Beating Seattle Will Be No Easy Trick
The Chargers are 1-8, and on Friday a fan suggested to Coach Dan Henning that all the team has to lose now is more games, so why not employ the shotgun formation or add trick plays to their attack?
“Nothing to lose but games?” Henning said. “That’s what we’ve had the last nine weeks and you weren’t happy with that. We’re not happy with that and the owner’s not happy with that.
“We’re going to do what we think is best to win football games. . . . We don’t need to get into the pluses and minuses of the shotgun, but you can be rest assured at this point in time that we will not be in the shotgun.
“There is no formation, there is no play, there is no motion that causes winning. OK? Winning is caused by players doing things the best way they can under the conditions and then they end up being better than the opposition.”
So how will the Chargers come to be better in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium than today’s opposition, the Seattle Seahawks? The Seahawks (5-4) whipped the Chargers 20-9 in the Kingdome before each team received a bye last week.
“I don’t know what their approach is going to be, but we felt like we got outplayed up there on special teams and in the red-area offense (inside the opposition’s 20-yard line),” Henning said. “Even though statistically we had more yards than they had, there’s a lot of hidden yardage when you have to start all your drives from inside the 25, and they start theirs from around the 50.”
The Chargers outgained the Seahawks, 320-202, in total yardage, had a seven-minute advantage in time of possession and had 2-0 edge in turnovers.
The Chargers, however, were unable to find the end zone on offense, and after trailing 10-9 in the final minutes of the third quarter, they surrendered a 55-yard kickoff return to key a 10-point fourth-quarter for Seattle.
“I’ve said this consistently, I think they are the best-coached team in our division,” Henning said. “They have the most continuity, they have been building into this defensive plan and they have been doing the same things offensively.
“I think they are a good, sound, solid football team. . . . They don’t have a weakness, and I don’t think they have a great strength. They’re going to be tough to beat by anybody because they don’t have any great mismatches.”
The Chargers have lost 12 of their last 14 games with the Seahawks. They have defeated Seattle in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium only once since 1983.
“We’ve got to find a way to score more points,” safety Martin Bayless said. “If history means anything, the only time the Chargers have beaten the Seahawks in the last eight years, is when the defense has scored a touchdown.
“Keith Browner ran back an interception for a touchdown (1988) and we beat them, and Les Miller recovered a fumble in the end zone last year. So if we can score a defensive touchdown, we’ll win this game.”