Chargers Again Lack a Finishing Touch : NFL: After struggling all game, they take the lead late, but Seattle pulls out a 10-7 victory in the final minute.

The NFL season is half over, and the Chargers are half-crazed with the maddening task of explaining how they have lost four consecutive games they could have tied or won by scoring on their last possession.

“What can you do?” asked strong safety Martin Bayless moments after Seattle quarterback Dave Krieg had thrown a 21-yard touchdown pass to Brian Blades with 40 seconds remaining to beat the Chargers, 10-7, Sunday at the Kingdome.

Actually, there were a lots of things they could have done.

For starters, they could have covered Blades better on the “fade” route he used to beat Charger nickel back Johnny Thomas in the right corner of the end zone.

“I just didn’t play the ball right,” said Thomas as he slumped in the back of his dressing stall after the loss that dropped the Chargers to 2-6. “I didn’t see the ball. I lost the game for whole team.”

Too harsh, Johnny. You had plenty of help.

Rookie quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver departed after three periods with six completions in 17 attempts for 41 yards and one interception. During that time, the Charger offense didn’t cross midfield. The game was 48 minutes 10 seconds old before they finally did.

“Billy Joe played like a rookie,” said Charger Coach Dan Henning, whose job security is joined at the hip with the hope that Tolliver will do better in the future.

“I fell flat on my face today,” Tolliver said.

Asked who his starting quarterback would be next Sunday against the Eagles, Henning said, “No decision.”

In relief of Tolliver, Jim McMahon completed nine of 12 for 82 yards.

“After today,” Tolliver said, “I don’t deserve it (the start next week).”

The Chargers committed 13 penalties for 76 yards. But their defense kept them in the game. Defensive coordinator Ron Lynn’s unit is the only one in the NFL to have held each of its past six opponents to 20 or fewer points.

That is the main reason the Chargers only trailed, 3-0, when McMahon entered the game. Norm Johnson’s 27-yard field goal in the first period was the only scoring up to that point. (Johnson subsequently missed from 53, 49 and 52 yards).

“When Jim came in, he fired the offense up,” Seattle linebacker Rufus Porter said. “He came in yelling, and he woke them up. The offensive line got new legs under them.”

On the Chargers’ third possession of the final period, McMahon drove the Chargers 55 yards in 10 plays. The touchdown, only the fourth produced by the Charger offense in the past four games, came on a 14-yard pass to tight end Arthur Cox.

Four plays later, the Charger defense backed the Seahawks into a fourth and three at the Seattle 36. Rather than call a timeout, Krieg dumped a quick pass over the right side to Louis Clark. Clark beat Thomas for 22 yards.

“It was missed communication,” Thomas said.

“The (defensive) call was in time,” contradicted outside linebacker Billy Ray Smith.

As well as the Charger defense played--limiting the Seahawks to 2.6 yards per rush--it failed consistently on third down. Led by Krieg, who finished 27 of 49 passing for 311 yards, Seattle converted 10 of 19 third-down tries.

“You can always play better,” said Charger defensive end Joe Phillips.

And you can always wonder why the Chargers didn’t provide Thomas with more defensive help on Blades, a talented second-year receiver who wound up catching 10 passes for 117 yards.

Blades’ Charger counterpart, Anthony Miller, caught just one pass for 22 yards. Tolliver, drafted and praised for his arm strength, threw deep only once; it was intercepted by free safety Eugene Robinson.

You couldn’t help but wonder what Henning was thinking after Blades’ touchdown, when he called a Darrin Nelson draw play from his own 20 with 40 seconds remaining. The 12-yard gain was worth it, but Henning’s failure to utilize one of the Chargers’ final two timeouts was questionable.

“We didn’t call time out then because we thought we could get lined up fast enough to get off another play quickly,” Henning said.

But there were only 25 seconds remaining when McMahon flipped a one-yard completion to Cox. There were eight seconds left after he hit Wayne Walker, who ran out of bounds at the Charger 46.

On the last play, McMahon caught his own batted pass and knelt on the field in frustration as time expired.

You had to wonder why the Chargers never found a way to use their last timeout.

For their part, the Seahawks broke a three-game losing streak at home and raised their record to 4-4. But there was nothing pretty about the way they did it.

So what, they said.

“The only thing ugly in football is losing,” Seattle Coach Chuck Knox said.

But the Chargers’ first-half numbers were particularly unsightly. Tolliver completed three of 13 for 31 yards. The Charger offense churned out a total of 38 yards. And the Chargers converted just one of six third-down situations.

And that wasn’t all. The Chargers committed seven penalties in the first two periods and had possession of the ball for eight minutes 14 seconds to Seattle’s 21:46.

The Charger offense, ranked 25th after seven weeks, has failed to gain more than 200 yards in each of its past two games. The league offensive average per team through seven games was 327.6 yards.

The Charger defense wonders, without complaining, what it has to do.

“That’s a hell of a defense,” Seattle right guard Bryan Millard said. “I don’t know how they can be 2-6.”

“One play a game,” Smith answered. “We make one big play a game in each of the last four, and we’re 6-2 instead of 2-6.”

Charger Notes

More from Seattle guard Bryan Millard on the Charger defense: “They come at you, and they come at you. I’m out there banging heads all day. And I know I’m thinking, ‘I’m getting tired. Aren’t you?’ The Charger defense reminds me a lot of Philadelphia.” The Seattle offense ran 81 plays to the Chargers’ 48. . . . Speaking of Philadelphia, the Eagles (6-2) are the Chargers’ next opponent. They won in Denver Sunday and will fly to San Diego from there. They will stay in La Jolla and practice at Torrey Pines High School all week. . . . The Chargers haven’t won in Seattle since 1980. . . . The Charger defense sacked Seahawk quarterback Dave Krieg five times. Lee Williams had one, and Burt Grossman and Leslie O’Neal had two apiece. Billy Ray Smith and Elvis Patterson each intercepted his first pass of the year, bringing the Chargers’ team total to 13 in the past six games. . . . Seattle wide receiver Steve Largent, who missed six games with an elbow injury and didn’t come off injured reserve until Wednesday, caught two passes for 32 yards. He has now caught at least one pass in 169 consecutive games, an NFL record.