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SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
Philip Rivers listens for 76,000 silenced fans in Denver after his fourth-quarter TD pass to Vincent Jackson put the Chargers ahead.
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DENVER – They stood on the sideline, their quarterback having done the unthinkable, their defense in need of a MASH unit.
They trailed by 17 points in a stadium where they never win against an opponent that does not allow points.
“Nobody blinked,” center Nick Hardwick said.
They simply took a deep breath, buckled their chinstraps and did the unprecedented.
With three second-half touchdowns by LaDainain Tomlinson and a whole lot of chutzpah, the Chargers came back from a 17-point deficit to beat the Denver Broncos 35-27 last night, taking control of the AFC West and cementing for a national television audience the fact that they are contenders and they just might go as far as they want to go.
“When you can write history,” cornerback Drayton Florence said, “that's special.”
Never before in the almost 13,000 games played in NFL history had a team won back-to-back games in which it trailed by 17 or more points.
And the Chargers did it on the road. They did it without the suspended Shawne Merriman and the injured Luis Castillo. They did it with a defense that had players dropping every few minutes.
“I just remember them coming to me and telling me, 'We don't know if we have enough guys to go out there,' ” head coach Marty Schottenheimer said.
Still, they somehow followed up the previous week's comeback from 21 down at halftime at Cincinnati with another adrenaline rush to victory here.
Really, they topped the Cincinnati miracle.
It must be remembered the Chargers had lost six straight games here, and they were going against a team that was allowing an NFL-best average of 12.3 points a game.
“This is special,” fullback Lorenzo Neal said. “That doesn't happen, especially coming to Denver. You knew you were playing a better defense than against Cincinnati.”
And whatever had happened before – their inability to hold onto late leads or hold onto interceptions – that is forgotten now.
The Chargers (8-2) now sit alone atop the AFC West after winning a mile high for the first time since 1999. They are a game ahead of Denver (7-3) because not only was their offense unstoppable late but their defense thwarted another game-ending drive – two, in fact.
After Vincent Jackson's leaping, tip-toeing catch in the back of the end zone gave the Chargers a 28-27 lead with 6 minutes, 45 seconds remaining, the Broncos embarked on a drive that reached their 38 before Florence stepped in front of Rod Smith at the Denver 46 and returned his second interception of the season 23 yards to the 23.
From there, the Chargers used five plays and 1:49, scoring on Tomlinson's fourth touchdown of the game, a one-yard run with 1:14 remaining.
The Broncos started their final drive at their 2-yard line with 1:10 remaining.
They converted on a fourth-and-six with a pass to Javon Walker at the 34-yard line. Following an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Igor Olshansky, the Broncos had the ball at the 49 with 34 seconds remaining. A 14-yard pass to Rod Smith, plus a delay of game against the Chargers when Florence kicked the ball, put the Broncos on the Chargers 32 with 24 seconds left.
On the next play, however, linebacker Shaun Phillips closed as he often does on quarterback Jake Plummer, jarring the ball from the quarterback's grasp. While the Broncos' Stephen Alexander recovered the ball at midfield after it had bounced out of many players' hands, the clock read :00 by then.
The Chargers, who just seconds earlier had been slamming their helmets to the ground, poured from the sideline.
Halftime adjustments by defensive coordinator Wade Phillips were to be applauded, as the Chargers were spread out and run over for 177 yards and 14 points in the second quarter. Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron's play calling was again inspired, the call that resulted in a 51-yard touchdown pass to Tomlinson particularly genius.
But there was more at work here.
“This didn't come down to X's an O's,” said Shaun Phillips, who aggravated a calf injury in the second quarter and also broke a finger. “It came down to heart. We were not going to fail in the second half.”
They survived another shaky first 30 minutes – actually first 35 minutes this time.
Rivers was intercepted, off a deflection, on his fourth pass of the game and then had his second pass of the third quarter cleanly picked. He entered the game having not been picked off in 122 passes, the longest current streak in the NFL. And he had not been intercepted twice in a game this season.
After Rivers delivered a pass ostensibly intended for Keenan McCardell but right into the hands of Darrent Williams, who raced 31 yards to the front corner of the end zone, the Chargers were down 24-7 5½ minutes into the third quarter.
That's when Rivers was revived and Tomlinson took over.
A 40-yard return by Michael Turner started the Chargers' next drive at the 40. And they took just six plays to get to the 3. The eighth play was Tomlinson running over left guard into the end zone.
The defense forced the Broncos off the field in three plays. And three plays after that, the Chargers were down just three.
Against a blitz, Rivers avoided the rush and threw to Tomlinson at the 42. From there, Tomlinson simply outraced his pursuers to the end zone to bring the Chargers to 24-21.
“That's when we said, 'It's a ballgame again,' ” Rivers recalled.
Rivers completed his final six passes, including the touchdown passes to Tomlinson and Jackson.
“You make a critical error like that on the road, you usually don't come back and win,” Rivers said. “As sick as I was, we just kept playing.”
That's what they do.
“This team has a lot of heart,” linebacker Randall Godfrey said. “We have guys step up and play when we need them. That's what winning teams do.”
Kevin Acee: (619) 293-1857; kevin.acee@uniontrib.com
