CHARGER REVIEW / CHARGERS 19, BRONCOS 7 : NOTEBOOK / T.J. SIMERS : Plummer Could Have Been MVP Twice
John Riggins holds the NFL all-time record for most touchdowns in a season with 24.
If teammates cooperated, linebacker Gary Plummer might be in position to challenge.
Plummer scored the club’s only touchdown Sunday, and would have had an additional touchdown had quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver been on target.
“I just missed him,” Tolliver said. “The way I see it, if Plummer would have caught that ball . . . we knew he was going to score later in the game. . . . It would have been pretty frustrating for the offensive guys if Plummer had come in here as both offensive and defensive MVP.”
Tolliver kept a straight face.
“It would have been tough on the guys,” he said, “and may have been a blow we could not overcome.”
Plummer scored on a one-yard dive in the fourth quarter after unsuccessfully lunging for Tolliver’s pass in the second quarter.
“It was high and outside. Definitely a ball,” Plummer said. “He threw a heater, but maybe a slowball to a guy like me might be better.”
Despite eyewitness accounts, Tolliver pleaded innocent to reports that he threw a football into the stands after the game.
“It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me,” he said. “As my boy Jim McMahon always told me, when they blame it on you, say, ‘It wasn’t me.’ And stick with it even if you’re cold busted.
“That’s all I can say: It wasn’t me. I can’t afford the $500 (fine).”
Hello.
On the Chargers’ first offensive play of the game, Denver linebacker Simon Fletcher raced in untouched on Tolliver.
Tolliver managed to pass the ball to Ronnie Harmon for a five-yard gain, but after releasing the ball, Fletcher drilled Tolliver.
Fortunately, that was only Tolliver’s helmet rolling on the ground, and not his head.
After the game, Tolliver explained his role in the Chargers’ attack, leading to speculation he may have been hit in the head.
“I’m just a band leader,” he said. “I don’t have to play any instruments. I just have to get it going.”
The streak lives on. Tolliver has now thrown 121 passes without an interception. It’s the second-longest streak in team history.
Dan Fouts holds the mark with 168 passes in 1981.
Defensive end Burt Grossman was running forward, and quarterback John Elway was running backward and sideways, and still he could not catch the sore-toed quarterback.
“I’m just going to wait for (Indianapolis’ 40-year-old quarterback Joe) Ferguson,” Grossman said. “That’s about the only one I can get, I think.”
In a straight-ahead match race, however, the heavy money would have to go on Ferguson.
Coach Dan Henning told the Charger Backers Friday, “You can’t believe everything you read.”
Now we understand what he was talking about.
When it comes to the Chargers’ injury report, it hasn’t been all that reliable recently.
Running back Rod Bernstine never appeared on the team’s injury report last week, but he didn’t even put on a uniform for Sunday’s game. Bernstine told reporters Thursday and Friday that he would be ready to play, although he had a hamstring injury.
“I thought I was going to play,” Bernstine said, “but my hamstring was real sore this morning when I came here.”
The club had put defensive end Burt Grossman’s name on the injury report, and had listed him as questionable with a fingernail injury. Grossman, however, explained that it was a joke. But the club never informed Denver.
Two weeks ago the Chargers did not put starting tackle Broderick Thompson on the injury report, although he failed to practice because of an ankle injury.
In the first quarter, Tolliver tried to go deep to wide receiver Anthony Miller, but Miller’s pass route was cut short on a downfield check by Denver safety Steve Atwater.
Tolliver ran more than 30 yards to the end zone to argue with the official. It’s the fastest anyone has seen Tolliver run since July when players got word they were serving pizza in the training camp dining room.
After having a chance to review videotape of the game Sunday night, Henning agreed with Tolliver. “He definitely held up Miller,” he said.
You mention, “Ghosts,” to Denver linebacker Michael Brooks and he thinks you’re talking about Derrick Walker.
Walker caught a 22-yard pass from Tolliver in the first quarter, and, poof, he was gone by Brooks, who fell for a Walker fake and grabbed nothing but air on his way to the turf.
There was a good reason why half the field was shielded by shade--nose tackle Joe Phillips was back on the Chargers’ sideline.
The 6-5, 295-pound Phillips, who brings to mind the Rocky Mountains when you see him in person, has been recovering from a beating he took outside a Mission Bay restaurant in the early morning hours of Sept. 26.
Phillips is not expected to return to play until next season, but tell that to Chargers’ defensive back Donnie Elder. Elder was shoved out of bounds while trying to run down field to cover a punt and rolled into Phillips. It may have been the hardest hit Elder took all day.
“I would have loved to have played,” Phillips said. “It’s harder to stand on the sideline and watch than to stay at home because you’re close to the action. You want to jump right in and go make a tackle.”
It appeared that Donald Frank was beaten badly on John Elway’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Vance Johnson in the first quarter.
Wrong. Johnson was Donnie Elder’s responsibility.