SAN FRANCISCO – In a game otherwise lacking meaning, sometimes painfully so, the Chargers last night at least found their starting left tackle.
Whether they are satisfied with the backup quarterback, who played OK despite what the stats suggest, is a question yet to be answered.
K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune
Donnie Edwards, a rare Chargers regular who saw playing time, forces Alex Smith to get rid of the ball in the first quarter.
|
Marty Schottenheimer, for one, is ready to move on.
“It's Raider Week,” he said after his team lost its final exhibition 23-14 to the 49ers last night.
The Chargers will be back in the Bay Area in a little more than a week. Then, it will mean something.
Five turnovers and penalties aplenty would have been reason for concern.
But as Schottenheimer pointed out, “Those things wouldn't have happened with the first team in.”
Both team's regular starters – particularly the Chargers' – were more concerned with trying to stay warm on the sideline as a biting wind sliced through Monster Park.
The Chargers, who finished 2-2 in the preaseason, the past week have already been planning for the Raiders, whom they will play in the Sept. 11 season opener in Oakland.
So irrelevant was last night's contest that the Chargers did not fly here until yesterday afternoon. They killed a few hours lounging in a banquet room in an airport hotel, had dinner and headed to the stadium.
Philip Rivers warmed up pregame. Then he stood on the sideline with the rest of the starters, save for linebacker Donnie Edwards.
Edwards was the lone certain starter to play. He played just one quarter but did so with flair.
Moreover, rookie left tackle Marcus McNeill cemented his spot on the first team. McNeill, even playing against the 49ers' starting right end for a couple series, was at times dominant and showed no effects of his heavily protected broken left hand.
“The likelihood is you saw our starting left tackle play tonight,” Schottenheimer said.
With projected starter Roman Oben out at least the first five games recovering from offseason foot surgeries, so improved is McNeill and so unimproved is Leander Jordan that the rookie will play at perhaps the offensive line's most crucial position.
“I came in trying to earn the starting job,” McNeill said. “Hopefully I'll be able to keep it.”
McNeill was the coverboy for a game where the stated goal for the coaching staff was to get a last look at the young players.
Next came No. 2 QB Charlie Whitehurst, also a rookie. He earned the starting job in training camp. But his performance has taken on a new urgency with the release earlier this week of veteran A.J. Feeley.
Whitehurst played the first half. He finished 5-for-9 for 52 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions.
“I felt for the most part he did a pretty good job,” Schottenheimer said.
Both of Whitehurst picks caromed off his receiver.
“The important thing for me was getting as many reps as I could get,” Whitehurst said. “There's some good things and some bad things, and you learn from both kinds.”
The Chargers' only score of the first half came after Edwards scooped up a fumble and returned it to the 49ers' 8-yard line.
Three plays later, Whitehurst lobbed a 5-yard pass to the corner of the end zone, where Malcom Floyd leaped to take the ball before cornerback Sammy Davis could even think about making a play.
The Chargers' other touchdown, which cut the 49ers' lead to 20-14 midway through the third quarter, came on an 85-yard interception return by Cletis Gordon.
Gordon, who figures to make the team as a kick returner and last night got extended work at cornerback, stepped in front of a pass at the 15 and ran down the sideline untouched.
The Chargers have to be down to 53 players by 3 p.m. today.
The main questions involve how many linebackers, offensive linemen and safeties they keep. Those numbers depend somewhat on what they do at quarterback.
Rumors surfaced last night that the Chargers were on the verge of a deal to acquire Billy Volek, who has become expendable in Tennessee. But the deal was not done last night, and one source said he knew of none in the works.
Kevin Acee: (619) 293-1857; kevin.acee@uniontrib.com
