Chargers Move to the Top in AFC West
A touchdown pass play that covered all but one yard of a football field, thrown to a guy who before the game had made but one catch?
An interception return for a touchdown during which the safety was so alone, he high-stepped the last 40 yards?
The team is the San Diego Chargers, their record really is 3-0 for the first time since 1981, then this must be, well . . .
“No, this ain’t magic ,” groused defensive end Shawn Lee. “It’s heart.”
Perhaps, then, it is also courage, something displayed in bunches Sunday when the Chargers whipped the Seattle Seahawks, 24-10, in front of 65,536 at Husky Stadium.
Call this the Giddy Bowl. It was a match between two unbeatens who could have easily shown up winless; teams who finished 1993 at the bottom of their division and had suddenly risen to the top.
Hoping to turn the other guy into the impostor, the two teams engaged in a battle of penalties (17 for 140 yards), attrition (seven players left the game because of injuries) and hard knocks (eight sacks).
And the winner, as usual, was the team that wasn’t afraid to be good.
That would be the Chargers, who turned risky plays into big plays, stunning the Seahawks not once but twice with a 99-yard touchdown pass and 73-yard interception return.
Half of the Chargers’ 10 touchdowns this season have come on plays of 47 yards or longer, causing Coach Bobby Ross to exclaim, “Like I keep reminding our team, we are not going to play conservative, that’s just not the way we are.”
It is only fitting that next week the Chargers travel to the Coliseum for the first of two grudge matches against a franchise that many felt invented the big play.
“The game against the Raiders will be an absolute war,” Ross said.
The Chargers, who have won their last three games in the Coliseum, would appear ready.
--Quarterback Stan Humphries is sound and sharp for the first time since leading them to a division title two years ago.
Despite scrambling from the likes of Cortez Kennedy and Rufus Porter for most of Sunday, he completed 19 of 29 passes for 262 yards, more than the entire Seahawk attack could manage.
Humphries, the AFC’s only starting quarterback who has not thrown an interception, also completed seven of his last nine passes for 147 yards, including a 99-yard strike to Tony Martin that clinched the game in the third quarter and tied an NFL record.
Staring down a full blitz about seven yards deep in his end zone, Humphries found Martin in one-on-one coverage about 50 yards away. Martin ran so hard in the final 60 yards, defender Patrick Hunter suffered a strained hamstring trying to catch him.
It was the seventh time in league history that a touchdown pass had covered such a distance, the first since 1985.
“I saw the coverage and my eyes lit up like a Christmas tree,” Martin said. “I just kept hoping Stan could get me the ball. He did. It was perfect.”
Said Humphries: “It was a pretty gutsy call.”
Particularly when Martin, acquired in a trade last spring from the Miami Dolphins, had caught only one pass in the previous two games. And he had earlier had a pass intercepted on a trick play that eventually allowed the Seahawks to take a 3-0 lead.
--The Chargers’ defense is sound and finally playing up to its reputation.
Yes, that was Junior Seau storming Seahawk quarterback Rick Mirer midway through the third quarter. And yes, that was former first-round draft choice Stanley Richard stepping in front of Mirer’s ensuing pass and returning it 73 yards for a touchdown, the first interception of Mirer this season.
Richard had a 99-yard interception return for a touchdown in the season opener at Denver.
The Charger defense also roughed up Seahawk running back Chris Warren, forcing him to sit out most of two quarters because of a chipped elbow.
With 19 seconds to play in the first half, the Seahawks had 28 yards in offense. They finished with only 187.
The Chargers say they are ready for whatever Al Davis has in mind.
“It’s going to be a very emotional game up there,” said defensive end Leslie O’Neal, who had three sacks. “The Raiders said a lot of things about the Broncos this week. It will be very interesting to see what they say about us.”
99-Yard Touchdown Pass Plays
The seven 99-yard touchdown pass plays in the NFL:
Date Receiver Quarterback Team and Opponent Oct.15, 1939 Andy Farkas Frank Filchock Washington vs. Pittsburgh Sept.15, 1963 Bobby Mitchell George Izo Washington vs. Cleveland Oct.16, 1966 Pat Studstill Karl Sweetan Detroit vs. Baltimore Sept.15, 1968 Gerry Allen Sonny Jurgensen Washington vs. Chicago Oct.2, 1983 Cliff Branch Jim Plunkett Raiders vs Washington Nov.10, 1985 Mike Quick Ron Jaworski Philadelphia vs. Atlanta Sept.18, 1994 Tony Martin Stan Humphries San Diego vs. Seattle
