| 11.16.03 - One week after their best performance of the season, the Chargers turned in arguably their worst in losing to the Broncos, 37-8, in front of 71,701 fans at Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High on Sunday.
Last week, the Chargers could do no wrong in a 42-28 win over Minnesota. In Denver on Sunday, it seemed like nothing went right.
About the only noteworthy aspect of Sunday's performance was that it was a team effort. Offensively, the Chargers fumbled twice on their first three plays and lost four turnovers overall. Defensively, they let running back Clinton Portis run wild and quarterback Jake Plummer pass at will. And just to make the triumvirate complete, the Bolts gave up a punt return for a touchdown on special teams.
"It's quite obvious that our football team played poorly today," said Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer. "I'm very disappointed, as you might well imagine. But I've told our football team that everybody in this league plays hard. If you want to win in this league, you have to do the fundamental things like block and tackle, and running and throwing and catching, and we didn't do that today. Certainly, the Broncos did. There's no mystery to the outcome and the score."
Portis, who always seems have big games against the Chargers, finished with 106 yards on 25 carries despite not playing the majority of the fourth quarter. Plummer completed 23 of 34 passes for 253 yards, three touchdowns and one interception before also exiting the game early in the fourth period. Tight end Shannon Sharpe was his favorite target, catching seven passes for 101 yards and all three of Plummer's touchdown passes.
The game was essentially over by halftime, with Denver holding a 27-0 lead after 30 minutes of play. At the break, Denver led in every major statistical category, including total yards (259 to 18), first downs (13 to one), and time of possession (19:59 to 10:01).
Another telling halftime statistic: the Chargers had been penalized for more yards than they had gained offensively, 34 to 18.
Portis had 75 yards on 15 carries by halftime, a healthy 5.0 yards per carry average. Conversely, Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson had just 17 rushing yards at the break. Tomlinson finished with 29 rushing yards on eight carries and four catches for 16 yards, one of the least productive days of his professional career.
In stark contrast to last week's performance against the Vikings, Flutie had a tough outing on Sunday. He completed just nine of 25 passes for 70 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He also lost three fumbles, including one on a center-snap exchange, a second on a handoff to Tomlinson and a third when he was stripped from behind while being sacked.
Despite the rough game, Schottenheimer refused to lay all the blame on Flutie.
"We've talked about this. The quarterback is an integral part of everything that goes on. There's no doubt about that," said Schottenheimer. "But he's only a piece of the puzzle. And if the people around him don't perform, I don't care who it is, the guy is not going to perform well. He doesn't block. He throws it. He doesn't catch it. He throws it. He hands it off. Ultimately, he gets more credit than he should when you win and more blame than he should when you lose."
San Diego's defense came up with one of the Chargers' few first half highlights by stopping Portis for no gain on fourth and inches from San Diego's 14-yard line. The stand came four plays after the Broncos took over at San Diego's 23-yard line when Flutie fumbled the exchange from center Cory Raymer on the second play from scrimmage.
But the defensive victory was short-lived. On the Chargers' next offensive play, Tomlinson couldn't handle the handoff from Flutie, with Denver recovering the fumble and taking over for the second-straight time deep in San Diego territory.
This time, Denver made San Diego pay for the turnover when Plummer hit Sharpe for an 11-yard touchdown pass, putting the Broncos up 7-0 with 13:06 remaining in the first period.
San Diego's troubles continued on Denver's next possession when rookie cornerback Sammy Davis was called for defensive holding after the Chargers had stopped the Broncos on a third and 20. The penalty gave Denver an automatic first down and kept a drive alive that eventually resulted in a 42-yard field goal by Jason Elam that increased Denver's lead to 10-0.
Elam tacked on 22-yard field goal in the second quarter to make it 13-0, and Rod Smith added a 65-yard punt return for a touchdown with 8:25 left before halftime to increase Denver's lead to 20-0.
Plummer and Sharpe connected on a 26-yard touchdown with 32 seconds left before halftime to stake Denver to a 27-0 lead.
Davis came up with one of the Chargers' few highlights in the second half when he intercepted a Plummer pass and returned it 41 yards into Denver territory. But once again the positive was turned into a negative when defensive end Marcellus Wiley was penalized for taunting during the return, moving the ball back into San Diego's side of the field. Either way, it didn't matter, as the Chargers went three and out before punting the ball back to the Broncos.
Plummer and Sharpe connected on another 26-yard touchdown pass later in the third quarter, and Micah Knorr added a 27-yard field goal in the fourth to increase Denver's lead to 37-0.
The Chargers finally got on the scoreboard with 10:12 left in the fourth quarter when Flutie found rookie wide receiver Kassim Osgood for a 19-yard touchdown pass. Flutie hit tight end Stephen Alexander in the end zone for the 2-point conversion, making the score 37-8.
Cornerback Quentin Jammer intercepted a Kanell pass on the Broncos' next drive, but the offense couldn't convert the turnover into points before Denver ran out the clock.
The final statistics were as lopsided as the score. Denver dominated the Chargers in total yards (448 to 96), first downs (26 to five) and time of possession (44:11 to 15:49). Denver rushed for 201 yards, San Diego for 40. The Broncos passed for a net of 247 yards, the Chargers for 56.
The Chargers will have to work on correcting nearly every aspect of their play if they want to turn the tables next week when they return to Qualcomm Stadium to face the red-hot Cincinnati Bengals, who became the first team to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs this season on Sunday.
"One of the most disappointing losses I've been involved with," said Schottenheimer. "We're out there turning the ball over four times. We can't hand it off. We can't take the snap from center. We're out there playing hard but we're dropping balls. It's very, very disappointing."
Added Schottenheimer: "I thought we performed in a winning fashion a week ago, and I had hoped that we'd be able to get something going and get a streak going. But we were clearly outmatched in performance today. That's obvious." | |
