Teams Search for Their Smile

San Diego, N.Y. Giants Aim to Improve on Playoff Failures

No NFL team had a better buildup and a worse ending to last season than the San Diego Chargers, who went 14-2 during the regular season and then abruptly lost an AFC semifinal at home to the New England Patriots.

Nearly a month later, Marty Schottenheimer was fired as the Chargers' coach, in part because he'd been unable to coexist with General Manager A.J. Smith, but also because he didn't win in the playoffs. Now the Chargers and Schottenheimer's successor, Norv Turner, have their first chance at postseason redemption when they face the Tennessee Titans today in a first-round AFC playoff game.

"It was tough," Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman said during a midweek news conference of last season's quick postseason exit. "First of all, that was my first time playing in a playoff game and having the kind of season we had and then going home so early in the playoffs was tough. That probably gives us an upper hand now because now we approach this a little bit differently than we did last year. . . . We don't want that feeling again."

Turner had endured failed head coaching stints with the Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders, but was the choice of Smith and Chargers President Dean Spanos in large part because he'd been the team's offensive coordinator in 2001. Smith and Spanos thought the Chargers had a Super Bowl-ready club and, while all head coaching changes are disruptive, they wanted this one to go as smoothly as possible. Turner would keep the same offensive system that he'd once put in place, one that had remained in place when Cam Cameron was the offensive coordinator.

It was supposed to be a seamless transition, but it wasn't. The Chargers lost three of their first four games, and there was room to wonder if Smith and Spanos hadn't erred badly. In late November, the Chargers were only 5-5. But they won their final six regular season games to secure the AFC West title and the conference's No. 3 playoff seed, and they enter the postseason resembling the team they were supposed to be all along.

Now they face an opponent, in the Titans, with a worrisome list of injuries. The Titans placed tight end Bo Scaife on injured reserve because of a lacerated liver, suffered during last weekend's win over the Indianapolis Colts that got them into the playoffs as the sixth seed. They lost wide receiver Roydell Williams to a broken ankle suffered during practice Wednesday, and quarterback Vince Young has been plagued by a quadriceps injury suffered last weekend.

This is a rematch of a combative overtime victory by the Chargers last month in which Merriman suffered a knee injury and later accused the Titans of hurting him intentionally on orders by their coach, Jeff Fisher, in retaliation for an earlier hit on Young. Merriman said he'd been told that by teammates who were watching Fisher. Fisher denied it, but two Titans linemen were fined by the league after the game. Merriman, though, was dismissive of the subject this week.

The story line of the day's other NFL playoff game involves Eli Manning, the quarterback whom the Chargers traded on draft day in 2004. Manning seeks his first postseason triumph for the New York Giants when they face the Buccaneers in Tampa. The Giants have lost in the first round of the playoffs the previous two seasons and the pressure, as always, is on Manning.

"I'm not looking for my r¿sum¿," he said last week. "I'm looking for the Giants and taking this as far as we can and it starts on Sunday at Tampa against a good team."

The Giants could feel good about Manning after he threw four touchdown passes against the Patriots in the regular season finale. But Manning has been in New York long enough to know that would be forgotten with a poor performance today.

"It hasn't changed anything," Manning said. "I still feel very confident that I can go out there and play good football and put our team in a situation to win. It doesn't change anything. It doesn't mean anything will happen different. It is still about going out there this Sunday. It is a new game, new players, new situations."

Buccaneers quarterback Jeff Garcia will try to knock the Giants from the NFC playoffs for a second straight season. He did so last season while with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Buccaneers have been a bit overlooked after losing three of their final four regular season games, but Coach Jon Gruden said during the week he wasn't concerned about that.

"Oh, I don't know," Gruden said. "We've got the best [training] facility in the league. We've got no state income tax. We've got a lot going for us, man."