Chargers’ Crew Has Defenses on the Run : Chargers: Group of running backs gives opposing defensive coordinators fits. This week, it was the Bengals’ turn to watch helplessly.

The more Ronnie Harmon talked the more he realized how Ron Lynn and every other defensive coordinator must have felt after playing the Chargers’ stable of running backs.

“It’s got to be frustrating,” he said. “I would think it would be difficult playing defense against us, because you don’t know who’s who, when, what? That’s hard. Very hard.”

Lynn, Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator, was with the Chargers for six years, so he knew who was who and what was what. But Lynn and the Bengals couldn’t seem to figure out where they were going or how fast they were getting there Sunday in the Chargers’ 27-10 victory.

Harmon sympathizes with Lynn.

“It’s just like a basketball game,” said Harmon, who caught eight passes for 80 yards and ran five times for 30 yards. “You have so many different groups coming in. Sometimes it takes the defense out of their game plan. Who do you defend? We’ve got running backs with speed, running backs with power and we’ve got speed receivers outside. Hopefully, we have it all. Whatever all is.”

The Chargers had it all for about one quarter Sunday. For one of the few times this season, everyone was healthy--Marion Butts, Eric Bieniemy, Rod Bernstine and Harmon.

But Butts re-injured his knee in the first quarter after running for 47 yards on six carries and didn’t return. But Bernstine came back after missing the last seven games with a dislocated shoulder. He ran for 33 yards on 11 carries, including a seven-yard touchdown run during which he carried two Bengals into the end zone.

“He’s so versatile,” Harmon said. “It haunts you to know that you just can’t come up on the line of scrimmage. He can run routes. . . . he was a tight end. It just adds another dimension to the whole team.”

And then there’s Bieniemy, the 5-foot-7, 192-pound mighty mite, who had 41 yards on 12 carries.

“You have somebody in there quick,” Harmon said. “In the inside, you can’t really find him until it’s too late.”

Four backs, four styles, four personalities and no complaints about playing time. How is it possible?

“It feels good to have our whole group there,” Harmon said. “It matters to our psyche. We get along so well together that makes us that much better.”

Said Bernstine: “Marion’s a big back, he’s a power guy. I’m a big back. I’m a little more finesse than Marion. Ronnie’s cat quick and Eric comes in and you can’t find him behind the big offensive line. We all play our role well.”

Yet there were some skeptics who said the Chargers’ system would never work. Bernstine wasn’t one of them.

“In the preseason, everyone was trying to get rid of one or two of us,” Bernstine said. “When you have an offense like we do, one back back there carrying the load, you have to have a lot of good backs because eventually somebody’s going to get hurt.”

And each one of the four has been hurt at least once this year. But with Bernstine coming back and Butts’ injury not believed to be serious, it appears quarterback Stan Humphries will have all four players at his disposal during the playoff drive.

Assuming the Chargers get into the playoffs, the running game takes on added significance.

“If you get the running game established in the playoffs, I think everything will kind of feed off of it,” Bernstine said.

The Charger offense is feeding off of their backs’ versatility and unpredictability. And Harmon will say that is liable to drive any sane defensive coordinator crazy.

“Everybody’s trying to match up with us,” Harmon said. “And . . . it’s kind of difficult.”