PRO FOOTBALL : Former Ram Chandler Has Near-Perfect Day for Oilers

Chris Chandler can’t explain it. His coach can’t fathom it. The Cincinnati Bengals won’t soon forget it.

The journeyman quarterback, an eight-year pro who was signed as a free agent from the Rams, had the game of his career Sunday and made it look easy. He threw a career-high four touchdown passes in the first half alone and came within one completion of an NFL passing-percentage record as he led the Houston Oilers to a 38-28 victory over the Bengals.

Chandler, playing with a stiff left shoulder that sidelined him last week, was 23 for 26 for 352 yards as he directed the Oilers (2-2) to their biggest offensive day since their devastating 41-38 playoff loss to Buffalo in 1992.

He completed one pass after falling down, another after getting pulled down. Only three of his passes hit the ground all afternoon, one of them on a spike to stop the clock in the first half.

He was ahead of Vinny Testaverde’s league completion-percentage record of 91.3% (21 of 23) until his last throw was broken up. He finished at 88.4%, which won’t land him in the top three all-time. Ken Anderson and Lynn Dickey also completed better than 90% in a game.

The last pass might have been his only bad decision in an otherwise perfect game.

“In that situation in the game, it probably would have been smart just to get sacked and eat up more of the clock,” Chandler said.

He didn’t know until afterward that he’d flirted with a record. He shrugged off what will be one of his career highlights.

“It could happen to anybody,” Chandler said. “You have receivers making all those catches, anybody can do that.”

They could against the Bengals (2-2), who helped immeasurably as they repeatedly blew coverages and gave up 400 yards in total offense for the second consecutive week.

The Bengals geared their defense to stop the run, leaving their weak secondary exposed.

“Actually, we wanted him to beat us. He did,” linebacker Ricardo McDonald said. “The guy had a tremendous day. Whenever you have a quarterback doing that well, there’s not much you can do.”

Chandler is supposed to ease the transition from the run-and-shoot to the era of Steve McNair, the Oilers’ top draft pick.

Chandler may never have an era of his own, but he had quite a day.

He had to know it was his day when he took the snap from center, fell down, got up and threw a 19-yard pass to Haywood Jeffires that set up his fourth touchdown pass.

Bengal cornerback Mike Brim was beaten for three of the touchdowns, twice by Chris Sanders.