Chargers Face Another Foe in ‘Dome Din
A bookstore has a decibel reading of 83. It takes a 12% increase in the level of sound for the decibel reading to go up a point.
The noise under a busy highway, for example, generates a decibel reading of 99, which is comparable to the racket made by a power lawn mower.
A jackhammer pushes the decibel count to 121; a jet taking off will nudge the reading to 123. Then there is the Kingdome.
It was designed to give a headache to the Chargers. Concrete and defeat. The Chargers haven’t won here since the opening game of the 1980 season. Two weeks earlier, Charger lineman Courtney Hall turned 12.
The Kingdome is a decibel denizen of destruction. It not only gets loud, but louder. The decibel torture has been known to climb as high as 126, and today the Chargers (3-5) will try to snap an eight-game losing streak against the Kingdome’s primary tenants, the Seahawks (3-4).
“If I was trying to carry on this conversation with you in the dome,” guard David Richards said, “you couldn’t hear me. It’s like having a Walkman tuned in between stations full-blast and having the headsets on all day.”
When the Denver Broncos prepare to play in the Kingdome each season they move indoors and practice with loud music blaring at them. “We sold earplugs at $3 each to reporters so they could watch practice,” said Bill Harpole, the Broncos’ director of operations. “I’ve made more than $40.”
The Broncos also try to combat the noise by employing a silent count on offense. Quarterback John Elway will lift his foot, and the tight end will go in motion. The center will snap the ball when he’s ready, and the other players move when they see the ball move.
“The silent count doesn’t work,” Richards said. “Say you’re playing left tackle, OK? And you got Rufus Porter out there. You’re looking at the ball, and Rufus is looking through you at the ball. The ball moves, Rufus is gone, and you’re dead. And so is the quarterback.
“Do you think I can run as fast backward as Rufus can run forward? That’s kind of a mismatch, so my only advantage is knowing the snap count, but if I can’t hear it, I’m a goner.”
The Chargers will rely on Billy Joe Tolliver’s Texas twang to cut through the noise today. They will also scoot to the line of scrimmage as quickly as they can and try to catch the Seahawks jumping offsides with a quick snap.
Since Tolliver usually doesn’t call audibles on even the quietest of Sundays, there will be no need for hand signals. And when the Chargers’ tight end or H-back goes into motion, he will do as he always does, begin moving on his own.
But as Richards said, “The first time I played there, I jumped offsides. It gets you.”
It’s the noise; it won’t go away.
“Billy Joe was right behind me and I could barely hear him giving the cadence,” said Hall, who has moved from center to guard this season. “Last year we didn’t prepare as well as we should have, and we let the noise affect us.
“It’s loud. Normally in a huddle it’s three feet wide and maybe four feet deep, but in the Kingdome it shrinks, and Billy Joe is yelling into our faces.”
The solution, of course, is success. Score early, and score often.
“Every time you hear the noise, you know they’re doing something good,” cornerback Gill Byrd said. “You don’t want to hear that noise; you want to hear a pin drop in that stadium--just once.”
The Seahawks, however, have confounded the Chargers. They have not only won eight in a row indoors, but have claimed victories in 10 of the last 12 meetings between the teams. Coach Chuck Knox, who has also coached the Rams and Buffalo Bills, has a 14-3 career mark against the Chargers.
“The Kingdome doesn’t block and it doesn’t tackle,” Knox said. “I don’t think it’s any more difficult than going into Cleveland . . . or Denver. The crowd noise is something you have to adjust to wherever you go.”
When Knox and Coach Dan Henning have come to terms in the past, it has been Knox’s team that has adjusted the best. The Seahawks knocked off Henning’s Chargers twice last season, and topped Henning’s Falcons, 30-26, in 1985 in the Kingdome.
“No, the crowd doesn’t block or tackle,” Henning said, “but look at the penalty business, and all the crowd can do to help the home team if they’re smart enough. If he wants to deny that, he’s full of it, and I’m sure he knows that.
“You can put the Norman Luboff Choir and the Marine Corps Band out there and it still wouldn’t reverberate like it does in the dome.”
If the Chargers’ offense can contend with the noise, then it’s up to the defense to muffle a Seattle scoring attack that features Dave Krieg at quarterback and John L. Williams and Derrick Fenner at running back.
“Typically they are as good as Krieg plays,” defensive coordinator Ron Lynn said. “He’s either very good or very bad. When he’s hot and not beat up, he’s a tough son of a gun.
“When we’ve had good success against him, we’ve been able to get to him and knock him around a little bit. Then he becomes hesitant and is not as clearly defined in what he’s trying to do.”
Krieg has thrown 21 touchdown passes in 10 games with the Chargers, while being intercepted 11 times. In his last three outings against the Chargers, however, he has two touchdown passes with seven interceptions.
Krieg has completed 60.3% of his passes this season, and has seven touchdowns with 10 interceptions. He has been sacked 14 times.
Krieg’s favorite target has been Williams, who leads the team with 36 receptions. Williams has also run the ball 85 times for 332 yards, and Fenner has gained 432 yards and scored seven touchdowns in 97 carries.
Krieg was on the sideline, and did not play when Dan Fouts threw four touchdown passes and guided the Chargers to their last victory in 1980 in the Kingdome.
The Chargers, meanwhile, have no one on their roster from that last victory in Seattle. No one knows what winning is like in Seattle.
Field engineers, however, will tell you that the winning locker room has reached a decibel level of 100 in the past.
But if the Chargers win today, break out the earplugs.