It’s No Joke, Chargers Give Seattle a Jolt, 17-6

The wicked temptation here is to say the Chargers don’t even know how to have a bad season.

This, after all, was going to be the home opener in which heavily favored Seattle sent a small crowd off into the late-afternoon haze muttering from the holes punched through the bags they were wearing over their heads.

A loss would have dropped the Chargers to 0-3 and extended their NFL-high losing streak to nine games. It would have given them a sore leg up in the draft derby that will determine who gets UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman next spring.

And it would have provided Seattle with a quick two-game lead in the AFC West.

Instead, the Charger defense limited the Seahawks to two field goals by Norm Johnson. A Charger running back--Gary Anderson--scored a rushing touchdown for the first time in 28 quarters.

And, yes, the Chargers won, 17-6.

The wicked temptation here is to say the Chargers would have been better off losing. But that would be wickedly unfair to a team that has never stopped trying to do better than it knows how ever since training camp began two months ago.

“What this does,” said Charger right guard Dennis McKnight, “is kind of keep the wolves out of the henhouse for a while.”

McKnight made the key block on Seahawk inside linebacker Brian Bosworth with 4:05 to play that enabled Anderson to slip past for a 25-yard touchdown run that accounted for the game’s final score.

This was long after Seahawk wide receiver Steve Largent had caught a 19-yard pass from Dave Krieg to break Charlie Joiner’s all-time NFL reception yardage record of 12,146.

It was also shortly after Charger defensive end Lee Williams had sent Krieg from the game with a separated shoulder after a punishing, but legal, tackle.

“That’s part of the game,” Williams said. “You gotta hit em.”

Williams dominated Seahawk right tackle Mike Wilson all afternoon. His fourth-period sack of Krieg’s replacement, Jeff Kemp, was the first by a Charger defensive lineman this year.

“Maybe it’s about time Lee played that way,” Charger defensive coordinator Ron Lynn said. After the game Seattle officials said Krieg would miss at least six weeks.

But Anderson’s touchdown was even longer overdue. The Charger offense has scored only two touchdowns this year and 9 in its last 11 games.

Overdue, too, were the four Charger interceptions--two apiece by linebacker Keith Browner and cornerback Gill Byrd. The Charger defense hadn’t intercepted any passes in its first two games. Byrd’s was the first by a Charger cornerback in a non-strike game since 1986.

Browner’s first one came on the game’s first series when blitzing defensive lineman Tyrone Keys deflected a Krieg pass. The ball bounced squarely into Browner’s hands at the Charger 45. No Seahawk ever got near him.

Neither Keys nor Browner is especially proud of the fact that he was once waived by Tampa Bay. But Lynn started Keys for the first time this year in part because of Keys’ height (6-feet 7-inches) and Krieg’s habit of throwing over the middle.

Vince Abbott, who later added the longest field goal of his career, a 48-yarder, converted the extra point after Browner’s 55-yard touchdown and the Chargers had all the points they would need.

Anderson’s touchdown, a fake reverse to wide receiver Quinn Early, simply made the waning moments more of a celebration and less of an exercise in anxiety for the young Chargers and the 44,449 people who showed up to watch them play. The Chargers had run several reverses early in the game, which set up the fake perfectly.

Anderson, who finished with a career-high 120 yards in 19 carries, took care of the rest after McKnight’s block. His were the most rushing yards by a Charger back in one game in three years.

Anderson entered the game averaging 2.3 yards per carry. In the Chargers’ 34-3 loss in Denver last week, Charger Coach Al Saunders benched him in the second half. “I was wondering what was going on,” Anderson said. “I didn’t know what was happening.”

Against Seattle he was a different player. “We can’t be any prouder,” Saunders said hoarsely after the game.

Saunders said Browner’s touchdown made him so happy, “I gave him my first-born son. But don’t tell my wife.”

The Charger running game, which averaged five yards per carry in 32 tries, made up for another below-average passing afternoon by Babe Laufenberg, who finished with 11 completions on 23 attempts for 112 yards, one interception and no touchdowns.

Laufenberg did, however, convert five of eight third-down situations in the second half, including two of two in the drive that ended in Anderson’s score.

“Basically we were able to avoid third and long most of the day,” Laufenberg said.

In their two losses, the Chargers had converted only five of 26 third downs.

Meanwhile, the Charger defense that utilized four down linemen all day for the first time this year, stopped a Seattle running game that had ranked third in the NFL before Sunday.

The Charger defense was particularly effective in the second half, when it limited Seahawk running backs John L. Williams and Curt Warner to a total of 13 yards. Williams and Warner had rushed for 87 total yards in the first two quarters.

The Seahawks entered the game with the AFC’s best takeaway/turnover ratio, plus-seven. San Diego was minus-two.

“But four turnovers to one tells the story,” said Seahawk strong safety Paul Moyer. “San Diego seemed like they wanted the win more than us.”

Krieg departed early in the final quarter after completing 9 of 18 passes and throwing three of the four interceptions. Before this defeat he had thrown 19 touchdown passes and only 4 interceptions against San Diego in his career.

The Charger win also snapped a seven-game Seahawk winning streak over them.

It was the first time the Chargers have held an opponent without a touchdown since 1986. And it was Pro Bowl Charger punter Ralf Mojsiejenko’s best day in the NFL. Mojsiejenko averaged 50.5 for four punts.

The temptation now is to call the Chargers the Wicked Which of the AFC West. Which Charger team will show up in Kansas City next Sunday? Why they chose this week to go against form is another good question.

“That is a good question,” Lynn said. “If I knew the answer, we’d bottle it and save it for the rest of the year.”