Chargers Bolt From the Starting Gate, Dominating the Titans, 40-7
Wide-eyed upcoming opponents take heed: The NFL has discovered something -- maybe the only thing -- that will absolutely, positively shut down the San Diego Chargers.
The bye week.
That’s what the Chargers have on their docket, and it’s a merciful breather for the rest of the league. Six days after humiliating the Oakland Raiders on national TV, San Diego handed the Tennessee Titans a 40-7 throttling Sunday in which quarterback Philip Rivers proved he’s no typical first-year starter and running back Michael Turner showed there’s more than one big-play threat in the Chargers’ backfield.
“If we keep playing like we’re playing,” linebacker Shawne Merriman said, “the sky’s the limit.”
It helped San Diego’s cause, of course, that the Raiders, whom the Chargers defeated, 27-0, and Titans are two of the league’s worst teams.
But there’s no denying the Chargers’ first 2-0 start since 2002 is a strong indication that they could be this season’s remarkable-turnaround team.
“A dominating performance like these last two games, I don’t care who you play,” said running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who rushed for 71 yards to Turner’s 138 yet scored San Diego’s first two touchdowns. “If you dominate a team like we have these last few games, it’s still the National Football League.... You have to start to be mentioned as one of the better defenses.”
From start to finish Sunday, the Chargers owned the Titans, treating the Qualcomm Stadium crowd to San Diego’s first home-opener victory in four tries. Not only did they score in every quarter, but the Chargers nearly posted the most lopsided shutout victory in team history.
That bid ended, however, when Tennessee backup quarterback Vince Young had one of his few shining moments of the day, throwing an 18-yard touchdown pass to Drew Bennett with 3 minutes 9 seconds remaining. That from a Titans offense that had one first down and zero yards passing at halftime.
Kerry Collins started at quarterback for the Titans and at one point had completed only one of 11 attempts. His six-for-19 performance included two interceptions. Young, the former Texas Longhorns star, completed seven of 19 passes for 106 yards, and had a 12-yard scramble on fourth and 10 to keep Tennessee’s lone scoring drive alive.
Titans Coach Jeff Fisher, in a preemptive effort to short-circuit a budding quarterback controversy, said: “I planned on playing Vince a series in the first half and a series in the second half. And I put Vince in the game toward the end when it was out of reach.”
For the most part, though, the game was out of reach from the start. San Diego’s defense was smothering, even without one of its emotional leaders, linebacker Steve Foley, who is out for the season after being shot at least three times by an off-duty Coronado police officer. Police said the officer had attempted to pull over Foley under suspicion of drunk driving.
The Chargers, who collected nine sacks in the opener at Oakland, were shut out in that department against the Titans. That wasn’t terribly surprising to Merriman, who had three against the Raiders.
“Sacks aren’t easy to come by,” he said. “They come in numbers. You might get three sacks one game, get one the next game, and then you might not see another sack for three or four games. They come in bulk.... Teams start seeing things on film and doing things to slow you down.”
Rivers, meanwhile, is accelerating by the week. He was precise with his passes, particularly the mid-range ones, and made it clear that so far there’s no drop-off from since-departed quarterback Drew Brees, who is now with New Orleans.
Throwing far more than he did in the opener, when he had only 11 attempts, Rivers completed 25 of 35 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown. Afterward, he was upbeat and confident but realistic about the flaws in his performance.
“I missed a couple of home runs out there I love to hit,” he said.
“Certainly I’m not pleased,” he said later. “I’m not walking off the field saying, ‘Yeah, I got it! What a game!’ I’ll get those things corrected. It’s a lot easier to get those corrected when you win.”
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