Chargers Sail Past the Browns : AFC: Tolliver’s two touchdowns passes to Miller and Rolling’s interception help San Diego win, 24-14.

The San Diego Chargers earned their first victory of the season, beating the Cleveland Browns, 24-14, Sunday, and Coach Dan Henning gave credit to Dennis Conner, of all people.

Henning used the yachtman’s 1978 book, “No Excuse to Lose,” for inspiration.

“I think Dennis Conner should take a bow for this win,” Henning said. “I met him on a flight back from New York in July and asked him to send me his book. We got to talking about some of the things he goes through to put a crew and challenge together, and I thought they were very poignant in relation to our stuff.

“The media and fans give you all kinds of reasons and excuses, like you’re too young, you haven’t been together long enough, your quarterback is not experienced enough. All those things are true, but it’s probably true for 20 other teams, too.

“I talked with the team about it,” Henning said. “I told them I wasn’t going to give them any excuses, and they shouldn’t give themselves any. And I got that commitment from them.”

He also got:

--Touchdown passes of 19 and 23 yards from Billy Joe Tolliver to Anthony Miller.

--A game-turning 67-yard interception return from linebacker Henry Rolling to set up a one-yard scoring run by Rod Bernstine.

--A doggone good pass rush on the Dawg Pound’s kennel master, quarterbackBernie Kosar, who threw three interceptions.

--A 42-yard job-saving field goal to open the game’s scoring from Fuad Reveiz.

--Kickoff coverage that buried the Browns’ Eric Metcalf, who was averaging 34 yards a return, to 12.8 yards a carry.

--Individual outstanding performances from Marion Butts, Craig McEwen and Ronnie Harmon on offense, and Lee Williams, Martin Bayless and Sam Seale on defense.

“No excuses, that’s what Coach Henning stressed to us the night before the game, and then again in the morning,” cornerback Gill Byrd said. “He said it was just time to win.”

Down 14-10 at halftime, the Chargers posted their first second-half points of the season against a defense that had not allowed a score in either the third or fourth quarters this season.

And they did it by sticking with an erratic Tolliver at the controls.

“It’s been asked, when Billy’s struggling, do you change the quarterback?” Henning said. “Well, Billy wasn’t the only one struggling out there. We had some young people make some errors in movement, and we had some young people make some errors in routes, and even a veteran quarterback is going to look shaky under those conditions.”

Tolliver finished 12 of 29 for 139 yards with a pair of interceptions. At halftime he was eight of 22 for 86 yards with those two interceptions, and no, Henning said, he never gave a thought to warming up Mark Vlasic.

Tolliver’s first two passes Sunday were incomplete and his third was intercepted by linebacker Mike Johnson and returned 64 yards for a touchdown.

But things got better, particularly in the second half after Tolliver’s 23-yard strike to Miller put the Chargers ahead to stay.