Chargers Put Dolphin Hopes on Hold : Pro football: Miami fails to secure wild-card playoff spot as Humphries passes for three touchdowns in 45-20 San Diego victory.
Stan Humphries passed to the right guys and Scott Mitchell didn’t, meaning San Diego got its revenge and Miami didn’t get its playoff spot.
Humphries passed for three touchdowns in a span of 8:40, two to Anthony Miller, and rookie Natrone Means scored on runs of one, 65 and two yards Monday night, leading the Chargers past Miami, 45-20, for the Dolphins’ fourth consecutive loss.
Mitchell had three passes intercepted as the Dolphins (9-6) failed to clinch a wild-card spot. They can still do so with a victory at New England on Sunday. Even if they lose that game, they’ll still have a chance, but would need help from several teams.
“The game next week is a playoff game as far as we’re concerned,” tight end Keith Jackson said. “We hate to go to Foxboro and that cold weather. That’s why we wanted to win here. A team that’s won nine games can certainly win one game.”
The Chargers (7-8) avenged a 31-0 loss at Miami last Jan. 10 in the divisional playoffs. Humphries threw four interceptions in that game, including three in the pivotal second quarter when Miami went ahead, 21-0, on three Dan Marino touchdown passes.
“This is not as sweet as if we would have won last year,” Humphries said. “This is as close as we’re going to get.
“We’ve been preaching all week long that they rubbed it in our faces a little bit last year. We didn’t want to rub it in their face, but we wanted to show them that was not the real team they played down there last year.”
The Chargers looked like a playoff team, even though they are out of the postseason running for the 10th time in 11 years. The 45 points were the most they’ve scored since Sept. 7, 1986, when they defeated Miami, 50-28, at San Diego. San Diego’s season-high six touchdowns matched the total from its previous seven home games.
San Diego safety Darren Carrington intercepted two of Mitchell’s passes in the first half. The first, followed by a 20-yard return, set up John Carney’s 32-yard field goal 4:35 into the game.
The second, with a 16-yard return, gave San Diego the ball back at its 47 with 17 seconds to play in the half. After a 12-yard completion to Shawn Jefferson and an incompletion, Humphries threw a 41-yard Hail Mary pass into a crowd that caromed off safety Chris Green and into Miller’s hands in the far right corner of the end zone for a 24-13 lead as the half ended.
“It does feel good for us to come back and play like this,” Carrington said. “The thing that is negative about it is we played against a good team like Miami and beat them like this. It means we should have played this way all year knowing we were capable of it.”
Nate Lewis returned the second-half kickoff 40 yards, and three plays later Humphries threw a 21-yard scoring pass to Ronnie Harmon.
Donald Frank picked off a pass by Mitchell four plays after that. Humphries moved San Diego 78 yards in 12 plays, getting the final 14 yards on a fade pass to Miller on third and nine for a 38-13 lead with 6:20 to play.
“I’ve got to stop making mistakes,” Mitchell said. “Things were going their way. That was the way it was for us when we were winning.”
Miami finally broke the string when Keith Byars scored his second touchdown of the night on a 13-yard pass from Mitchell with 3:17 left in the third quarter. Byars also scored on a one-yard run in the second quarter.
Humphries completed 19 of 29 passes for 248 yards, with no interceptions. Mitchell completed 24 of 40 for 260 yards and one touchdown. Means ran for 118 yards in 18 carries.
Means helped revitalize San Diego’s running game. He scored on a one-yard run around left end for a 10-3 lead with 1:23 to play in the first quarter, capping a 76-yard drive kept alive by Humphries’ 35-yard pass to Harmon on third and three from the Miami 40.