CHARGER REVIEW : NOTEBOOK : Kicker Reveiz Earns a Save--His Job

Now it can be said: The Chargers really like kicker Fuad Reveiz.

“Frankly, I think that was a great thing for the Chargers,” Larry Pasquale, special teams coordinator, said after Reveiz held onto his job Sunday. “We all believe very strongly in Reveiz.”

Of course, Reveiz had been told by Pasquale last week that he was “under the gun, the knife and the scalpel” and that a poor showing against the Browns would be his last showing as a Charger.

Reveiz took the threats in stride, and 1:55 into the game Sunday, he was lining up for a 42-yard field goal in windy Cleveland Stadium.

He was true from 42 yards, was successful on pinning Eric Metcalf down with five well-aimed kickoffs and was straight but short into a powerful wind on a 44-yard field-goal attempt.

“We hated to see it come down to something like that, but I hope he’s vindicated himself,” Pasquale said. “And I hope that everybody realizes the kind of guy he is. This is a quality kicker, as good as there is around this league. By God, it would have been a tragedy for the Chargers if the guy wasn’t here.”

Makes you wonder what this team will do to the guys they really don’t like.

Watching the Charger offensive linemen try to run down linebacker Mike Johnson on his way to returning an interception 64 yards for a touchdown raises an intriguing question: Who would win a match race between tackle Eric Floyd and Roseanne Barr?

Floyd, of course, would get a head start to make it more competitive.

When it was announced that 77,429 fans had attended Sunday’s game, the crowd booed itself.

The last time Ronnie Harmon played in Cleveland Stadium, he dropped a touchdown pass that would have sent his Buffalo Bills to the AFC Championship game.

Harmon maintains to this day that he did not drop that pass, and so he’s wrong. But no matter, the Plan B free agent has been one of the Chargers’ most pleasant surprises to date.

Harmon’s open-field running rates highlight consideration, and his three catches for 36 yards and six rushes for 30 yards accounted for more than one-fourth of the team’s total offense.

Practice makes perfect. Quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver’s first pass Sunday slipped off H-back Craig McEwen’s fingertips, and it was just the way they had practiced.

“I think I dropped six passes in Friday’s practice and caught one,” McEwen said. “After I dropped the first pass, I thought this is just going to be black Sunday.

“I was really kind of down, but a couple of guys came around and told me not to go into the tank or it will be a crummy day. I went back in, and sure enough, they called my number.”

Six times. McEwen caught a team-high six passes for 60 yards.

The Chargers allowed only one sack but got to Bernie Kosar three times. Linebacker Leslie O’Neal now leads the Chargers’ pass rushers with 3 1/2 sacks; Lee Williams and Burt Grossman each have three.

Fog I--Wide receiver Anthony Miller was forced to leave the field after getting poked in the eye, and Coach Dan Henning said Miller remained sidelined for a short time, “because he got a little foggy in the head.”

Fog II--Safety Vencie Glenn collided with wide receiver Reggie Langhorne and was helped off the field, and did not return. “Same thing with Vencie,” Henning said. “It was a deep fog, though. London fog . . . but he’s all right.”

Were they yelling, “Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie,” or “You robbed me, you robbed me, you robbed me,” after the Browns were upset?

Twenty-five of defensive coordinator Ron Lynn’s relatives and friends came calling for tickets to the Browns’ game, and Lynn obliged.

“But I didn’t pay for them,” Lynn said. “I got out of the ticket business a long time ago. We played in Pittsburgh one time with the USFL, and I spent $850 for tickets. The thing that got me out of it, is that I left tickets at will call, and they never picked them up.

“And I still had to pay for them, and they were my relatives. I got them tickets for this game because it’s a tough ticket, but it was, ‘Give me the check in hand and then I’ll give you the ticket.’ ”

While eager to see Lynn, family and friends made it clear who they were rooting for: “The Browns,” Lynn said, “and you know, it’s kind of fun to walk out of here with a smile on my face.”

The sign on the wall said: “Welcome to the Slaughter House.”

Nice try, guys.

Former San Diego State wide receiver Webster Slaughter improved his streak to 21 games in a row in which he has caught a pass with a fourth-quarter 40-yard reception.

In the fourth quarter, the Browns advanced to the Chargers’ 27, and on fourth and eight, Kosar tried to go over the middle to Langhorne for the first down.

But safety Martin Bayless would have none of that. He went over Langhorne’s back to break up the pass, and in some circles, they might call that pass interference.

“The refs didn’t call it,” Bayless said.

Good thing they can’t use instant replay to apply penalties that haven’t been called.