Chargers Meet Team That Has Been There

In 1982, the Chicago Bears hired as their new coach a former player who convinced the owner he was full of innovative offensive ideas.

Mike Ditka inherited a defensive coordinator--Buddy Ryan--who loved to fiddle with different fronts and coverages. And in Ditka’s fourth season on the job, he and Ryan berated, cajoled, screamed, refined and kicked the Bears into the Super Bowl, where they destroyed the Patriots, 46-10.

Earlier this year, the Chargers hired as their new coach a former player--albeit for a brief time--who convinced the owner that he was full of innovative offensive ideas.

Dan Henning inherited a defensive coordinator, Ron Lynn, who likes to tinker. However, they may not have four years to get the Chargers to the Super Bowl.

Ditka’s Bears play Henning’s Chargers this evening in Chicago (4 p.m. PDT). It will be the second exhibition for both teams. The Bears beat the Dolphins, 28-20, Monday in Miami. The Chargers lost to the Cowboys, 20-3, Sunday in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

On the sideline for the Chargers today will be the quarterback who took the Bears to that 1986 Super Bowl, Jim McMahon. He was traded Friday.

Tonight’s Charger quarterbacks, with McMahon looming over their shoulders, will be David Archer in the first half and rookie Billy Joe Tolliver in the second. Archer was 13 of 26 for 143 yards and an interception last week against Dallas. Tolliver completed three of five passes for 11 yards.

But the Cowboys had the worst record in the NFL last year, the Bears one of the best.

“This team (the Bears) is better than we are,” Henning says. “Maybe that will juice us up. The Dallas loss was like having a four-foot putt, and you missed. Now it’s like having a 40-footer. If you make the sucker, you’re a hero.”

Make that back-to-back 40-footers. Three days after the Chargers return from Chicago, they will take on the defending world champion San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park.

“I have one great desire for these two games,” Henning says. “And that is, no matter what happens, we stay healthy.”