Chargers Seek the Right Formula to Solve Broncos, Elway
It’s a credibility check. It’s an opportunity for the Chargers to inject meaning into the remainder of the season and establish themselves as the team on the rise.
All they have to do is best Denver Bronco quarterback John Elway.
Details, details.
“If John Elway has a bad day, we’re going to win the game,” Charger linebacker Gary Plummer said. “It’s a pretty simple formula.”
Beat Elway. That’s all, just beat Elway.
Good luck. Last week the Oilers thought they had defeated Elway and the Broncos only to learn the game is not over if the ball is still in Elway’s hands. Elway marched the Broncos 80 yards in three plays for a 27-21 comeback victory.
The Raiders had a 13-10 lead late in the fourth quarter of the season opener, and Elway went the distance to pull out a 17-13 victory.
The Chiefs had a 19-6 lead, and Elway threw two touchdown passes with less than two minutes to play to bail out the Broncos. Do you believe in miracles?
“He kind of reminds me of a man playing with boys,” Plummer said. “He’s just toying with them, and then when it comes time to get the job done, he can do it.”
Elway has engineered 31 game-saving fourth-quarter drives.
“He’s just a great player; he makes the team,” Charger defensive end Burt Grossman said. “They have good talent, but they’ve won so much over the last nine years, and it’s all been him.
“He has that intangible thing about being able to win all the time. I think everybody expects him to win when it’s a tight game. You can shut him down all game where he hasn’t done a thing, and then he’ll put points on the board with the game on the line. Elway’s the roadblock. He’s the guy we got to get past.”
The Broncos (5-2) are in first place in the AFC West Division, but few people have afforded them much respect. The oddsmakers have made the Chargers (2-4) slight favorites to defeat the Broncos.
“I’d rather be 5-2 and everybody think we’re not very good,” Elway said, “than 2-5 and everybody think we’re not bad.”
The Broncos were busted badly in Philadelphia and in Washington earlier this season. The Eagles and Redskins contained Elway, and as a result, the Broncos never had a chance.
Go back to Dec. 8, 1991, in Cleveland. That’s the last time Elway threw a touchdown pass on the road. The Broncos are not the same team on the road. In Mile High Stadium, Dan Reeves’ Broncos have compiled a 69-20 record since 1981; they are 38-47-1 in that time on the road.
Home or away, though, the plan is the same: Beat Elway.
“Elway. That’s the emphasis every time we play him,” cornerback Tony Blaylock said. “You have to stop Elway and not let it be a close game. I think for some teams, if you get in that situation, they’re saying, ‘Oh no, here comes Elway.’ What we have to do is keep their offense off the field, and get a lead.”
The Chargers have played the Broncos close, however, in the past, and at times have prevailed. They fell 17-14 to Denver in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium to close out the 1991 season, but upset the Broncos 19-7 here two years ago.
“The Chargers have some really good players and I’ve always been bewildered why they haven’t won more games,” Elway said.
The Broncos have a 13-5 record against the Chargers with Elway at quarterback. Elway has completed 55% of his passes, thrown for 13 touchdowns and has been intercepted 21 times. Cornerback Gill Byrd has seven of those interceptions.
“You have to admire the guy,” Charger defensive tackle Blaise Winter said. “If anybody thinks of Denver, they think of Elway. It’s just amazing how he has held up to all that extreme pressure over the years and then come through.”
In the first meeting between these two teams earlier this season in Mile High Stadium, Elway completed 14 of 24 passes for 186 yards with an interception and a pair of touchdowns. The Broncos won, 21-13.
The Chargers sacked Elway six times in last season’s finale, but they got four of those from defensive end Leslie O’Neal, who will miss this game after undergoing knee surgery this week. O’Neal also had one of the two sacks of Elway in the earlier game with Denver this season.
“One way to beat Elway is to outscore his butt,” said Charger guard David Richards.
The Chargers put 34 points on the board in Indianapolis last week, including 17 in the fourth quarter, and will try to do the same against the Broncos with a ball-control attack and an occasional bomb to wide receiver Anthony Miller.
Coach Bobby Ross said running back Marion Butts has recovered completely from a sore knee and will start. Eric Bieniemy will be the backup, and Ronnie Harmon will remain a key performer in passing situations.
“I think a lot of people would see it as (a test of credibility),” Ross said. “It’s very important. It could speed things along for us if we win, and that’s a big if. One of the things I think we’re lacking in is confidence, and this game would be a confidence-builder for us. That’s really significant.”
The Chargers will be shooting for their third victory in a row. The Chargers won three in a row in 1990 to even their record at 5-5, but went on to lose five of their final six games.
“We have to face this as if it’s our playoff game,” Winter said. “We’ve gained some momentum from our last two wins, we’re playing at home and we have to come out with the attitude there is no tomorrow. A win here springboards this program to the next level. One way or another, we have to beat them.”
