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When Jacob Hester first arrived at Stefan Logan while covering a fourth-quarter punt, his initial thought was to try and help one of his teammates make a big play.

It turns out Hester, with a little assistance from David Binn, provided a jolt himself. 

“We needed a play,” Hester said as he recounted his 41-yard touchdown run on a fumble recovery.  “I got down there and tried to hold him up and actually try to let someone else strip it but Dave Binn held him up long enough for me to make a play on it.”

Once Hester saw he had a chance to strip the ball loose, he reached in, wrestled it away from Logan and took off down the sideline.  After a 41-yard scamper, the Chargers pulled within two scores of Pittsburgh. 

“He’s a playmaker and it’s an opportunistic play,” Head Coach Norv Turner said.  “Their returner was struggling for extra yardage and that can happen to you.  The ball got loose and Jacob pulled it out.” 

Hester wisely delayed his celebration, knowing that the play would likely be reviewed.

“I knew he wasn’t down but I didn’t know how they were going to call it,” Hester said. 

Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin’s challenge went unsuccessful, and the play stood. 

Hester’s effort was part of a strong performance by the Chargers’ special teams, albeit in a losing effort.  Mike Scifres netted a 43.8 average on six punts and San Diego recovered an onside kick that allowed them to pull within a touchdown of the Steelers.

Gutting it out

Linebacker Shawne Merriman missed the second half of last week’s game with a sore groin.  He played through the pain Sunday night but said he felt a little limited. 

“Those don’t heal up overnight,” Merriman said. “I made the decision to go.  I’m going to use the bye week to heal up and rest up.” 

Merriman was credited with two tackles.  He also drew two holding penalties. 

Big effort

Tight end Antonio Gates racked up 124 receiving yards Sunday night and scored twice.  It was the third-highest yardage total of his career and his 12th game with at least 100 yards receiving.  Of his 124 yards, 109 came in the second half. 

A little fight

While disappointed in the loss, the Chargers were proud of the way they were able to make a game of it. 

“We’ve won games where we’ve been down like this before,” quarterback Philip Rivers said.  “There’s no quit.  We fought back best we could.  Ultimately we didn’t win so obviously not very happy about it. You really find out who we are in times like this.  I think we found out we’ve got a lot of fight in us and we’ve got the right kind of people.”

Had the Chargers pulled off the win Sunday night, it would have tied the 1980 49ers for the biggest second-half comeback in NFL history.  In December of 1980, the New Orleans Saints led San Francisco 35-7 at the half before the 49ers fought back and won 38-35.

Three firsts

The Chargers sacked Ben Roethlisberger three times Sunday, with each one marking a first for the player who dropped the quarterback.  Larry English delivered his first-career sack, Alfonso Boone came up with his first as a Charger and Tim Dobbins, who had a game-changing sack of Peyton Manning in last year’s playoffs, posted his first-career regular season sack.

All-time leader

With six kickoffs Sunday, Darren Sproles is now the franchise’s all-time leader in attempts. He entered the night tied with Ronney Jenkins for second place in club history and moved ahead of Jenkins and Andre Coleman for the team record.  Sproles has 171 career kickoff returns.