CHARGER NOTEBOOK / T.J. SIMERS : Nagging Injuries Bother Chargers : NFL: A week off hasn’t cured ills inhibiting Marion Butts and Anthony Miller.
The Chargers’ offense has been hurting and now, although the team has had a week off to get healthy and improve its attack, there is concern about lingering injuries to running back Marion Butts and wide receiver Anthony Miller.
Butts injured his knee in the opener against Kansas City, added a knee brace to his equipment, then re-injured the knee two weeks ago against Seattle.
Trainer Keoki Kamau said that Dr. Gary Losse’s physical examination indicated no damage to Butts’ knee, but Butts has told the team that he is unable to make the same moves and cuts he was making before hurting his knee.
“Further evaluation is needed,” Kamau said. “He has responded quite well to treatment, but he recognizes certain things that when he makes moves, it’s not there.”
To ease Butts’ concern, he will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging today. If test results are negative, as the Chargers anticipate, they said they expect him to play against Indianapolis on Sunday.
“I don’t think there’s going to be any problem with Marion preparing himself to play,” Kamau said. “But I think he’s going to play with some soreness . . . just like everybody else in this locker room.
“Based on what we have, he has a hamstring strain down low where it attaches behind the knee on the fibula. There’s no swelling in the knee. But there are some questions because of the player’s complaints.”
The team has not listed Butts on their weekly injury report, although Coach Bobby Ross said he’s probably only at “80%.” Butts’ concern for his knee has now increased the possibility of Rod Bernstine making his first start this season.
Miller, meanwhile, was listed as “probable” with a fractured thumb on the team’s weekly injury report. He injured the thumb in the victory against Seattle two weeks ago.
Ross said he was unaware of Miller’s injury until Monday when he noticed Miller was having trouble catching the ball.
Ross said, “There’s a significant thumb injury, but I think he’s fine.”
Translation: Miller is practicing with his thumb heavily taped.
“At this point in time, we don’t need to do any surgical procedures,” Kamau said. “It’s a very, very small fracture. The only thing he’s dealing with is a little bit of soreness, and he told me today he didn’t think that was much of a problem.”
The Chargers also listed cornerback Gill Byrd as probable with a thumb injury. Defensive end Burt Grossman missed practice to undergo dental work.
The Colts listed linebacker Scott Radecic (hamstring) and cornerback Tony Stargell (knee) as questionable and defensive end Sam Clancy (hamstring) and tight ends Kerry Cash (back) and Charles Arbuckle (hamstring) as probable.
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Reserve tackle Mike Mooney injured a shoulder in practice Wednesday and will undergo a MRI today. Mooney’s injury suggests the possibility that wide receiver Johnnie Barnes will win a stay of execution.
Barnes figured to be cut once the Chargers added tackle Broderick Thompson to the roster later in the week, but now they will have the option of placing Mooney on injured reserve to make room for Thompson.
Practice squad defensive lineman Arthur Paul also suffered a serious shoulder injury in practice.
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He ended Carlos Huerta’s bid for steady NFL employment, and then set out to recapture the magic he had flashed in 1990, but to date Charger kicker John Carney has missed the mark.
Carney, who was 19 of 21 on field goals two years ago, has missed three of his last four attempts, blown a 25-yard try in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium and connected on six of 10 overall attempts.
“I’m not thrilled with my statistics at this point in the season,” Carney said, “but I feel I’m a better kicker than I have been in the past two years. I feel I can do a lot more with my kickoffs.”
Carney edged Huerta in a large part because of his ability to kick the ball deep or place it where the coaching staff designed its return coverage.
The Chargers’ offense, however, has been struggling, and it needs every point possible. It needs a kicker who will not miss, and that’s the kind of kicker Carney was in 1990.
“I didn’t kick a ball off the dirt in 1990,” Carney said. “I came in right after they had planted the grass on the infield. You’re just not as consistent kicking off dirt. Your approach is different than kicking on grass or AstroTurf. It adds more factors to the kick.
“But this is Jack Murphy Stadium and there’s dirt and you have to deal with it. The quarterbacks don’t like dropping back and setting up in it, and certainly the offensive linemen don’t like pass blocking on it. But it’s part of the game.”
Two of Carney’s misses this season have come off the infield dirt, a third was blocked because of a breakdown in blocking and the fourth came from 51 yards.
“Six-for-10 doesn’t look good, but when you break it down on the kicks that I did come through on, maybe I’m not slumping,” he said. “Maybe I’m not not kicking poorly.”
He has made kicks of 49, 45, 43, 27, 24 and 20 yards.
“If you look at the past four or five years, the top three kickers have been Kansas City’s Nick Lowery, and the two Andersons (New Orleans’ Morton Andersen and Pittsburgh’s Gary Anderson). Go through the top 10 kickers for that matter, and I imagine most of them kick off AstroTurf.”
The Chargers will play on artificial turf Sunday in the Hoosier Dome. In his three years with the Chargers, Carney has attempted 17 field goals off artificial turf and has been successful a dozen times.
He played for Notre Dame against Purdue in the first game ever played in the Hoosier Dome, but did not attempt a field goal. He returned later with Tampa Bay, but did not attempt a field goal.
“I’m kicking well in practice and I feel good,” Carney said. “I’d like to be 10 for 10, but things just haven’t gone the way I wanted.
“It’s frustrating when things aren’t going well, but that’s sports. Tom Glavine wins the Cy Young and goes out and has a great first part of this season and then he kind of slumps and everybody is questioning Tom Glavine. Unfortunately there are two sides to professional sports. If you’re around long enough, you’ll experience both of them.”
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The Chargers did not practice with loudspeakers blaring crowd noise at them. Ross said he will wait until Friday to turn on the noise.
The Chargers had planned to practice in the Hoosier Dome Saturday, but they learned this week that the dome will be occupied by a convention. They will practice in San Diego, and then arrive in Indianapolis later Saturday.
