Chargers Get Jolted in Denver
One local newspaper bannered the Chargers’ Saturday arrival here with a headline that read: “Chargers Arrive at Perfect Time.”
In the body of the story the newspaper referred to the Chargers as a “sunny bouquet from the land of the lotus flower” and a “get well card” for the Denver Broncos.
This is the sort of inflammatory prose usually guaranteed to incite underdogs and infuriate visiting teams. But Sunday afternoon at Mile High Stadium, the Chargers couldn’t even live up to their own shameful clippings.
They allowed the Broncos to dominate them in every phase of the game in a 34-3 defeat.
“It just wasn’t real pretty,” said rookie tackle David Richards, one of eight new starters in the Charger offense. “And it wasn’t much fun.”
It’s difficult to have fun when you’re 0-2 and your offense has scored one touchdown in eight quarters. More difficult still when your starting quarterback completes just 2 of 8 passes for 5 yards and finds himself on the bench less than 5 minutes into the second period.
The Chargers weren’t a get-well card for Denver (1-1) so much as they were a placebo.
Worse for the Chargers, they own the NFL’s longest regular-season losing streak at eight games. Tampa Bay held this dubious honor before beating Green Bay Sunday.
The Broncos scored midway through the first period on a 44-yard pass play from John Elway (17 of 28 for 259 yards) to Mark Jackson, who left Charger cornerback Gill Byrd behind.
Soon it was 10-0 on a 51-yard field goal by Rich Karlis, and the Chargers couldn’t stop Tony Dorsett, the former Cowboy.
Dorsett, 34, was unimpressive a week earlier, gaining just 32 yards in 9 carries in the Broncos’ 21-14 opening loss at home to Seattle.
But against the Chargers he had 81 yards in 14 carries by halftime. That total included a 21-yard touchdown burst around right end.
Dorsett finished with 113 yards in 23 carries, taking third place from Franco Harris on the all-time NFL career rushing list. Walter Payton leads with 16,726 yards, Jim Brown ranks second at 12,312 and Dorsett has 12,181 yards.
The Chargers produced just 244 yards and boasted nobody with more than 29 yards rushing.
“We’ve got a ways to go,” Charger Coach Al Saunders said.
Saunders replaced starting quarterback Babe Laufenberg after Laufenberg threw an interception to Denver cornerback Jeremiah Castille on the first series of the second period.
“I felt it coming,” Laufenberg said of the relatively quick hook.
Malone finished with 11 completions in 22 attempts for 115 yards. But he did little to capture Saunders’ confidence as his starter against Seattle (2-0) next Sunday in San Diego.
“We haven’t thought about who our starting quarterback will be next week,” Saunders said. “We’ll take next week when next week comes.”
The Chargers’ points came on Vince Abbott’s 20-yard field goal with 5:30 left in the second quarter.
Gerald Willhite’s one-yard dive accounted for Denver’s other first half touchdown.
The second half was little more than a scrimmage. Elway found Vance Johnson for a 24-yard third period touchdown. Karlis added a 38-yarder in the final quarter.