SAN DIEGO -- LaDainian Tomlinson cried tears of joy in the locker room two hours before kickoff and not because the opponent was another flakey team from out there on the East Coast.
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| 'I actually cried for about five minutes,' L.T. says after learning of his wife's pregnancy. (Getty Images) |
Attached was a note. Please open immediately. Inside was a pregnancy test stick. Positive.
A failed pregnancy had crushed the Tomlinsons four years ago, creating doubt about whether parenthood, like a Super Bowl, was in their future.
As good at keeping a secret as her husband is at scoring touchdowns, LaTorsha learned on Tuesday that she was pregnant, then plotted the gameday gift. You know, give hubby the Bolt an extra jolt.
That she did.
"I actually cried for about five minutes," L.T. said.
Word of his potential fatherhood was "extremely motivating," he said, and after the 30-year-old ran for a season-high 96 yards and two TDs in the 31-23 victory over the Eagles at Qualcomm Stadium, coach Norv Turner will be calling about the sonogram in months ahead.
"My brother has three kids and one on the way, so I have work to do," Tomlinson said, laughing.
He added: "Years ago we lost a child and so we've been trying again. God works in mysterious ways, and it's a blessing that we're pregnant again."
L.T.'s mom wrote a book last year, Hollywood will send Spielberg to San Diego if Tomlinson can reach his first Super Bowl, which, unless you're Philip Rivers, doesn't seem as dreamy as it did on the night of Oct. 19th.
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In the wake of Denver's victory on Monday Night Football in San Diego, the Broncos were 6-0 and the Chargers were 2-3 when Rivers addressed sportswriters afterward, and he recalled those words on Sunday when San Diego (6-3) pulled even with freefalling Denver (6-3) in the AFC West.
"I can remember standing right here after the Denver loss and all of you were sitting in about the same spots," said the 6-foot-5 quarterback, who reads pressrooms as well as he does defenses. "And I said that we had to worry about us, focus in, and hopefully look up in a month and be in it. None of you believed us."
Wins over the Chiefs and Raiders were expected, less so the wins over the favored Giants in New Jersey last week and the follow-up victory over the Eagles.
Must be the intimidation factor -- Southern California's only NFL team looming too large for the wimps from Jersey and Philly.
In addition to a squirrely missed field goal stemming from their kicker's refusal to kick the ball, the Giants decided against attempting to bury the Chargers late in the game, for which Rivers burned them with a flawless TD drive.
Sunday, the Eagles were trailing 14-0 midway through the second quarter but had first-and-goal at San Diego's 1. Coach Andy Reid never got the ball to his best running back, Brian Westbrook. Two nobodies got carries, resulting in nothing, sandwiched around an incompletion by McNabb.
Reid then opted for a field goal, the first of three consecutive trips to the red zone that ended in three points for Philadelphia.
"We just came up stinking short," said Reid.
The Eagles used pillows on run blocks, busted coverage a few times and committed nine penalties.
For the second Sunday in a row, the Chargers were tougher than their NFC East opponent when they most needed to be. The common threads were goal-line stands by the defense and a decisive final drive by the offense.
The Eagles double-teamed Chargers receiver Vincent Jackson most of the game, so the Chargers fed tight end Antonio Gates (7 catches, 87 yards) and Tomlinson (24 carries) and gave receiver Legedu Naanee a snap from the Wildcat formation -- good for 10 yards -- and three passes, one for a TD.
"The New York Giants designed a defense to stop the running game," Turner said. "[The Eagles] designed a defense to stop the passing game.
When they design a defense to stop the passing, you would like to be able to run the ball like we did today, and we did."
Tomlinson averaged 3.2 yards per carry until Sunday. Guard Kris Dielman led an offensive line that opened up holes consistently, and Tomlinson said he found the "rhythm" that comes with more work and improved health.
"I'm still waiting for the time that I get 15 carries and go for 120 yards," he said, smiling as the "21 Club" chanted L.T. on the field an hour after the game.
Turner said Rivers, doing a good imitation of Peyton Manning, groomed the offense throughout the four quarters by tweaking play calls after surveying Philadelphia's defense.
"We're like Philadelphia," Turner said. "We've got a heck of a quarterback. It starts with the quarterback."
When San Diegans are asked about Turner, they make funny faces, like someone asked them to move to Philadelphia or Jersey.
Sorry, Bolts fans, Turner's team is not more talented than the Giants and Eagles.
Minus nose tackle Jamal Williams, a former Pro Bowler who anchored their 3-4 defense, the Chargers have been defending their goal line with the likes of Alfonso Boone, a castoff of the lowly Chiefs this year; Travis Johnson, a former bust with the Texans; Ogemdi Nwagbuo, who a year ago worked at a rental car company; and the most banged-up linebacking corps in the NFL. The strong safety is a rookie, Kevin Ellison, who got the job after Clinton Hart was waived last month.
"The thing this team does best," said defense end Luis Castillo, whose bull rush in New Jersey was crucial to a goal-line stand, "is we just hang in there, hang in there, hang in there, hang in there."
Rivers is "the toughest player on the team," Castillo added.
Turner said the Chargers are as much about character and toughness as they are talent.
"You think about the number of our guys that had close to the career-ending type injuries, or season-ending injuries -- Gates, [Nick] Hardwick, [Shawne] Merriman, Philip, L.T. -- they've done an unbelievable job of getting back and responding and continuing to play."
Hardwick returned from a foot injury last season after missing training camp to recover from surgery. In the opener two months ago, a Raiders lineman fell on the back of Hardwick's left ankle, leading to another surgery, but the Chargers, anticipating the center could return, decided against putting him on injured reserve. Hardwick, a former Pro Bowler, might return next Sunday for the showdown in Denver.
"We've got a lot of guys who love to play football," Hardwick said. "We're a scrappy group of guys."
Said Jackson: "What do people think we're out here doing? Just sipping on our lattes?"
