Leave it to Chargers to buck trend

Topic for today’s discussion: Did the San Diego Chargers’ rather inexplicable 41-3 triumph at Denver on Sunday save this from being the Worst Sports Weekend in Southern California History?

Or could anything done by Norv Turner’s Chargers possibly salvage a 48-hour blackout during which USC lost at home to Stanford, UCLA lost at home to Notre Dame, the Angels got swept out of the playoffs by Boston, the Ducks lost to Pittsburgh, the Kings lost to St. Louis and two National League West teams not named “the Dodgers” and “the Padres” advanced to the NL Championship Series?

Of course, that’s Norvball for you.

Lose when you’re expected to win.

Win in a city where you’re expected to lose -- the same city where the Chargers previously had gone 1-6 this decade and 2-10 since their lone Super Bowl appearance.

Roll up 41 points against the Broncos after limping to 14 against the Chicago Bears and 14 against the New England Patriots and 16 at home against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Take the NFL’s most underachieving offense and deliver Denver’s most lopsided home defeat since a 56-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 23, 1966.

(USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett was a running back on Kansas City’s roster in 1966. That was a somewhat happier weekend for him.)

Remarkably, the small-print numbers that produced the big final-score numbers are fairly unremarkable. LaDainian Tomlinson rushed for only 67 yards. Philip Rivers completed only 13 of 18 passes, for 270 yards. The stat line that jumped out of the box score was “Turner, 10 carries, 147 rushing yards, 1 touchdown.”

What, Norv got so desperate about the lack of yards and points that he decided to suit up and show how it’s supposed to be done?

(There is precedent for this. Sort of. Twenty years ago, when a disgruntled Eric Dickerson was trying to talk his way into a trade out of Anaheim, he popped off to the media that Coach John Robinson should go “run 47-gap.” Throwing coaches into the Sunday NFL fray is an intriguing concept that has some legs. Why not let Lovie Smith take a few snaps at quarterback for the Bears? I mean, how much worse could he do?)

The Chargers’ straits were dire indeed, but not quite bad enough to start pitching the ball to Touchdown Norv. Those 147 yards belonged to Michael Turner, San Diego’s backup tailback, a 2004 fifth-round draft pick from Northern Illinois. All but 24 of those yards came in two carries -- a 49-yard run just before halftime and a 74-yard scoring sprint in the fourth quarter.

At 2-3, the Chargers are still one of the bigger disappointments of this NFL season. However, they are now tied with the Broncos and the Chiefs for second place in the AFC West, half a game behind the . . . Oakland Raiders.

Behind an aggressive and spirited assault on nachos, hot dogs and pizza as they watched Week 5 action on television, the Raiders moved into first place by avoiding serious injury during the open week in their schedule.

In 1994, that might have been seen in SoCal as an encouraging development, but that was a long time and several moving vans ago.

In other news that had to be received as mixed by SoCal sports fans, Kurt Warner rode to the rescue after Matt Leinart broke his collarbone to lead the Arizona Cardinals to a 34-31 victory over the St. Louis Rams. Warner replaced Leinart late in the first half and completed 14 of 28 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown as the Cardinals improved their record to 3-2 -- news almost as stunning as Stanford Cardinal 24, USC Trojans 23.

The Rams, meanwhile, dropped to 0-5, equaling the second-worst start in franchise history. The game was played in St. Louis in front of an announced crowd of 61,788, about 4,000 shy of capacity and only the second Rams game blacked out on local television since the team moved to Missouri in 1995.

(Memo to St. Louis Rams fans: This is how it started here, once upon a time.)

That kept the Rams tied with the Miami Dolphins in the race for the top pick in the 2008 draft and one-half game ahead of New Orleans. The Dolphins also moved to 0-5 with a 22-19 loss to the Houston Texans. At least that’s what it said on the Reliant Stadium scoreboard. What really happened: With short touchdown runs by Ron Dayne and Ronnie Brown nullifying one another, the Texans’ Kris Brown edged the Dolphins’ Jay Feely in a field-goal derby, five converted kicks to four.

The game also witnessed Miami quarterback Trent Green being carted off the field in the first quarter after he suffered a concussion during an ugly collision with Houston defensive tackle Travis Johnson. Green was taken to a nearby hospital for tests but returned to the stadium after the game.

The only thing preventing New Orleans from making it a three-way runoff at 0-5 is the Saints’ Week 4 bye. New Orleans lost another field-goal duel, 16-13, at home to Carolina -- John Kasay’s 52-yarder winning it for the Panthers as time expired.

The Saints are 0-4 and have been outscored, 158-65, in their last five games, including their 39-14 loss to Chicago in last January’s NFC title game. Only one other team coming off a playoff season has opened the next season with four defeats -- the 1992 Chargers.

Working the other end of the spectrum are the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots, both 5-0 after easy Week 5 triumphs.

The Colts defeated Tampa Bay in the Tony Dungy Bowl, 33-14, to become only the fourth team to open three consecutive seasons 5-0.

The Patriots routed Cleveland, 34-17, to become the third team in franchise history to start a season 5-0. The Colts play host to the Patriots on Nov. 4, and what say we just call that Super Bowl XLII and save a lot of time and money and spare everybody the pointlessness of an NFC playoff tournament and a trip to Glendale (Arizona, not SoCal) in early February?

Before angry Brett Favre fans fling their breakfast grilled-cheese sandwiches against the kitchen wall in protest, I will give them this: There is still time for things to go south for New England.

Ominous sign No. 1: Sunday’s 34-17 margin of victory was New England’s smallest of the season.

Ominous sign No. 2: Randy Moss, double-teamed most of the day, caught only three passes for 46 yards and no touchdowns and cannot be too happy about it.

New Englanders have an expression for situations such as this: Uh oh.

--

christine.daniels@latimes.com