Malone Gets Special Treat in Carving Out Win : Ex-Steeler Leads the Chargers Past Pittsburgh, 20-14

Mark Malone grew up in San Diego and owns a custom home he helped build in the hills north of Pittsburgh.

Last year he quarterbacked the Steelers to a late-season victory over the Chargers at San Diego-Jack Murphy Stadium. Sunday he passed and ran the Chargers to a 20-14 victory against the Steelers on the same field.

“It felt very, very strange,” Malone said.

When the game was over, Malone stood inside the Chargers’ locker room answering questions from Pittsburgh writers about how happy he was to beat a team that plays in a city where the fans reviled him last season.

“It’s a little bit special to me,” Malone said. “But the fact that our football team won was obviously more important.”

The next thing Malone knew he was standing outside the Steeler locker room accepting congratulations from his former teammates and an invitation to lunch with Steeler President Dan Rooney after the holidays.

He had just completed 17 of 24 passes for 148 yards. He had thrown for 1 touchdown and run for another. The Steelers (4-11) had sacked him just once and intercepted none of his passes.

And now a San Diego writer wanted to know what he considered his future to be with the Chargers.

Moments earlier Charger Coach Al Saunders, quick to point out his team has won 3 of its last 5, had dodged the same question, saying only: “Let’s get through the season first.” The Chargers (5-10) finish at home next week against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Malone’s answer was more direct. “Obviously, there will be a new guy in the quarterback picture here in the not-to-far future,” he said. “I’m not a spring chicken anymore. But I’m solid and I’ve got tons of experience and can still move a little bit.”

Malone turned 30 3 weeks ago.

Apparently Charger running back Gary Anderson, 27, can still move a little bit, too. Anderson juked, banged, dipped and glided for 170 yards in 26 carries to leave himself 98 yards shy of 1,000 yards and all alone in fourth place on the all-time Chargers’ single-game rushing list.

“It was a blast,” said rookie David Richards, the Chargers’ right tackle. “Lying on the ground watching Gary Anderson run by is a lot of fun.”

Anderson ripped off gains of 18, 36, 24 and 11 yards. He also caught 5 passes for 20 yards. Now he must figure out what to present his offensive linemen as the customary gift if he exceeds 1,000 yards against the Chiefs, who ranked last in National Football League run defense after 14 weeks.

“Maybe I’ll take them to McDonald’s,” Anderson said. Then he giggled.

The Chargers listed Anderson as “questionable” on their pregame injury report with a bad ankle. The report turned out to be more questionable than Anderson’s status. And Anderson giggled again when quizzed on the subject.

“It just seems like every time I come off an injury, I play well,” he said.

Almost as interesting was Anderson’s yardage distribution. He rushed for exactly 85 yards in each half.

The Chargers are 4-0 this year in games in which Anderson has run for 100 or more yards. The only Chargers ever to gain more in 1 game than his 170 are: Keith Lincoln (206) in 1964; Brad Hubbert (189) in 1967; and Paul Lowe (183) in 1963.

Anderson’s 36-yard, second-period burst might have been an 86-yard touchdown if Steeler linebacker Darin Jordan hadn’t surprised most of the 33,816 people in attendance by running Anderson down from behind.

But 3 plays later, Malone teamed with wide receiver Jamie Holland for 45 yards and a first down at the Pittsburgh 8. Two plays after that, Malone dumped a pass over the middle to rookie Darren Flutie that turned into a touchdown when Flutie beat Steeler safety Cornell Gowdy into the end zone.

Flutie was Malone’s third progression-read receiver on the play. But Malone stood cool against the rush until Flutie came free. “Mark was like that all afternoon--calm and in control,” said Charger left tackle Ken Dalliafor, himself cut by the Steelers 5 years ago.

The Chargers’ lead grew to 14-0 later in the period on Malone’s 1-yard sneak. It marked the first time all year the Charger offense has scored more than 1 touchdown in a home game.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, the margin became 17-0 on a 24-yard field goal by Steve DeLine. During that same span, Pittsburgh’s first 7 possessions had produced, in order, 4 punts, 2 interceptions and a lost fumble.

“It was the best defense we’ve played all year,” said Charger cornerback Gill Byrd, who notched both interceptions and increased his team-leading total for the season to 6.

But Pittsburgh finally exploited the Chargers’ habit of over-pursuing and utilized a series of screen passes to score 2 touchdowns in less than 4 minutes early in the final period. The first was a 3-yard pass from Bubby Brister to Preston Gothard. Then Brister (17 for 32, 206 yards) bootlegged in from 3 yards.

The voluble Brister might have ruined Pittsburgh’s last good opportunity to go ahead when the obscenities he spewed to protest a questionable intentional grounding penalty resulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct call and helped push the Steelers from their 32 to the 8-yard line with about 3 minutes to play.

“It changed the game,” said Pittsburgh Coach Chuck Noll.

“I thought it was a ridiculous call,” Brister said. “But it doesn’t matter what I think.”

Brister was looking for running back Merril Hoge on the play. And Hoge was in the area of the pass. But referee Fred Silva didn’t see it that way. “The quarterback could not get the ball over his head so he sidearmed the ball into the ground when he was pressured by the rusher,” Silva told a pool reporter after the game. “If he hadn’t unleashed the ball, then he would have been sacked. That is deemed intentional grounding.”

As to the unsportsmanlike conduct call against Brister that followed immediately, Silva said: “The quarterback protesting the above call was jumping up and down screaming, incoherent. He took his helmet off. I told him to calm down. He wouldn’t. Hence the penalty.”

Brister’s version: “I should have shut up. But I told him what I thought a second, third, fourth and fifth time. What I said was mild. If I had said what was really on my mind, you wouldn’t be able to print it.”

Much of what Brister said was unprintable anyway. And when DeLine converted a 42-yard field goal with 62 seconds remaining, the Steelers had too little time to drive the 66 yards they needed for the touchdown that would have provided them with a victory.

And the focus returned to Malone, victorious for the first time as a Charger starter. “The rest of the offense has let him down all season,” Richards said.

Now, said Anderson, “you get the feeling that maybe we have something here.”

Charger Notes:

Charger running back Lionel James suffered a bruised shoulder but returned to action. . . . The Chargers are 2-5 at home, 3-5 on the road.