Chargers dangle but do not fall
Do not adjust your NFL playoff picture.
The San Diego Chargers have already done that -- for a week, at least.
After flirting with mathematical elimination for nearly four full quarters Sunday, the Chargers suddenly came to life, scoring two touchdowns in the final 79 seconds for a 22-21 victory at Kansas City.
San Diego couldn’t exhale, however, until Denver lost at Carolina later in the day. The Broncos would have clinched the AFC West -- and the division’s only playoff berth -- with a victory or a Chargers loss.
But with two weeks remaining and Denver’s magic number still at one, the Chargers remain on the brink of elimination, with their legs dangling over the abyss of irrelevance.
Speaking of leg concerns, the Tennessee Titans have to be worried about the left knee of defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who is in the midst of a season worthy of most-valuable-player consideration. He was injured late in a 13-12 loss at Houston when his lower leg was caught in a pile of players.
That could be very bad news for a team that normally leans so heavily on its defense, a defense that could do little Sunday to stop Houston receiver Andre Johnson. He had a career-high 207 yards receiving in a game with little more than pride at stake for the Texans.
So the new Houston team beat the old Houston team for the first time in the last eight tries, and the 7-7 Texans still have a chance for the first winning season in franchise history.
Now, things have gotten very interesting on the AFC home-field advantage front. Tennessee came into Week 15 with a two-game lead over Pittsburgh with three to play. But with the Titans’ loss, and Pittsburgh’s division-clinching victory at Baltimore, the Steelers are back in the running for that coveted berth.
The Steelers won after a touchdown catch by Santonio Holmes with 43 seconds left was upheld upon review.
Pittsburgh plays at Tennessee on Sunday, then ends the regular season at home against four-win Cleveland. The Titans’ last game is ostensibly much tougher: at Indianapolis.
“We shouldn’t have lost this game,” Tennessee defensive end Jevon Kearse told reporters. “We had plenty of chances to win this game and then for one of our big defensive players to go down . . . Hopefully if he’s not able to go next week we have somebody else who can step in and pick up the slack.”
It was in Indianapolis on Sunday that the Colts survived a scare from winless Detroit before taking the lead for good midway through the fourth quarter, and easing away for a 31-21 victory. The hapless Lions dropped to 0-14, matching the final record of the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the only team in the NFL’s modern era to lose every game.
With a home game against New Orleans and a finale at Green Bay remaining, the Lions might want to start saving artifacts for their sad little corner of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“No one wants to be part of that. No one wants to have their name involved with that,” quarterback Dan Orlovsky said. “It’s tough to swallow, everybody says we stink. We don’t have much debate with that.”
Then again, strange turnarounds can happen. Just look at the ending of the Buffalo-New York Jets game. With about two minutes left, the Bills had a three-point lead and looked to be on their way to their first victory of the season over an AFC East opponent.
Instead of trying to burn time off the clock by running, Buffalo decided to pass on second down. Quarterback J.P. Losman dropped back and was hit by Abram Elam. The ball popped loose and was scooped up by Shaun Ellis, who ran 11 yards into the end zone. That touchdown not only wound up winning the game for the Jets, but kept them in a three-way tie for first in the division with Miami and New England, both of whom won Sunday.
The Dolphins beat San Francisco in Miami, 14-9, and the Patriots delivered a 49-26 stomping at Oakland. New England quarterback Matt Cassel, mourning the death of his father last week, threw four touchdown passes.
So by day’s end, there was still competition for the division titles at both ends of the AFC, East and West.
Said San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers: “There have been so many doubts and we’ve fallen so short of the expectations. The way we’ve bounced back these past two weeks in our division and won says a lot about our guys.”
Meanwhile, as the NFL picture comes into clearer focus, the Chargers are just hoping they can stay in the frame.
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