Chargers back in first place

What a difference a month can make in the NFL. It was about that long ago that the Chargers had a losing record and were three games back of the Broncos for first place in the AFC West. The hopes of winning the division were fading and it was looking more and more like San Diego would be playing only for a wild card for the rest of the season. But four weeks and four wins later along with three straight defeats for Denver has the Chargers back on top of the west tied with their rival. The latest victory for the Bolts came on Sunday as they knocked off the Philadelphia Eagles 31-23.

The Chargers came out of the gates fast on Sunday, playing with a mentality to score early and often. They drew first blood on their second possession when Phillip Rivers found Mike Tolbert for a short pass over the middle and the fullback ran the ball in for the score. Two possessions later they struck again, this time Ladanian Tomlinson doing the honors with a three yard touchdown run that gave San Diego a 14-0 lead. Meanwhile the Chargers defense continued to play well as it has been over the course of the winning streak, keeping Donovan McNabb and the Eagles out of the end zone for the entire first half. Philly managed only two field goals and at halftime the score was 14-6.

San Diego kept the pressure on in the second half, holding the Eagles offense down on the opening drive and scoring another touchdown the first time they got the ball to build their biggest lead of the game at 21-6. LT scored his second TD, breaking away for 20 yards and the score. On the same day he found out he is going to be a father, Tomlinson had what was probably his best game of the year with the two TDs and 96 yards rushing, finally showing signs of his old dominant self.

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Late in the third quarter the Chargers added yet another touchdown when Rivers hit Legedu Naanee from 20 yards out. With the score at 28-9 the game looked like a laugher and that the Chargers were on the verge of completely blowing out the Eagles. But Philly wasn’t laughing. Lead by McNabb, Philadelphia started to mount a comeback. They answered quickly with their first touchdown, a five yard pass from McNabb to Jeremy Maclin. Then after forcing San Diego to go three and out, the Eagles scored once more. McNabb drove his team down the field on 12 plays and 77 yards and completed a touchdown pass of six yards to his tight end Brent Celek to trim the lead to 28-23.

What had once looked like a cakewalk had turned into a nail biter? Seven minutes and change is a lot of time in an NFL game, and the Chargers were going to have to come up with an answer if they were going to hold of the suddenly high flying Eagles. Fortunately, they did. Starting with the ball at their own 23 yard line the Chargers drove deep into Philadelphia territory, converting two huge third downs in the process. The drive finally stalled at the Philadelphia 11. San Diego had to settle for a field goal that put them up by eight points, 31-23, but what was most devastating to the Eagles was the time. San Diego chewed up 6:42, leaving Philly with only 30 seconds to try and drive for a TD and two point conversion to tie. Amazingly, McNabb was able to get his offense all the way up to the Chargers 34, but with time running out he launched a bomb that was picked off by Antonio Cromartie to end the game.

By Steven Mondelli
ProFootball-fans.com San Diego Chargers Correspondent