Chargers Step Gingerly Into Exhibition Opener
The conventional NFL wisdom, passed down through the years, on the importance of winning exhibition games is this:
Veteran teams with established coaching staffs don’t need victories in August so much as they need wake-up calls. The 1983 Super Bowl champion Raiders won one exhibition. In overtime.
This same wisdom also says that young teams with new players, new assistant coaches and coalescing systems need to avoid losses early so they can avoid losing any precious confidence they may have squirreled away.
That would be the Chargers.
Their opponent tonight at 6 p.m. at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium in the exhibition opener for both teams is the Dallas Cowboys, whom the Chargers beat, 29-0, at this same juncture last season.
But Charger Coach Al Saunders is not terribly impressed by conventional wisdom these days. His best offensive lineman, Jim Lachey, wanted no part of the 1988 Chargers. He is now a Raider. One of the best linebackers in the league, Chip Banks, is holding out and making noises that he wants to play elsewhere.
Then there is history. The Kansas City Chiefs won 4 of 5 exhibitions last year and finished the regular season tied for the worst record in the AFC at 4-11. Saunders is more concerned with survival. Aside from Banks, three other potential starters--running back Curtis Adams and defensive linemen Joe Phillips and Lee Williams--also are holdouts.
Last year’s quarterback, Dan Fouts, has retired. Last year’s Pro Bowl tight end, Kellen Winslow, is still nursing a tender knee and won’t play against Dallas. Gary Anderson, the team’s best running back, has been bothered all summer by a variety of nagging hurts, most recently sore buttocks. He will play sparingly.
Tom Landry, who was coaching the Cowboys when new Charger quarterback Mark Malone was 1 year old, will reciprocate by resting Herschel Walker, the NFL’s leading rusher last year. The Whites, Danny and Randy, probably won’t play, either. Danny White has lost his starting quarterback job to Steve Pelluer. Randy White is coming off a 1987 neck injury and doing more coaching than playing.
Malone came to the Chargers during the off-season from Pittsburgh, where he finished the 1987 season with the lowest quarterback rating in the league. Saunders will relieve him at halftime with second-year player Mark Vlasic. Peripatetic Babe Laufenberg will probably play in the final period.
Malone is the Chargers’ best leader and is the most experienced at dealing with the kind of adversity this team will probably wind up having to deal with this year. Laufenberg is a scrambler, better suited to coming off the bench. Vlasic is the best pure thrower but is still a project. It will be dangerous for the Chargers to risk damaging his confidence by putting him behind a line whose lack of talent limits what new offensive coordinator Jerry Rhome can hope to do.
Saunders says the Chargers will keep it basic against the Cowboys. The idea being: Let’s see if anybody shows flashes in game situations that we haven’t already discovered in practice.
The final score?
“It’s always important to win,” Saunders says. “Even in checkers. But in this case, you have to win within the parameters you set for yourself before the start of the game. I think a lot of times teams will put a great deal of emphasis on the preseason games and do everything they can and never accomplish what they really should accomplish.”
The easiest and quickest area to assess will be the wide receivers. Jamie Holland, Quinn Early and No. 1 draft pick Anthony Miller, who among them have one year of NFL experience, have been the focal point of what little optimism has emanated from the UC San Diego practice fields.
Holland has looked better than Early, a 1988 third-rounder, who has looked better than Miller, a former sprinter who suffers from hamstring tightness. The Chargers think enough of those three to have traded Wes Chandler and to have moved Anderson and Lionel James back to running back.
Saunders says James will not play much at running back against Dallas. He wants to look more at Tim Spencer and Barry Redden, the former Ram who disappointed everybody but the Rams last year after they traded him to the Chargers.
Another player to watch will be new left tackle John Clay, the player acquired from the Raiders in the controversial Lachey deal. Saunders says the bulky Clay won’t start, but he expects to use him in goal-line and short-yardage situations. That should be enough for the new offensive line coach, Jerry Wampfler, to find out whether Clay can contribute, or whether he’s just . . . 300 pounds of Clay.
Charger Notes
Coach Al Saunders said regular kicker Vince Abbott will kick the field goals tonight against the Cowboys. Steve Deline will kick the extra points. Pro Bowl player Ralf Mojsiejenko will handle the punting in the first half and Rick Tuten in the second. . . . Defensive end Tyrone Keys’ injured knee is better than originally thought. Keys could play against Dallas.