Charger Mistakes All Add Up to a 24-13 Loss : Statistics Don’t Tell How Team Falls to Raiders

Take the temperature at game time. Please. It was 105.

Subtract the number of yards Raider rookie Tim Brown raced with a second-quarter kickoff return to provide the Raiders with the touchdown that wilted the Chargers Sunday. That number was 97.

You should come up with eight. Which is the consecutive number of regular-season games the Chargers will have lost next week if they succumb to John Elway and the favored AFC champion Broncos at Denver.

Very little else added up in this steamy, 24-13 Charger loss in front of 39,209, the smallest, non-strike Raider crowd since they moved to the Coliseum six years ago.

For instance, the Charger defense, which ranked 24th against the run last year, limited the Raiders, ranked second in rushing offense, to 2.9 yards per carry.

Credit defensive coordinator Ron Lynn, who blunted the Raider blocking schemes with his own variation of Philadelphia Coach Buddy Ryan’s “46” defense that features four down linemen and two outside linebackers across from the tight end.

And Lynn was without two of his best players--linebacker Billy Ray Smith and Mike Charles--most of the game. Both departed in the first quarter with injuries.

Smith re-injured the left calf muscle, which has bothered him for weeks, while chasing Raider running back Marcus Allen out of bounds. Charles twisted his left knee. Charger Coach Al Saunders said he won’t know the availability of either for Denver until today.

Then there were the passing statistics of Charger Babe Laufenberg and Raider Steve Beuerlein, both making their first NFL starts.

Laufenberg completed 17 of 29 passes for 195 yards and one touchdown. Beuerlein completed 13 of 29 for 171 yards and no touchdowns.

But Laufenberg was running for his life the entire afternoon. The Raiders sacked him five times and left him dehydrated and flat on his back in the locker room hooked up to an intravenous fluid solution apparatus after the game.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Jerry Rhome, the Chargers’ first-year offensive coordinator.

But whatever it was, Rhome knew it didn’t smell very good. “There was a ton of mistakes,” he said. “There were a lot of blown things. We were doing it to ourselves. It was all 11 guys. It’s hard to say who did what.”

And it was harder still to explain how Allen, who led all rushers with 88 yards in 22 carries, turned out to be the guy who threw the most important pass of the game.

It happened midway through the second quarter on third and two from the Charger 44. Beuerlein handed off to Allen who began a sweep right. Allen stopped, turned back to his left and lofted a perfect spiral to Beuerlein, who had beaten Charger linebacker Keith Browner by maybe an inch.

Beuerlein caught the ball for a 21-yard gain. And three plays later, Allen left a gaggle of Chargers strewn in the wake of his 11-yard bolt off left tackle.

It was 7-0 after the extra point. And it was the only touchdown the Charger defense would have to take direct blame for all afternoon.

“We played well,” Charger free safety Vencie Glenn said. “But well don’t get you any wins in the NFL.”

The Chargers answered Allen immediately with completions of 31 yards to rookie Quinn Early and 34 yards to rookie Anthony Miller for a first down at the Raider nine.

But they had to settle for a 23-yard Vince Abbott field goal when a third down swing pass from Laufenberg to Lionel James lost three yards.

“We threw away a lot of plays,” Laufenberg said.

And they gave away a touchdown moments later when two of their kickoff coverage guys “crossed over the line” allowing Brown, the 1987 Heisman Trophy winner, to break free up the left side for his 97-yard touchdown run with 1:43 left in the half.

“It was our breakdown,” said Wayne Sevier, Charger special teams coach. It appeared Ralf Mojsiejenko had successfully kicked away from Brown on the play. But Brown butted in front of teammate Chris Woods at the Raider three.

Upfield, the Charger coverage unit wound up with seven guys to Brown’s right and only three to his left. Worse for the Chargers, the Raiders double-teamed two of those three.

By the time Brown got to Mojsiejenko, it was no contest. “If you can’t beat the kicker, you shouldn’t be back there.” Brown said.

Brown’s touchdown left the Chargers with a bad case of deja voodoo. In last year’s season opener, a 20-13 loss to Kansas City, rookie running back Paul Palmer skittered 95 yards with a fourth-quarter kickoff return to beat the Chargers.

Back came the Chargers with the opening kickoff of the second half. They marched to a first down at the Raider 11. But gave five yards back on an illegal procedure penalty call against center Don Macek.

The Chargers later replaced Macek with Dan Rosado. Saunders said Macek was “tired.”

But not before Howie Long sacked Laufenberg on the next play. Laufenberg ran for nine yards one down later. But he mis-timed a quarterback draw and lost three yards on third down back to the 16.

Abbott’s 35-yarder cut it to 14-6. But it was another important missed touchdown opportunity for the Chargers.

“We beat ourselves,” said rookie right tackle David Richards, who got a crash course in NFL politesse from Long and designated Raider pass rusher Greg Townsend. “Early on, I let Howie’s name get to me. And then I thought Townsend was just a speed guy. It wasn’t that way.”

Townsend led everybody with 2 1/2 sacks. Safety Pat Miller had the Chargers’ only sack.

The Chargers’ second possession of the second half was even more embarrassing. This time Laufenberg’s two-yard sneak on fourth and an inch got them a first down at the Raider 17.

Macek was illegally downfield on the next play, which cost the Chargers 10 yards. A Laufenberg to Gary Anderson screen pass lost 10 more yards. A bad snap cost them six more. And then Townsend shared a sack with Reggie Davis.

At the very least, the Chargers should have been attempting a field goal that would have cut the lead back down to eight. Instead, it was fourth and 44.

The field goal they never tried would look even better when Laufenberg and Jamie Holland combined for a 24-yard touchdown pass play on fourth and 10 with 3:25 remaining.

A 25-yard Chris Bahr field goal had hiked the Raider lead back to 14 points midway through the final period.

The cornerback the Chargers beat on their only touchdown was Mike Haynes, the leading active interceptor in the AFC. But the player they victimized was free safety Eddie Anderson, who hung too long with the other Charger wide receivers on the play.

The Raiders’ final score came on a one-yard run by Allen after the Chargers turned the ball over on downs at their own one with less than a minute to play.

By then the Chargers were out of gas. This, after all, was the warmest regular-season game in the history of the franchise. The previous worst was 102 degrees at Green Bay in 1978.

That was three degrees cooler than this one. But the grimmest arithmetic of all for the Chargers was this: Since 1978, not counting the 1982 strike year, only 30 teams that lost their first game made the playoffs.

“All I know,” Laufenberg said, “is that was real frustrating.”