Made It by That Much: Bahr’s Kick Ends Season on Special Note

A few minutes earlier, his game-winning field goal had snuck past the right upright by such a narrow margin that, he said, the football was probably smeared with yellow paint.

Chris Bahr splashed sunshine onto the conclusion of this stormy Charger season Sunday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. A 45-yard field goal. No time remaining. Chargers 19, Denver Broncos 16.

Unlike the Broncos, the Chargers are not headed for the playoffs. And unlike Bronco kicker David Treadwell, Bahr is not headed for the Pro Bowl. But Sunday, both the Broncos and Treadwell received a taste of the frustration the Chargers (6-10) and Bahr have felt all season.

It happened this way. The Broncos (11-5) scored with 35 seconds remaining to tie the score, 16-16. Treadwell came on to kick the extra point, having converted 39 of his previous 39.

Up . . .

No cigar. Wide right.

Quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver drove the Chargers 45 yards. And Bahr came on to make his fourth field goal of the day in five attempts.

Bahr has done 14 years hard time in the NFL. Treadwell is just a rookie. Bahr doesn’t think that matters.

“No,” he said. “I doubt that he, in a million years, expected to miss that. It’s just one of those things.”

Just like the positioning on Bahr’s game-winner. One of those things. If the Charger offense had gotten the ball a yard closer before Bahr came on to take a swipe at it, he thinks it probably would have bounced back in his face. Mercifully for the Chargers, the ball hooked a few inches at the end of its flight.

“If it was 44, it probably would have hit the post,” Bahr said.

All those seasons in the NFL and all those kicks don’t make situations such as Sunday’s a whole lot easier. But Bahr knew he was having a good day. After coming up short on a 52-yard attempt in the first quarter, he converted on tries of 22, 41 and 53 yards before knocking through the game-winner. Still, he wasn’t exactly counting on making the last one.

“I felt very good,” he said. “I don’t think I ever look at any kick as automatic.”

Another thing 14 seasons in the NFL tends to do is erase optimism and replace it with realism. Tolliver, by contrast, is a bright-eyed rookie who rarely doubts himself and never even considered doubting Bahr.

“I knew he had it,” Tolliver said. “He’s been in that situation many times. I knew it was good as soon as he walked out there.”

Bahr hasn’t had a great season, but it hasn’t been horrible either. In view of the rest of the special teams, who essentially have performed 16 consecutive Vaudeville routines, Bahr has been steady. He has made 17 of 25 field goals and 29 of 30 extra points.

That probably sounds a little better than it was. Before Sunday’s game, Bahr was two for four from 40 to 49 yards and zero for two from 50 to 59 yards. But what bothers him most about this season is not what he did or didn’t do but what he didn’t have the opportunity to do.

“We (the special teams) really didn’t have a lot to offer,” he said. “As a unit, we really didn’t have an effect on a whole lot of games.”

So Sunday was a nice ending in that respect. Bahr was largely responsible for sending the best team in the AFC, albeit an John Elway-less group from the second quarter on, into the playoffs on a losing note. And his 53-yarder was the longest since he hit a career-high 55-yarder as a Cincinnati Bengal in 1979.

Said Charger Coach Dan Henning: “Chris felt like he could pop it. I’m not sure it made it by very much.”

Bahr was told just how much.

“The referee told me ‘By a football,’ ” he said.

Hold the paint.