Chargers Zero in on Indianapolis : Pro football: Defense accumulates seven sacks, and Humphries and Butts spark offense in 26-0 victory over Colts. Charger streak reaches four.
To answer the first question: The Super Bowl will be played in the Rose Bowl at 3 p.m. Jan. 31.
“Sweet,” said Charger linebacker Gary Plummer. “Hey, I think the first thought has to be making the playoffs. . . . This is our time to make the playoffs. It’s been far too long, and we have the players capable of taking us there.”
The Chargers also have the schedule to carry them to the playoffs for the first time since 1982. After pounding the Colts, 26-0, Sunday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium in front of 40,324, the Chargers (4-4) look ahead and do not see another team ahead with a winning record.
“I love that schedule,” said Charger tackle Harry Swayne. “I’m not going to lie to you, I love it.”
The Chargers’ winning streak, which has included a pair of victories over the Colts (4-4) has reached four. The last time the Chargers won four in a row was in 1987 when they went on win eight straight.
“I don’t know where the Super Bowl is, but I know where Kansas City is, and that’s the most important thing right now,” said Charger cornerback Gill Byrd. “We’re right in the thick of things. I don’t know how long it has been since we were still in it after eight weeks?”
It hasn’t been that long. Two years ago the Chargers were in the very same position. They won three in a row to go 5-5, and needed a victory in Kansas City the following week to climb into sole possession of second place.
The Chargers lost, however, and their playoff aspirations quickly went asunder with a 6-10 finish.
“I don’t think Kansas City will respect us,” Swayne said. “Indianapolis didn’t respect us. A team like Kansas City considers itself one of the elite teams in the league, and they don’t consider us in the same class. They won’t think any better of us until we beat them in a game that means something.”
The Colts got that message Sunday.
“There were comments in the paper that they were flat before they played us, and they made Rod Bernstine look better than he really was,” said Charger guard David Richards. “I can’t believe they talked that (trash). It got everybody’s attention.”
The Chargers slammed the Colts, 34-14, in the Hoosier Dome on Oct. 18, but after the game Indianapolis defensive lineman Steve Emtman downplayed Bernstine’s performance, which included two touchdowns and 150 yards rushing.
“I walked in one day and there was this newspaper sitting in my locker with his comments in it,” Charger tackle Broderick Thompson said. “I guess he feels like he’s Ross Perot, because he makes $8 million and he can say what he wants. Stupid.
“I brought out the newspaper this week and Coach (Bobby) Ross got wind of it and read it to the whole team Saturday night. Sometimes you just have to shut people up.”
Sunday marked the Chargers’ first shutout since 1986 when they defeated Houston 27-0. The Chargers allowed the Colts’ offense 99 yards, the second-best defensive effort in team history behind the 58 yards allowed against Oakland on Oct. 22, 1961.
The Chargers’ offense had the ball for 42:47, the best mark dating back to 1980 when the club started to maintain such records, and the top figure in the NFL this season. In short, total domination.
“You can’t feed people fire like that before a game,” Swayne said.
The pumped up Chargers’ offensive line cleared the way for Marion Butts to rush 27 times for 120 yards, the seventh time in Butts’ career that he has topped the century mark and his first since 1990.
“Emtman said it was a fluke that Bernie gained all those yards,” center Courtney Hall said, “but today it was same story--different back.”
Butts fumbled at the goal line early in the game but continued to hammer at the Colts’ defense.
“Buttsy ran hard today,” Richards said. “That was the Buttsy of old. We haven’t seen that since he got hurt.”
Just as Butts ran effectively, wide receiver Anthony Miller continued to terrorize the opposition’s secondary. For the third time in the past four games, he went over the 100-yard mark with six catches for 105 yards.
When the Colts chose to double-cover Miller, quarterback Stan Humphries looked the other way and found Nate Lewis. Lewis caught a 17-yard touchdown pass behind Colts’ defensive back Chris Goode in the third quarter. Then in the same period Lewis ducked behind Colts’ defensive back Mike Prior for a nine-yard touchdown reception.
“On both touchdowns they picked up Anthony,” Lewis said, “and they just left me alone.”
Humphries, who had to have his knee drained of fluid at halftime, completed 22 of 33 passes for 256 yards with a pair of touchdowns and a pair of interceptions.
“We got beat by a better football team today,” Indianapolis Coach Ted Marchibroda said. “They manhandled us pretty good. They are a good, powerful football team, and I think a lot of people underestimated them.”
The Chargers’ defense left Indianapolis quarterback Jeff George cussing out his offensive line. The Chargers sacked George six times and mugged his replacement, Jack Trudeau, once.
“They’ve got a fantastic pass rush,” said George, who completed seven of 18 passes for 53 yards. “They’re a legitimate contender that other teams are going to have to contend with.”
George became so frustrated that he pleaded with Charger defensive end Burt Grossman to stop the all-out assault.
“He wanted me to call off the dogs,” said Grossman, who had two sacks, including one which resulted in a safety for the Chargers. “Like I’m going to tell the guys, and they are going to listen to me. Sure.”
Leslie O’Neal and Chris Mims each had two sacks, and Blaise Winter added another as the Chargers’ defense matched its seven-sack output against Denver on the final day of the 1989 season.
“George wasn’t even taking time to look at his secondary receivers,” Byrd said. “I would have been scared back there, too. The game ball should go to the D-line; they completely shut the Colts’ offense down.”
The defense gave the Chargers a 2-0 lead in the second quarter after Grossman fell on George in the end zone, and John Carney’s 33-yard field goal nudged the Chargers ahead, 5-0 at halftime. In the first two quarters of play, the Colts had a minus-five yards in offense.
“If you can get a shutout in this league and hold a team under 100 yards, you are doing a hell of a job defensively,” Ross said. “You really have to start right there as far as our football team was concerned.”
The Colts went nowhere in the second half, and the Charger offense got untracked. Humphries connected with Lewis twice, and then in the fourth quarter after Stanley Richard intercepted a George pass at the Indianapolis 32, Butts went the final three yards for his first touchdown of the season.
“I still think we have something to prove,” Plummer said. “There are still a lot of doubters out there. There will be a lot of people that say, ‘Hey, you beat Indy twice, and you beat Seattle.’
“The fact is we’re 4-4 for the first time since 1987, and this is the first time we have had the opportunity to be in position to make the playoffs in some time. It was a significant win. It was also significant in the way we won; we dominated in every aspect.”