Chargers Can’t Recover from Fumble : Pro football: The New York Jets take advantage of an early mistake to top Chargers, 24-3.

Chargers defensive lineman Mitchell Benson was afforded the chance to explain himself, but like the opening kickoff, he fumbled the opportunity.

“Nothing happened,” Benson said. “You saying I lost the game?”

Read on. The Chargers never recovered from Benson’s bobble, which set up the New York Jets’ first score, and collapsed, 24-3, before 59,025 in Giants Stadium.

The 21-point loss was the team’s largest margin of defeat since last year’s 36-14 embarrassing pratfall in Pittsburgh, and guaranteed the Chargers (3-9), their fourth consecutive losing season.

For the Jets (7-5), the victory avenged 39-3 and 38-17 losses to the Chargers last season, and kept their playoff hopes very much alive.

“We’ve been through a lot this year and everytime we’ve had good or bad things we’ve responded well,” quarterback John Friesz said. “This is really our first blowout from the start.

“I think the Jets of last year are a lot like we are this year, where it’s always close, but no cigar, and not nearly as poor a team as the record might state. I think they were a year away last year, and I think that we’re a year away this year.”

The Chargers were light years away from duplicating last week’s 24-21 upset victory over the Saints. The Chargers lost two fumbles, had two passes intercepted and failed to score a touchdown.

“We just didn’t play well in any phase of the game,” linebacker Gary Plummer said. “In the last two or three years, with the record we have had, we really haven’t been blown out by anyone. But I think today it’s pretty much of a situation where you can say they blew us out.

“That’s the part that hurts the most, because we’ve always been a team that has fought down to the end, no matter what the situation.”

If this had been a Broadway play, the curtain would have fallen before the close of the first act. The Jets recovered Benson’s fumble at the Chargers’ 29, and four plays later they were ahead 7-0. The Jets got the ball back after a Chargers punt, marched 76 yards in seven plays and with 4:54 remaining in the first quarter, the Chargers trailed 14-0.

“I don’t know if there is anything worse that can happen,” than fumbling the opening kickoff, Chargers Coach Dan Henning said.

The Jets had gusting winds to their back as they kicked off, but instead of booting the ball to Nate Lewis, the NFL’s leading kickoff returner, they had Louie Aguiar hit a wedge shot to Benson at the 24-yard line.

“I would have thought he would have signaled for the fair catch,” said Larry Pasquale, Chargers special teams coordinator. “But that’s something the player on the field has to feel.

“We practice it every week. We specifically practiced it this week because we knew they wouldn’t kick it to our deep guys. And secondly we know it’s a windy stadium in late November, so we knew we’d get some of those kicks. But we weren’t absolutely sure he’d pop it up there, because he had gale-force winds behind him.

“I guess,” Pasquale said, “it’s a helluva tribute to our kickoff return team that the guy has a 15 or 20 mile an hour wind and he’s perfectly satisfied with us getting the ball on the 30-yard line.”

It would have been a helluva deal for the Chargers if Benson had held onto the ball. Benson fielded the kick, took a step forward and then fumbled. The Chargers would go on to fair catch Aguiar’s next three kickoffs, but Benson’s fumble, recovered by wide receiver Chris Burkett, gave the Jets the ball at the Chargers’ 29.

“I told them I won’t coach scared if you don’t play scared,” said Al Roberts, Jets special teams coach. “We got one turnover on the kickoff return--that was our objective.”

The Chargers’ defense stopped running back Brad Baxter for a gain of two yards on first down, but in the process lost cornerback Gill Byrd. Byrd limped from the artificial turf with a sprained ankle, did not return and was wearing street clothes by halftime.

On the following play, quarterback Ken O’Brien threw incomplete for Burkett, but safety Martin Bayless drew a penalty for roughing the passer.

“It was a good call,” Bayless said. “I got him.”

After an eight-yard run by Baxter, O’Brien went after cornerback Donald Frank, who replaced an injured Byrd. O’Brien fired a six-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Rob Moore, whom Frank trailed badly.

“It’s just something that happens,” Frank said. “Anytime you got a new cornerback come into the game, they’re going to pick on him. Simple as that.”

It was even easier than that. A holding call on H-back Steve Hendrickson wiped out the Chargers’ first offensive drive, and O’Brien came back firing at Frank. His 30-yard toss to Moore behind an overmanned Frank put the Jets at the Chargers’ 10-yard line. Two plays later, running back Blair Thomas had his first rushing touchdown of the season, a one-yard plunge.

“Great teams play past this stuff,” said Leslie O’Neal, Chargers linebacker. “Obviously, we’re not a great team.”

The Chargers attempt to mount a comeback in the first half stalled when Friesz’s poorly-thrown pass for Lewis was intercepted by Jets cornerback James Hasty. And the rally died when Friesz went down with a badly sprained ankle in the second quarter.

“They thought it was broken,” Henning said. “But the X-rays didn’t show anything.”

Safety Erik McMillan went unblocked on a blitz, and he leveled a retreating Friesz for a 10-yard loss. A limping Friesz remained in the game for two more plays, pushed the Chargers forward to set up John Carney’s 53-yard field goal, and then left for medical treatment.

Friesz tried warming up on the sideline to open the third quarter, but his sprained left ankle was too painful. Bob Gagliano, who threw an incomplete pass against the 49ers in his only action for the Chargers, completed nine of 22 passes for 76 yards with an interception.

“I was a little rusty,” Gagliano said. “But give the Jets credit, they played well.”

The Jets manhandled the Chargers. They marched 87 yards in 14 plays to set up Pat Leahy’s 300th-career field goal, a 28-yard chip shot with 5:19 to play in the third quarter to take a 17-3 lead.

After Carney’s 46-yard field goal with the wind threatened all living beings located wide left of the uprights, the Chargers never came close again to finding the end zone.

Cornerback Mike Brim’s interception of a Gagliano pass intended for Lewis on the final play of the third quarter set up Thomas’ 22-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“We didn’t play up to our potential,” said Joe Phillips, Chargers nose tackle. “So I’m not going to call it really a step backwards. Maybe in the words of a great philosopher, it was a big bite of a reality sandwich--this is what happens when we don’t take care of business.”

The Chargers went flat when the Jets jumped out to their early command. Without Friesz, The Chargers didn’t have the punch to mount a comeback. And without Byrd, they didn’t have the know-all to stifle the Jets’ ball-control attack.

“The result is not what you would like to have,” Henning said. “If you go out and a team plays better than you do, plus gets most of the circumstantial things in their favor, you’re not going to win. That’s all there is to it.

“We lost some key players. I mean, arguably Gill is one of our leaders on defense, and John has been our leader here recently on offense. When those things start to happen and you don’t make anything positive happen, you’d almost think you’d get beat worse than that.”