Tolliver, Defense Steal Show : McMahon Debuts, but Charger Rookie Buries the Bears

The sad part about Jim McMahon’s Charger debut and rookie Billy Joe Tolliver’s coming-out party Saturday night was how they obscured another deceptively easy dominance by a Charger defense that is better than most of the rest of the NFL realizes.

McMahon, traded by the Bears Friday, received an ovation from the fans he used to play for when Coach Dan Henning inserted him for four plays at the outset of the third quarter. He handed off to Tim Spencer once, completed a pass to Barry Redden for 10 yards and threw two incompletions.

But Tolliver replaced McMahon at that point and, before the period ended, lit up the lakefront sky with touchdown passes of 39 and 70 yards to Anthony Miller and Jamie Holland.

Of course, this was an exhibition game. And of course, the Bears didn’t think the Chargers’ 24-7 victory meant much.

“It probably doesn’t prove anymore than last week did,” said Bear Coach Mike Ditka.

But don’t tell that to Ron Lynn, the Charger defensive coordinator whose unit limited the Bears to 220 total yards and only 3.4 per offensive play. Neal Anderson and Brad Muster, the Bears’ starting backs, combined for 30 yards on 10 carries.

Point of reference: The Bears finished third in the league in rushing last year. Their only touchdown Saturday came late in the fourth period after an interception had turned the ball over at the Charger 12 and long after most of the starters had finished working for the night.

“I don’t think I’ve seen better defense played by 40 guys,” said Henning. Last week, the Chargers allowed just 206 yards and one touchdown by the offense in a 20-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Before the game, Henning had compared the Cowboy defeat to missing a four-foot putt. Beating the Bears, he said, would be like making a 40-footer.

The 40-footer his team made Saturday, he said, turned out to be a “double breaker.”

The first break was the acquisition of McMahon, who might start against San Francisco Wednesday, according to Henning.

“It was an uplift,” Holland said.

“There was a spark,” Charger center Dennis McKnight said.

“I can’t say too much bad about him,” Tolliver said. “My wife likes him.”

The second break was having the Bears on the their schedule one day after the trade. If this game had been played anywhere but Soldier Field, Henning said, he would not have used McMahon.

“I think it would have been wrong not to put him in the game,” Henning said. “He’s been here for eight years.”

At times, the Bears seemed more concerned about the quarterback who used to be their leader than about Jim Harbaugh and Mike Tomczak, who were auditioning to replace him. Tomczak, the probable regular season starter, completed two of nine passes for 32 yards.

To get McMahon ready for his four plays, Henning and Ted Tollner, the quarterbacks coach, kept him up until 3 a.m. Saturday watching film. “I’m not much of a film guy,” McMahon said. “That was pretty tough.”

And after the game, McMahon looked tired, especially when he took his sunglasses off briefly. As usual, he needed a shave. And the print pants he wore looked as if they came off the hide of a zebra.

He talked about the talent he saw on his new team. He talked about some of the tips he gave the Charger defense in a quick debriefing on the Bears’ offensive tendencies. And he talked about what he considers to be his near future when he said, “it would have been nice if I could have played the whole game.”

Then McMahon talked about his reaction to Henning’s halftime announcement that he would start the third period. “I thought he was kidding,” McMahon said.

For his part, Tolliver was dead serious. Three plays after McMahon’s exit, he found Miller outrunning Bear cornerback Maurice Douglass down the left sideline for 39 yards and a touchdown. Nine minutes later, Tolliver suckered the Bear free safety on a play-action fake and lofted a long pass down the right sideline to Holland, the Chargers’ leading receiver last year. Holland also sprinted past Douglass, and suddenly the Chargers’ lead was 24-0.

In between Tolliver’s touchdown passes was rookie Elliot Smith’s interception of a Tomczak pass. Smith gathered the ball in after it bounced off intended receiver James Thornton, and he raced 49 yards for six points.

An obviously pleased Steve Ortmayer, the Chargers’ director of football operations, conducted an impromptu press conference at halftime during which he further articulated his reasons for acquiring McMahon.

“What he (McMahon) does is drive the car he’s given,” Ortmayer said. “And he doesn’t drive it off the field. That’s very attractive to us.”

Ortmayer was referring to McMahon’s historically low percentage of interceptions. In 1984, McMahon set a Bear record by throwing 134 consecutive passes without one.

It became even more attractive to the Chargers after last Sunday’s loss to Dallas, in which David Archer and Mark Malone each threw an interception, and the Chargers lost two fumbles.

The strength of the Chargers, Ortmayer said, is defense. And McMahon, he said, has always been a good field position quarterback.

The strength of the Charger defense was evident in the first half when Leslie O’Neal (two) and backup nose tackle Les Miller combined for three sacks. The Charger pass rush also helped force the Bears into two holding penalties. George Hinkle and Gerald Robinson had sacks in the second half.

The Chargers took a 3-0 halftime lead on Steve DeLine’s 38-yard field goal 10 minutes into the first period. The score was set up by a 22-yard completion from Archer, the starter, to Miller. Archer played the entire first half and finished with five completions in 10 attempts for 74 yards.

Tolliver wound up with four completions in 10 tries for 125 yards and the two touchdowns. “I screwed up more than I did right, I’m sure,” Tolliver said. “And we didn’t do a very good job of putting the game away.”

The Charger defense preserved its shutout, momentarily, with a goal-line stand midway through the fourth quarter. The Bears had a fourth and goal at the Charger one when linebacker Jeff Jackson burst through and dropped tailback Brian Taylor behind the line of scrimmage.

But Tolliver’s late interception enabled Taylor to get a second chance and ruin the Chargers’ bid for a shutout.

Tolliver had met McMahon for the first time at an 11:30 Saturday morning. “Casual conversation,” is the way he described their initial communication.

“Jim McMahon is cool,” McKnight said. “This was fun.”