It’s Life of Riley for Chargers
Mike Riley’s coaching debut was as good as it gets.
Jim Harbaugh threw two touchdown passes and Junior Seau led a punishing defense that helped the Chargers pull away to a 34-7 victory over the bumbling Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
Once it finally ended--and there was no doubt about the outcome after halftime--the Chargers headed for the locker room to cheer their first-year head coach, present him with a game ball for his first win and then think about what they’d accomplished.
“This feels really good for them,” Riley said, after leading his players in cheers so loud they could be heard in an adjacent interview room. “I heard some comments like, ‘I haven’t felt this in a while.’ ”
There was optimism mingled with relief. The Chargers were 0-5 in the exhibition season, reinforcing the notion that one of the NFL’s last-place finishers in 1998 had changed coaches and quarterbacks but little else.
The Chargers destroyed the notion while destroying the Bengals (0-2), who lost quarterback Jeff Blake to a sprained shoulder and were jeered off the field.
“I’m happy for Coach Riley,” Seau said. “We put him through hell in the preseason by going 0-5. We had to prove ourselves.”
Seau led a defense that gave up only 172 yards and produced a touchdown--he forced Blake to fumble, and linebacker Gerald Dixon returned the ball 27 yards for a touchdown that essentially put the game out of reach late in the first half.
It was San Diego’s most one-sided opening victory since a 44-14 win in Cleveland in 1981.
“Aw, it feels great,” Riley said. “I thought the fourth quarter wouldn’t end.”
The Bengals, meanwhile, are once again wondering when their decade-long run of losing will end. They fell to 0-2 for the fifth time in the decade and remained winless in 1999. As was the case with San Diego, they failed to get a victory in the exhibition season.
Only 47,660 fans saw the most lopsided home opening loss in Bengal history, surpassing a 30-7 drubbing by Houston in 1991. The few that stuck around cheered sarcastically when the Bengals managed a first down in the fourth quarter.