, 20-16, to the Pittsburgh Steelers, in a game they could have won, should have won, and needed to win.

“This one is kind of devastating,” said nose tackle Mike Charles, who led a good defense with three tackles and a forced fumble. “This one had me in tears.”

Playing in temperatures with a wind-chill factor in the 30s, they outmuscled the Steelers 435 total yards to 254. They had nearly twice as many first downs, 27-14. They held the ball for five more minutes. They drove the ball more than 50 yards five times.

For the first time this year, quarterback Dan Fouts operated out of the shotgun formation. He threw 52 passes, his most in three years, and completed 29, his most in two years.

For the first time this year, during certain situations the Chargers used just three defensive backs. For the first time in his career, they turned safety Martin Bayless into an inside linebacker.

They tried almost everything, and almost everything worked. And yet, none of it got the job done.

“Sure, we can say we played hard, but playing hard just gets you close,” Bayless said. “Playing hard don’t get it.”

And now? There’s big-time, mind-bending, dream-threatening trouble.

Put it this way: If the season ended today, the Chargers (8-5) would not make the playoffs. They are one-half game behind Denver in the AFC West and they are tied for a wild-card spot with two teams who beat them (Seattle and Pittsburgh).

The Chargers have a home game next week against Indianapolis before ending the season in Denver. They must win both games just to make the playoffs.

“It’s self-explanatory,” Bayless said. “Win two games or go home. Can’t go 1-1. Can’t go 0-2. Got to have both. It ain’t too hard to figure out. There are no more short cuts.”

This reminder: On Nov. 8, the Chargers needed a goal-line fumble by Eric Dickerson to win in Indianapolis, 16-13. Three weeks later, Denver smashed the Chargers, 31-17, at San Diego.

And to think, just a month ago this team would sit up late talking about becoming the first team to play a Super Bowl on their home field. Maybe they talked too much.

“I don’t know if we realized how close we were, and how hard it is to make the playoffs,” said Charles, pleadingly. “I’ve been there, I know how it feels. You don’t make the playoffs, man, nobody remembers you.

“Man, people work their whole career and don’t make the playoffs. That’s all that counts, the playoffs. Nothing else means nothing. I don’t care how much you think you’ve succeeded, you’re nothing without the playoffs.”

And you’re nothing if you can’t make something out of what the Chargers were given Sunday.

They took an early 7-0 lead on the third blocked-punt-for-touchdown in franchise history. Vencie Glenn blocked Harry Newsome’s kick from the goal line, and David Brandon fell on it in the end zone.

They went ahead, 9-0, at the end of the first period when nose tackle Chuck Ehin nailed Steeler quarterback Mark Malone in the end zone for safety.

At the time, the Chargers had outgained the Steelers, 136-31.

“Like always, I think we have the momentum, I think we are ignited,” Glenn said.

But midway through the second quarter, after Lionel James fumbled a bouncing punt, the Steelers drove 39 yards in 4 plays for a touchdown on Frank Pollard’s 8-yard run. After an extra point that made it 9-7, Vince Abbott closed the first half with a 42-yard field goal attempt that was wide left.

Then in the second half, after Abbott’s 48-yard attempt was short, the Steelers drove 69 yards on 5 plays to score, this time on Malone’s seven-yard scramble. That made it 14-9 and Malone opened Pittsburgh’s next drive with a 28-yard bootleg that led to a field goal to make it 17-9 and the game.

Malone was only 14 of 26 for 164 yards, but didn’t need to rely on passing. He gained 34 yards in 5 carries, more than all but one Charger rusher. It was that kind of day.

“This leaves us at the point where everybody has to be pulling their hole card,” linebacker Chip Banks said. “Everybody has to be looking around saying, ‘Damn, what can I do that I’m not doing.’ ”

Abbott is one of those people, but he didn’t hang around long enough after Sunday’s game to look around. His three misses (42, 46, 48 yards) were all within his range, and each led to Pittsburgh scores. Yet, he left early and refused to talk to reporters.

“The wind was a big factor,” holder Ralf Mojsiejenko said. “Vince was overcompensating for it, and was hooking every ball. You knew something was wrong, because he never hooks it.”

Steelers Coach Chuck Noll has a feeling he knows what the Chargers could be doing better.

“I thought the turnovers took the Chargers out of it,’ Noll said.

The turnovers and mistakes. A first-quarter sampler: They drove 61 yards to the Steeler 12, and Curtis Adams fumbled.

“I just dropped the ball,” Adams said. “I don’t know what happened.”

They got the ball back after the blocked punt and drove 67 yards to the Steeler one, where Gary Anderson scored on a dive. But the touchdown was canceled because guard Dennis McKnight was offside.

“That play cost us the game,” McKnight said.

Three plays later the Chargers advanced to the one again, where they decided to go for the touchdown on fourth down. Tim Spencer appeared to have stretched the ball across the end zone. But at the same time, linebacker Mike Merriweather stuck his hand underneath Spencer’s arm and Spencer fumbled.

“If he doesn’t slap it, I get the ball across,” Spencer said.

The Chargers’ Ehin then trapped Malone for a safety, taking a 9-0 lead, taking the momentum . . . but then on the ensuing free kick they fumbled again .

Newsome shanked a 23-yard punt that swirled around in the wind and Hunter, who called for a fair catch, fairly never had a chance at the ball. It bounced off his arms and eventually into Merriweather’s.

“It got caught up in that wind, I got my hands on it, I just didn’t catch it,” Hunter said.

Remember, all of this in just in the first quarter.

About that time, some of the wind-chilled 51,605 fans (there were 5,603 no-shows) began to leave. Serious. By the end of the game, there were few fans remaining, and the Chargers felt abandoned from all sides.

“I look around in the fourth quarter and there’s nobody left,” linebacker Billy Ray Smith said. “That’s a pretty good indicator of how they felt.”

At least several Chargers don’t quite agree with the fans, who booed throughout.

“I think today we made tremendous improvement over the last three weeks,” he said. “If we play like this the last two games, we’ve solved a lot of our problems.”

The Chargers did go down fighting. But like everything else this day, it ended with a crash and burn.

The Chargers scored with 2:55 left on Fouts’ 15-yard touchdown pass to Lionel James. Then they get the ball back on their 20 for a final drive with 1:50 left.

They then moved the ball 56 yards in 7 plays to the Steeler 24. But those plays included questionable, time-consuming two-yard run by Gary Anderson.

Then from the 24-yard line, with 22 seconds and no timeouts left, they threw into the end zone only twice on four plays. Both times, the passes were batted down. The other passes were thrown over the middle to Wes Chandler which, if Chandler had caught them, would have surely resulted in his being tackled and time running out.

“I prefer not to get into the strategy,” Fouts said. “But they were blitzing so much, we had to call some of those plays.”