Big plays bounce ball Chargers’ way

Monday, Nov 27, 2006
By Tom Shanahan, Chargers.com

LaDainian Tomlinson doesn’t believe in magic, so maybe mystical is a better word to describe the Chargers in 2006. Sunday’s 21-14 comeback win to beat the Oakland Raiders and preserve the Bolts’ two-game lead AFC West with a 9-2 record was yet another example. 

“When it doesn’t look good for us, something happens,” Tomlinson said on Monday. “Somebody comes up with a play, and yesterday it was (Quentin) Jammer with an interception. It’s been a special season for us. That’s the only way I can describe it.”

Coach Marty Schottenheimer explains it more practically, but he doesn’t rule out a little divine intervention.

“I’ve always been of the sense that you tend to make your own breaks,” Schottenheimer said. “Certainly, I do believe there is a -- quote, football god, unquote -- that has balls bouncing different ways. We‘ve been on both sides of it.

"The thing about our football team this year that I think is most impressive is they understand this is a sport that is played one play at a time. If you don’t develop the ability -- which is a mental discipline rather than a physical skill -- to put aside the last play and move on to the next play, you greatly increase the risk of making an error on the next play.”

But whether the football gods are smiling on the Chargers or not, most of all, Schottenheimer says, the Chargers are making plays this year that they didn‘t make a year ago when the ball didn‘t bounce their way in last-minute losses to the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles.

Why the Chargers are pulling off big plays after not making them last year falls into that unexplained area, especially in a league with so much parity.

“I think we have all the intangibles it takes for a championship team,” Tomlinson said. “The funny thing is, as the season comes down, you start to think about it more about it. I don’t care what anybody says, you think, ‘Can it happen?’ It‘s human nature. We don‘t want to get ahead of ourselves, but I‘m just saying we’re 9-2 and we‘re fighting for a bye in the playoffs. That‘s the first time I felt like that.”

In 2004, when the Chargers won the AFC West title with a 12-4 record, the Bolts didn’t benefit from a bye. They had a No. 3 seed with a home game against the Wild-Card New York Jets.

This year the Chargers are 9-2 heading into their first December game Sunday at the Buffalo Bills. The Indianapolis Colts are 10-1 and the 9-2 Baltimore Ravens hold a tiebreaker over the Chargers for the No. 2 seed by having beaten the Bolts on Oct. 1.

This year’s record is a two-win improvement over a year ago at this point in the season when the Chargers were 7-4 heading into their first December game. The Chargers improved to 8-4 after a win at home against Oakland, but they were upset a week later at home against the Miami Dolphins. It was the first of three losses in the Bolts’ final four games that knocked them out of the playoff chase with a 9-7 record.

Tomlinson said the players are reminding themselves that Sunday’s game against Buffalo -- a 5-6 team that has won three of its last four to remain in the wild-card race -- is a similar situation to last year when the Dolphins put together a late-season surge.

“(Buffalo) is real solid and a good team,” Tomlinson said. “If we’re not ready to play, they’ll embarrass you. We’re going to their place, and I’ll tell you what, we better have our stuff right and be ready to play.”

Even though the 2006 Chargers haven’t necessarily been ready to play in the first half of their comeback wins against Cincinnati, Denver and Oakland, for some reason that Tomlinson and Schottenheimer can’t fully define, the football gods have smiled on them in the second half.

“I’ll tell you, when you have a season like this, you really appreciate it,” Tomlinson said. “People say the losses stick with you more than the wins do. That may be true, but in a special season like this we’ve had so far, it sticks with you more than the losses. We have two losses already, but so much has been on the positive side with the great victories and the season we’re having, you don’t think about the losses.”