Chargers Get Win, Say Hello to a Bye

It wasn’t easy stopping the Pittsburgh Steelers, even when the team was reduced to a slew of second-stringers.

Natrone Means’ 20-yard touchdown run on fourth and one with 4:32 left tied the score and John Carney’s 32-yard field goal with three seconds left gave the Chargers a 37-34 victory in a battle of AFC division champions on Saturday.

The Chargers (11-5), winners of the West Division title, earned a first-round bye in the playoffs as the AFC’s second-seeded team. The Steelers (12-4), winners of the Central title, already had locked up a bye and home-field advantage as the No. 1-seeded team.

If these teams meet again, it will be in the AFC championship game, at Pittsburgh. And barring further injuries, the Steelers will have Rod Woodson, Greg Lloyd and Eric Green back, as well as players like Barry Foster, who were pulled early.

“If we see this team again down the road it will be a completely different team,” Charger defensive end Leslie O’Neal said. “There was no incentive for them to win.”

The Chargers know how lucky they were to win this one. A loss would have dropped them into a wild-card game next weekend.

The final score reminded O’Neal of a computer game.

“That’s not playing defense . . . that’s Sega Genesis,” O’Neal said. “I want to play a whole lot better than that.”

The Steelers had nothing to gain but momentum, and their seven-game winning streak ended.

“We didn’t want to show everything, no doubt about it,” said quarterback Neil O’Donnell, who was pulled after the first quarter but came back only because Mike Tomczak sprained a knee.

Carney’s third field goal of the game capped a 28-point fourth quarter in which Charger quarterback Stan Humphries was knocked out with a bruised right thumb.

San Diego blew an 11-point third-quarter lead, then won the game behind backup Gale Gilbert, who finished one scoring drive and led two more.

With the Chargers trailing 34-27, a drive was extended on a roughing-the-passer call on third and 11 from the Pittsburgh 44. Four plays later, Means ran off right tackle for his second touchdown of the game.

The Chargers started their final drive from the Pittsburgh 48 with 2:39 to play. The key play was a 16-yard completion to Mark Seay to the 29. Carney’s kick came five plays later.

“I didn’t know the status of Stan’s thumb, so if we had to come back next week . . . there was a lot riding on this,” Gilbert said.

Humphries said he hit his thumb on a helmet. He had the same injury three weeks ago in a loss to the Raiders.

“You can’t do anything with it for a day or so but it kinda gradually goes away,” said Humphries, one of many who will benefit from the bye.

The Chargers went up 24-13 when Means ran two yards untouched to finish the opening drive of the second half, which went 78 yards in 17 plays and took 7:39.

Tomczak returned from his sprained knee in the first half and directed a seven-play, 83-yard drive that fourth-string running back Fred McAfee capped with a six-yard run with 3:05 left in the third.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Tomczak and rookie Charles Johnson combined on an 84-yard scoring pass. Johnson pulled in Tomczak’s short pass, slipped Darrien Gordon’s tackle at the 25 and was gone. Dwight Stone caught the conversion pass to give Pittsburgh a 27-24 lead.

“We’ve got to learn how to tackle again,” San Diego linebacker Junior Seau said. “If we learned how to tackle we can limit plays to 9 yards instead of 90.”

Humphries was hurt on the next drive, and Carney’s 40-yard field goal tied it with with 10:29 left.

Tomczak connected with Johnson on a 51-yard pass play to set up an 11-yard touchdown pass to Andre Hastings that gave Pittsburgh a 34-27 lead.

Humphries was 21 of 35 for 249 yards and one touchdown, Gilbert three of six for 24. Means had 85 yards in 22 carries.

The teams combined for 27 points in the second quarter, including Andre Coleman’s 90-yard kickoff return and two successful drives in the final two minutes.

Coleman became the first player in Charger history to return two kickoffs for touchdowns in a season. He had an 80-yard scoring return in a 23-17 loss at New England on Nov. 20.