Defense Gets Job of Keeping Chargers in the Game

The Bengals don’t huddle; the Chargers don’t score.

Over the past two years, the Cincinnati Bengals’ offense has averaged more than three touchdowns a game.

In that span, the Bengals have scored 40 or more points on seven occasions. Last season, they scored eight touchdowns on offense in a game--twice.

Eight touchdowns in a month would exceed the Chargers’ average scoring output of 1 1/2 touchdowns a game for the past two seasons.

The Chargers, the once-upon-a-time No. 1 scoring machine in the NFL, have now played 42 games in a row without topping the 40-point mark.

However, they has scored more than 30 during that period--once.

“I don’t think we can get into a scoring contest with anybody,” Coach Dan Henning said. “. . . The mismatch to me is their defense against our offense.”

That would appear to leave the Chargers’ chances for success in today’s 1 p.m. home opener riding chiefly on their defense’s confrontation with Cincinnati’s offense.

“I hope it would be that,” Henning said. “I hope we’re up to that task of taking on a top offense with our defense. We’re capable of playing a game, as long as our defense plays like it did last year.”

The Chargers’ defense, built around its stellar cast of pass-rushers, has held the opposition to 20 points or fewer in 14 of its past 15 appearances.

Two years ago, it took on the Super Bowl-bound Bengals, who were ranked No. 1 on offense, and gave up 27 points. Unfortunately, the Charger offense, led by Mark (Bounce Pass) Malone, managed to muster but 10 points.

“Our offense is coming on, but changes have been made, and there’s been the infiltration of youth,” Henning said. “They keep wanting to step forward, but something keeps coming up. I think all the changes are for the best, but in the immediate range, it hampers you a bit.”

Billy Joe Tolliver will start in place of Mark Vlasic, who was 17 for 31 for 137 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the Chargers’ 17-14 loss to Dallas. Tolliver, one for three for three yards, enters with six games of NFL experience, including a 2-3 mark as a starter.

“We’re going to be doing what we did in training camp and the preseason, but just a little bit better,” Tolliver said. “We’re still a ways away from being the type of offense we want to be. We definitely have some players where we can be a very successful offense in the NFL, but experience is the main thing, and we’re still a player or two away.”

While the offense gets its on-the-job training, “we’ll use defense and special teams to buy them some time,” Henning said.

But time is granted only grudgingly by the Bengals. When they go on the field, they don’t always huddle. If they do, it’s three yards from the ball, so they can spring into action if the defense attempts to make substitutions.

“We’re planning on them using the no-huddle offense every snap,” defensive coordinator Ron Lynn said. “If they don’t, fine.

“I don’t have a problem with the no-huddle as long as he (Cincinnati Coach Sam Wyche) isn’t doing it to screw you. If the intent is to entrap you and get a defensive penalty, I don’t think there’s a place for that in the game.”

If the Bengals’ “attack offense,” as they call the no-huddle, catches the Chargers’ defense with too many men on the field, the referee can nullify the play. “If in his judgment they are trying to entrap the defense,” Lynn said, “they’ll warn them that it’s unethical. The next time, it’s a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.”

The Bengals did not go to the no-huddle attack in last week’s come-from-behind 25-20 victory against the Jets, “but we believe they’ll use it all day against us,” linebacker Gary Plummer said.

“We didn’t play anywhere near the way we had been practicing or how we feel we’ll play before the year’s out,” Wyche said. “We caught a team that was really up, and the good part it is, we found out that we can play a little below our standards and still win.”

Cincinnati’s wide-open attack swirls around the flamboyant play of quarterback Boomer Esiason, who in Week 1 completed 17 of 30 passes for 202 yards with two interceptions and two touchdowns.

“The Chargers’ defense reminds me a lot of the Eagles; their front seven is just unbelievable,” Esiason said. “I’ll never forget two years ago we went to Philadelphia, and Sam Wyche said this will probably be the best front seven you ever play in your life. Oddly enough, he said that again this week.”

And how did Esiason and Bengals fare against those Eagles?

“Well, that’s going to be irrelevant,” Esiason said, “But we beat them (28-24).”

The Bengals will be without running back Ickey Woods, who rushed for 145 yards in 1988’s meeting with the Chargers. Woods remains on the team’s physically unable to perform list and has been replaced by second-round draft choice Harold Green.

Green will be paired with running back James Brooks, who returns to San Diego for the first time since May, 1984, when he was traded to Cincinnati for running back Pete Johnson.

“It’s just another game,” Brooks said. “All the guys I played with are gone now.”

When Brooks last played here, Dan Fouts was throwing the ball, and Kellen Winslow, Wes Chandler and Charlie Joiner were catching it. He comes back to San Diego playing for the modern-day Chargers.

“What the Los Angeles Lakers are to basketball, I like to think we’re to football,” Esiason said. “It’s just go full bore, and the object is to score a lot of points and confuse the defense.”

And as defenses discovered during the reign of Fouts & Friends, it was not always easy to put the brakes on an offensive-minded offense.

“Each game has its own personality,” Henning said. “This game here I wouldn’t be surprised at anything. Well, I would certainly be surprised if we blew them out.”