Chargers Surprise the Chiefs

The coach, Al Saunders, stood in front of his team after the game, hoisted a bucket of Gatorade and dumped its contents over his head.

This was not a surprise.

The Charger players he then congratulated for their 24-23 come-from-behind victory over the Kansas City Chiefs had just climbed into a tie for first place with Seattle in the AFC West. This was a surprise.

The immediate reason the Chargers raised their record to 2-2 Sunday at hushed Arrowhead Stadium was the 9-yard swing pass a woozy Babe Laufenberg flipped to Lionel James with 52 seconds remaining.

The Chiefs unwisely had tried to cover James one-on-one with linebacker Tim Cofield on the play. Laufenberg and James both read the error immediately after the snap.

The Chiefs had also double-covered Charger wide receiver Anthony Miller with two defensive backs. So Miller just cleared out an area for James, who made an outside break to a spot where Cofield had no help.

James dived the final three yards. The Charger defense prevented Chief quarterback Steve DeBerg from maneuvering Kansas City into field goal position. And the Chiefs were 1-3.

It was almost as exciting as watching the crowd control at the Olympic boxing venue.

“Today’s feeling was even better than last year when we were 8-1,” said Charger free safety Vencie Glenn. “There is a bond on this team.”

And there was a locker room full of other reasons why the Chargers were able to overcome a 23-14 deficit after three quarters in a game they had led, 14-0, after one quarter.

There was the controversial roughing-the-passer call on Cofield, two plays before the winning touchdown, that nullified an interception by Dino Hackett.

“Unbelievable,” Kansas City General Manager Jim Schaaf said.

“They said the tackle was too hard,” Chief nose tackle Bill Maas said. “How can you tackle someone too hard?”

“It wasn’t a late hit,” explained referee Pat Haggerty. “There was extra activity at the end of the tackle.”

“It was a penalty,” Charger offensive coordinator Jerry Rhome said. “I was screaming and yelling.”

Vince Abbott had kicked a 47-yard field goal midway through the final period to cut the Kansas City lead to 23-17.

But perhaps the biggest Charger play in this game full of them was the interception by linebacker Chuck Faucette at the Charger 2 on the second-to-last play of the third quarter.

Even if the Chiefs had had to settle for a field goal, their lead would have been 12.

“They would have been out of range,” Charger defensive end Lee Williams said.

“We could have folded our tents a lot of times,” Faucette said.

Same for the Chiefs.

Laufenberg (13 for 25, 167 yards) found Quinn Early single-covered on a play-action post pattern late in the first quarter. And the result was a 38-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

The Chargers took a 14-0 lead with 1:08 left in the period, when running back Gary Anderson dashed 30 yards for a touchdown.

Anderson finished with 131 yards rushing in 23 carries. It marked the first time a Charger running back has had successive 100-yard rushing games since Chuck Muncie did it in 1982.

The Chiefs answered with a 14-point second quarter that began with a 71-yard touchdown pass play from DeBerg to running back Paul Palmer on third and one that caught the Chargers in man-to-man coverage.

DeBerg, who completed 20 of 38 passes for 261 yards, then found Stephone Paige for a 2-yard touchdown pass with 18 seconds left in the half. And it was 14-14 at intermission.

Palmer had piled up 170 yards of offense (54 rushing, 116 receiving) after 30 minutes. The entire Charger offense had 156.

And Palmer picked up right where he left off in the third period, when he grabbed a deflected pass intended for Paige in the end zone. The result was a 6-yard score and a 21-14 Kansas City lead. When Maas sacked Laufenberg in the end zone less than two minutes later, the Chiefs’ lead had grew to nine.

But the Charger defense finally figured out Palmer. They limited him to 22 yards in 7 carries in the second half.

Charger defensive end Tyrone Keys finished with three of the team’s four sacks. The entire defense had managed only four in the first three games.

“It was competition at the highest level,” Kansas City Coach Frank Gansz said.

“First place?” James said. “Are we?”

For now. The winner of tonight’s Bronco-Raider game will join the Chargers and the Seahawks at 2-2. Denver, which beat the Chargers, 34-3, two weeks ago, comes to San Diego next Sunday.

The Chargers came to Kansas City averaging 4.9 yards per carry. That average was 5.0 against the Chiefs. And it was largely responsible for Kansas City’s decision to use a 3-4 defense on the winning touchdown.

Normally defenses will line up with extra defensive backs in the final moments of a close game.

“But they were scared we were gonna run the football,” Rhome said.

So they came with a run defense. Laufenberg adjusted the call to a 3-4 defense at the line of scrimmage. James got the one-on-one coverage. And the Chargers got the victory.

The season is a quarter over now. And two weeks ago nobody would have given 25 cents for the Chargers chances to be .500 at this point.

“We’re just as good as anybody in the AFC West,” Glenn said, liking the sound of it.

“But,” he added, “we know we’ve got a long way to go.”

Charger Notes

Gary Anderson’s 30-yard touchdown run was his longest in the NFL. His previous best was 27 yards against the Chiefs in 1985. . . . Chuck Faucette’s third-period interception was his first since college at Maryland.