Chargers Face Reality After Loss to Giants : Chargers: With their worst offensive showing in two years and their third straight loss to show for it, the Chargers are looking at a long road back to playoff contention.

The Chargers found out just how far they are from being a playoff contender in the National Football League.

They were outpassed, outclassed and overmatched by the powerful New York Giants, who were underwhelmed by the underdog Chargers.

The Giants were particularly unimpressed with banged-up Charger quarterback Jim McMahon, who they later accused of being gun-shy.

“McMahon just didn’t want to get hit today,” said New York defensive end Leonard Marshall. It was hard to argue with him.

The final score was 20-13. But if there is such a thing as a seven-point rout, this was it. The principal reason for defeat was the Charger offense.

The Giants, led by quarterback Phil Simms (22 of 33 for 232 yards) and running back Ottis Anderson (27 carries, 96 yards), finished with 15 more first downs than the Charger offense.

The Giant defense limited the Chargers to 51 yards rushing and an embarrassing over-all total of 179 yards, the Chargers’ lowest output of the year. The Chargers converted just one of 11 third-down opportunities and one of three fourth-down tries.

Their punter, Hank Ilesic uncorked a five-yard punt in the first period. Their field goal unit spoiled a 43-yard Chris Bahr kick in the same quarter with a holding penalty on Gary Plummer.

The Giants (6-1) controlled the ball 37 minutes and 25 seconds to the Chargers’ 22:35. And the Chargers’ record dropped to 2-5, good for last place in the AFC West.

For the third consecutive week, the Chargers lost a football game they could have won or tied on their last possession. Two weeks ago in Denver, McMahon threw an interception to help kill his team’s last chance. Last week McMahon got sacked on the game’s final play to help kill his team’s last chance.

Sunday McMahon threw three straight incompletions on his last three attempts.

“Three totally emotionally dehydrating losses,” said Charger defensive lineman Joe Phillips. “Three weeks in a row it’s been, ‘Ohhhhhhh.’ ”

“We don’t have the knockout punch,” said defensive end Burt Grossman.

“The frustrating part is we shouldn’t have to wait until the fourth period,” said guard Broderick Thompson.

McMahon wound up with 12 completions in 27 attempts for 133 yards, one interception and no touchdown passes. It was not a McMagical performance in any sense of the word, especially considering how well his injury-riddled offensive line protected him from linebacker Lawrence Taylor and the rest of the Giants.

Taylor, playing much of the afternoon against reserve left tackle James FitzPatrick, didn’t sack McMahon once. He had no solo tackles and only two assists. Nose tackle Erik Howard had the Giants’ only sack.

Asked to explain his recent failures, McMahon dodged reporters, ducked out a side door and vanished into the late afternoon. It might have been his niftiest move all day.

Taylor concurred with Marshall, saying McMahon, “was more worried about being hit than he was about getting the ball to a receiver.”

“McMahon’s a gutsy player,” Taylor said. “But it’s a different type of Jim McMahon now. Maybe they’re asking him to do different things here. It wasn’t like playing against the old McMahon today.”

“His cast isn’t as good as it was in Chicago,” said Giants Coach Bill Parcells.

Neither, it appears, is McMahon.

The Giants’ margin of victory would have been larger if a wide-open Maurice Carthon hadn’t dropped an easy Simms pass in the end zone eight minutes into the game. The Giants settled for a 21-yard Raul Allegre field goal and a 3-0 lead.

After Bahr converted a 26-yarder late in the second period, Giant tight end Mark Bavaro caught what would have been a 10-yard touchdown pass from Simms if tackle John Elliott hadn’t been discovered holding. Allegre’s subsequent 40-yarder on the final play of the half gave the Giants a 6-3 lead.

That grew to 20-6 on a pair of four-yard, second-half touchdown runs by Anderson answered only by a 30-yard Bahr field goal.

Anderson’s first touchdown was a bolt between left tackle and left end. Charger cornerback Gill Byrd had a clean shot at the three. But, he said, “I missed the tackle.”

Moments earlier, McMahon missed wide receiver Wayne Walker. Sheldon White intercepted at the Charger 48. And Anderson ran over Byrd nine plays later. Anderson’s second touchdown was the last of a 12-play, 87-yard drive that consumed seven minutes and 13 seconds.

But when Billy Ray Smith stripped the ball from Carthon with less than three minutes to play, free safety Vencie Glenn scooped up the fumble and raced 81 yards for a touchdown. It was the longest fumble return in Charger history.

It was also their last and only whiff of the Giant end zone all day.

“Man, I liked that,” said Charger Coach Dan Henning. “That was a heck of fumble recovery.”

But there was little else for Henning to enjoy. His offense has scored only three touchdowns in the past three weeks. His best all-around offensive player, Rod Bernstine, has a bad knee. His quickest rookie, Dana Brinson, has a bad neck. His best left tackle, Joel Patten, has a bad knee and a bad neck. And his owner, Alex Spanos, usually has a bad reaction to mounting losses.

None of those four played Sunday.

Charger Notes

Charger tackle James FitzPatrick got help from teammates as the Chargers double and triple-teamed Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor all afternoon. “I did what I had to do.” said Taylor, who didn’t get a sack. “They (the Chargers) did a lot of real quick throws, three steps back and throw it. God knows where it’s going. I don’t think you can win like that.” . . . By holding the Chargers scoreless in the first period Sunday, the Giants remained unscored upon in the first 15 minutes of any game this year. . . . Asked by an electronic media questioner if his team was “atrophying” after three straight losses, Charger Coach Dan Henning kept his cool and even displayed a winning sense of humor. “No,” he said. “We lift weights Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.” . . . Former Giant defensive back Elvis Patterson, now a Charger sub, likes his former teammates’ chances of representing the NFC in the Super Bowl. “They can feel something now,” Patterson said. . . . In his first game as a Charger, running back Darrin Nelson carried the ball twice for minus-one yard and caught three passes for 38 yards. . . . Henning said he would have inserted rookie quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver late in the fourth period if the Chargers had still been 14 points behind. But Vencie Glenn’s fumble return for a touchdown cut the Giant lead to seven and prompted Henning to stay with starter Jim McMahon. . . . The Keith Browner-Sam Seale 75-yard touchdown return against the Rams was the longest in Charger until Glenn’s. . . . Seattle, the Chargers’ next opponent, is 0-3 at home. The game is at the Kingdome. . . . The Chargers trail first-place Denver by four games in the AFC West after just seven weeks. . . . Seale’s interception of a Phil Simms pass in the second period was the team’s 11th in the past five games. . . . The last time the Charger offense gained fewer than the 179 yards was at Seattle, Nov. 22, 1987, when they netted just 156 yards.