Dickerson’s Summation: ‘I Was Terrible’ : Colts: Tailback, frustrated by losing two fumbles against Raiders, says he feels responsible for the loss.

Tailback Eric Dickerson of the Indianapolis Colts flung his helmet to the ground in frustration after giving away his second fumble in a 16-0 loss to the Raiders Sunday at the Coliseum.

“I was terrible,” said Dickerson, who hadn’t fumbled since a Nov. 26, 1989, game against San Diego. “Today I had a very bad day. I feel like I’m responsible for our loss. I’m disappointed in the way I played.

“I turned the ball over twice, but I was trying to make big plays and that’s what happens. And I missed an assignment on an audible when we got down to the goal line and got (quarterback) Jeff (George) sacked.

“It’s no fun being 0-3, believe me. I hate to lose just like anyone else. The season is getting away from us, it really is.

“If we could win 10 games, that would be a great accomplishment because we’re 0-3 and we’re just not playing very well.”

Dickerson’s first fumble set up Jeff Jaeger’s 33-yard field goal with 1:13 left in the third quarter and his second fumble killed a Colt drive at the Raider 19 in the fourth quarter.

Raider cornerback Torin Dorn stripped Dickerson of the ball on his second fumble.

“I thought I was down on the first fumble,” Dickerson said.

“And (Dorn) just made a good play on the second one. I was just trying to get into the end zone and he got it.

“I hadn’t fumbled in a long time, and it was frustrating especially coming back to Los Angeles and doing it.

“It’s just something that you live with. It’s like a quarterback throwing interceptions or getting sacked. It just happens. No one feels any worse about it than myself.

“But I don’t have that many bad days.”

Running behind an offensive line devastated by injuries, Dickerson had his most productive game of the season, rushing for 77 yards on 20 carries, a 3.9-yard average.

“Today we lost three (linemen) and it’s been like that all year for the offensive line,” Dickerson said. “We’re just shifting guys around too much and it’s not even their fault because somebody’s always getting hurt.

“One week a guy’s a guard, and the next week he’s a tackle.

“Sometimes I don’t know who to line up behind.

“But we’ve got to play with the guys we have. We can’t just fold our tent and say, ‘We’ll come back next year’ and not play the rest of our games.

“Some of the younger guys are going to have to step up and play like veterans and not be rookies.

“It’s fine to be a football player and live this life, but if you don’t win, heads will roll, and that includes me and everyone else.”

Although there has been speculation that Coach Ron Meyer is in jeopardy of being fired, Dickerson doesn’t blame Meyer for the Colts’ third 0-3 start in the last four seasons.

“You can’t blame it on Ron,” Dickerson said. “Everyone wants to look at the head coach, but that’s not really fair. You’ve got to look at the players. The players know what’s going on.

“Everyone wants to point a finger at the coach, but sometimes you’ve got to point a finger at yourself.

“Today I point the finger at myself. I feel like if I didn’t cause us to lose, I caused the game to not be as close as it should have been. It’s not always the head coach’s fault.”

How can a team with Dickerson, the fifth leading rusher in NFL history, be so inept on offense, scoring 13 points in three games? The Colts have gone 11 quarters without scoring a touchdown.

“That just goes to show that whenever you have a good skilled player, it takes more than one guy to move the ball,” George said. “We’re just going through some tough times right now.”

Dickerson is frustrated by the Colts’ slow start.

“You start wondering, ‘Can we score?’ ” Dickerson said. “And then it comes back to just playing consistently.

“We’re not playing well as an offensive unit. Our defense is playing well, but we’re keeping them on the field too long.

“It’s frustrating to score 13 points in three weeks. I’d like to have a game where we could at least score 20 points.

“I don’t want to lose, but if we lost 21-20, at least as an offensive unit we’d feel a little bit better because we could say we did score some points.”

After a messy contract dispute marred last season, Dickerson had high hopes for this season because he was finally content.

“Sometimes things don’t start out the way you’d like,” Dickerson said. “It’s not always the horse that starts the race, it’s the horse that finishes the race, but right now this horse is dead.

“I’m not ready to give up yet. Even if we went 0-5 or 0-6 I still would not give up. We still have time. We really do.”