Charger Defenders Buck the Broncos : Pro football: Byrd’s two interceptions, Plummer’s touchdown run spark third victory in a row.

It was an afternoon foreign to what fans have come to experience in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium in recent years.

Finally, it was expectation met with satisfaction. And short of calculating the Chargers’ magic number for making the playoffs, it was hey, nudge the neighbor, something unusual is happening down at the Murph.

Not since the strike year of 1987 had the Chargers won three games in a row. Excluding the strike season, not since 1985 had the Chargers been at .500 this late in the season. Go back to 1982, and that’s the last time the Chargers were in the playoffs.

But up on the scoreboard, it was in bright lights: Chargers 19, Broncos 7.

It’s not the playoffs but quite an afternoon. The Broncos (3-6) are left for playoff dead, the Kansas City Chiefs (5-4) lose, the Raiders (6-3) fall, and take another sip of coffee, here come the Chargers (5-5).

“They might be playing as well as anyone right now,” Denver Coach Dan Reeves said.

The Chargers have won four of five games since being embarrassed by the Pittsburgh Steelers, 36-14. And now they have left the Broncos, who have been to the Super Bowl three of the past four years, in the AFC West cellar.

“This is the type of day you have to have,” Charger Coach Dan Henning said. “You have to have the teams ahead of you come back to you, and you have to continue to win.

“But you know my boy (Director of Public Relations Bill Johnston) wanted to have NFL Films come in here after the game and hear the excitement, but we’ve got a long way to go. This franchise being out of the playoffs as long as it has, the time to have somebody come in the dressing room and document excitement will be when we win a game to put us in the playoffs.”

The Chargers, however, went after Sunday’s victory in playoff gusto. They combined a potent running game with a defiant defense and stymied Denver’s every attempt to rally.

Running back Marion Butts, who entered the game as the NFL’s leading rusher, wasn’t supposed to play. He had a deep thigh bruise and the club considered keeping him out of uniform.

But tell that to the battered Broncos, who were left behind. Butts ran 16 times for 114 yards, including a 45-yard gain, the longest run from scrimmage against Denver this season.

“What can I say?” Butts said. “It shocked me. I was supposed to be hurt, but I came through.”

Saturday night, trainer Keoki Kamau and Henning went to the stadium to treat Butts’ injury and also to work on Rod Bernstine’s hamstring pull.

“After that I thought we would get something out of Marion,” Henning said, “but I didn’t think we would get anything out of Bernstine.”

Bernstine was in street clothes on the sideline Sunday, and the Chargers decided to start Ronnie Harmon, who dented Denver’s defense for 71 yards in 10 carries.

“We’re getting closer and closer,” quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver said after running his streak of pass attempts without an interception to 121. “If we can cash it in offensively instead of kicking field goals, I think you’ve got about as good as we can play.”

The Chargers used John Carney field goals of 19, 23, 43, and 32 yards to build a 12-7 lead with 3:11 to play in the third quarter. Then Denver put them to the test.

On the kickoff after Carney’s fourth field goal, returner Kevin Clark went 75 yards to the Chargers’ 25-yard line. It was the longest Denver return since 1972, and it put John Elway & Co. in position to push ahead.

But the Chargers’ defense, which limited Denver to 211 yards, refused to budge. On third and seven, Elway surrendered to Burt Grossman’s relentless pass rush and threw the kind of pass an inexperienced Tolliver is supposed to throw.

“Decisions, decisions,” Tolliver said. “I can understand why you make a throw like that. Every once in a while you see a flash, and yeah, I can get that there. And as it turns out you don’t, but live and learn, I guess.”

As Grossman closed in on Elway, it became apparent none of his receivers were open. But Elway has that cannon for an arm, and so he tried to fire a pass into the end zone to Michael Young.

“He’s done that in the past and made big plays out of it,” Charger cornerback Gill Byrd said.

But this time he threw the ball directly to Byrd. It was Byrd’s second interception of the day and the sixth and seventh of the season for the team’s all-time interception leader (32).

“It was a stupid play on my part,” said Elway, who completed 17 of 30 passes for 171 yards, including a 22-yard first-quarter touchdown pass to Vance Johnson.

The Chargers struck back after shutting down the Broncos. They went 80 yards, scoring on linebacker Gary Plummer’s one-yard dive. Plummer, who has lined up as a blocking back in goal-line situations, has scored twice for the Chargers this season.

“It’s a play we’ve been working on since training camp,” Plummer said. “It’s ‘H-20 reach.’ They told me on the series before that they were going to run it, and I was ready.”

Carney’s extra point gave the Chargers a 19-7 advantage, but the Broncos were not finished.

After getting the ball on their 12, they were successful on two fourth-down plays and moved to the Chargers’ one-yard line with a first and goal.

But on first down, running back Bobby Humphrey was tackled for a two-yard loss, and on second down, tight end Chris Verhulst bobbled a pass from Elway as he went out of the end zone, negating the touchdown. On third down, defensive tackle Lee Williams sacked Elway for minus-nine yards, and on fourth and goal from the 11, safety Vencie Glenn knocked down Elway’s pass in the end zone.

“This game was the one thing we needed, a close game where we hung in there, and hung in there to win,” Charger guard David Richards said. “You see when you get in a situation like that, you have to go back to something you’ve experienced.

“Until now we’ve only had negative things to go back on. Now we don’t have to dream of pulling out a close game, now we have live pictures to call on. For our own personal confidence, I think this was a very important game for this team.”

It was just as important to the Broncos, who had defeated the Chargers in five of the past six meetings.

“That’s a good football team,” said Elway, who was coming off a toe injury and a strained arch.

“The toe’s numb, but it’s the knife here,” he said, pointing to the middle of his chest, “that needs to come out.”

* CHARGERS REPORT

A clutch performance by the Chargers’ defense stopped a John Elway-led Denver rally. C17A

Review, Report Card. C17A