McMahon Leaves Chargers Empty, Giants Wondering

Jim McMahon yanked off his helmet, glanced at the scoreboard--New York Giants 20, Chargers 13--and decided that he had had enough. He could not bear the thought of watching any longer.

Even though there still was one more play to be run by the Giants, McMahon picked up his gear and was off for the Charger locker room, leaving his teammates the task of playing out the final seconds.

McMahon, the Charger quarterback, was the first to enter the locker room. The first to shower. The first to dress. And the first to leave.

“I just want to get the hell out of here right now,” McMahon said to approaching reporters.

He then looked toward teammate Billy Joe Tolliver, and said, “Well, Red, another bleeping loss.”

McMahon put on his sunglasses and was gone.

Losing three straight games-with three straight dismal offensive efforts, while blowing three straight chances for victory in the closing minutes-has a way of silencing a guy.

Particularly when the only touchdown scored by your team all day was on a 81-yard fumble return by safety Vencie Glenn.

McMahon completed 12 of 27 passes for just 133 yards, and if that was not painful enough, his third-quarter interception to Adrian White set up a Giant touchdown.

“You know, if I hadn’t played against him (McMahon) before,” Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor said, “I wouldn’t have believed it was even the same guy. Part of him is gone. There’s something missing. He’s a different type of Jim McMahon now.

“It seems he was more worried about me than getting the ball to his wide receivers.”

Said defensive end Leonard Marshall: “McMahon just didn’t want to get hit today. He was rushing the whole time just to get rid of the ball.”

The shots fired by the Giants afterwards certainly were more painful than the ones they delivered, considering that McMahon was sacked just once, none by Taylor.

Charger Coach Dan Henning, making sure that the Giants didn’t take advantage of his decimated offensive line, kept seven players on the line of scrimmage the entire game.

“Now that takes away some people that have the capabilities of making a big play,” Henning said, “but if you can’t keep their people out of your backfield, you won’t have a chance to make a big play.”

Countered Taylor: “It seemed as if they were actually playing defense while their offense was in there. They had a lot of real quick throws; three steps back and throw it. God only knows where it’s going. I just don’t think you can win like that.”

Taylor didn’t offer any suggestions, but unless the NFL offers them their version of federal aid by altering their remaining schedule, the next six weeks could be just as ugly..

Take a look, if you dare. The next time the Chargers (2-5) play a team with a worst record than their own is Dec. 3, when the New York Jets come to town.

“I’m really getting sick of all this,” cornerback Sam Seale said. “I’m tired of hearing how the Chargers fought hard and had a chance to win a game. The bottom line is we lost, and people don’t give a damn how we lost.”

As defensive end Burt Grossman said, “No one is going to ask you if you hung in there with everybody, and no one is going to ask you that you just lost each game by four or eight points. They’re going to ask about your win-loss record, and right now, it hurts to say that we’re 2-5.”

Just like last week and the week before that, the Charger defense again provided the offense with a chance to win the game in the final minutes.

And just like last week and the week before, the offense failed miserably. The Chargers’ offense:

* gained, with the exception of three drives that resulted in field goal attempts, only 42 yards.

* failed to get a first down in the fourth quarter and had only three in the second half.

* was on the field for only two minutes, eight seconds during the fourth quarter, producing a negative-four yards.

* had only eight plays that gained 10 or more yards.

It was a week ago, in their 17-16 defeat to Seattle, remember, that the Charger defense forced a fumble on the Seahawk 18-yard line with 4:06 left, only to stand on the sidelines and watch the offense promptly march backward before having a 51-yard field goal blocked.

Well, learning by this time that handing the ball to their offense is like asking the Army to fend for themselves with squirt guns, the Charger defense decided to take it upon themselves to score. With the Giants just trying to run out the clock, linebacker Billy Ray Bates walloped Maurice Carthon as he came through the line, sending the football squirting out of his hands.

Glenn picked up the ball, ran through a couple of bodies and left Phil Simms chasing him futilely 81 yards down the left side for the longest fumble return in Charger history.

The touchdown cut the Giants’ lead to 20-13 with 2:27 left, and all of a sudden, Giant Coach Bill Parcells didn’t look so good.

Once the Chargers kicked off into the end zone for a touchback, all the Giants needed was one first down to ensure victory. They never got it. The Giants gained only six yards on three plays and had to punt.

The Charger offense came onto the field with the ball at their 40, with 1:46 and one timeout.

Well, three incompletions and a sack later, the Charger defense was back on the field with the ball at their own 25.

This time, the Giants took no chances. Simms simply knelt down twice, leaving the Chargers muttering to themselves once again.

“You can’t pin this loss solely on the offense,” Smith said. “You can’t say it’s solely their failure. You can’t say we’re losing all these games because of them.

“We did give up 20 points, remember?”

The Chargers and the Indianapolis Colts are the only teams in the NFL that have allowed 20 or fewer points in each of their past five games.

But as the Chargers are finding out, it doesn’t really seem to matter.