Chargers' Backups Are The Difference in Upset Of Defending Champions
Chargers' Backups Are The Difference in Upset Of Defending Champions: Chargers 28, Colts 24

By Mark Maske
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 14, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 13 -- The San Diego Chargers arrived at the raucous RCA Dome to face the defending Super Bowl champions in an AFC semifinal Sunday with one of their most dynamic players, tight end Antonio Gates, hobbled by a bad toe. They limped out of town at day's end with two other key offensive cogs, tailback LaDainian Tomlinson and quarterback Philip Rivers, nursing knee injuries.

It certainly sounds like a formula for how to end a season of twists and turns with another stinging playoff defeat. The Chargers instead leaned on backups such as quarterback Billy Volek and tailback Michael Turner and emerged with a 28-24 triumph over the Indianapolis Colts to advance to next weekend's AFC title game.

"That's what a team is about," Tomlinson said. "In this league, it's hard to play through not only a regular season but also the playoffs and not have guys get hurt. That's the true measure of a team. Guys kept believing and got it done."

The third-seeded Chargers kept the second-seeded Colts from repeating as Super Bowl champions and moved on to a meeting with the unbeaten New England Patriots in Foxborough, Mass., at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The Chargers (13-5) began the season believing they were Super Bowl material after firing then-coach Marty Schottenheimer following a bitter second-round playoff defeat to the Patriots last year that came on the heels of a 14-2 regular season. Those aspirations looked farfetched when the Chargers stumbled to three losses in their first four games under new coach Norv Turner, but they've won eight straight games since dropping to 5-5 in mid-November.

"It's always about the next game," said Turner, who is taking a team to the conference championship game for the first time as a head coach. "We have our work cut out. We know that. But we'll get ready and give it our best shot. . . . This is what you coach for."

The Chargers won despite allowing Colts quarterback Peyton Manning to throw for 402 yards and three touchdowns.

The Colts (13-4) had leads of 7-0, 10-7, 17-14 and 24-21.

The Chargers just kept losing players. Gates was in the lineup despite a sprained toe suffered in a first-round playoff win over the Tennessee Titans but wasn't himself. Tomlinson, the NFL's rushing leader during the regular season, hurt his left knee on a second-quarter carry and played one more snap the rest of the game.

Rivers, who hurt his left knee during the regular season, hurt his right knee and went to the locker room in the second half. He returned with braces on both knees.

"I had braces everywhere," said Rivers, who threw for 264 yards and three touchdowns.

Rivers said he was ready to come back and play late in the game, but Volek was engineering a winning touchdown drive by then. Volek's touchdown on a one-yard sneak with 4 minutes 50 seconds to play put the Chargers ahead for good.

Then the defense pressured Manning into a fourth-down incompletion at the San Diego 7-yard line with 2:01 to go, and wrapped up the game with another fourth-down incompletion by Manning in the final minute.

"There are a lot of disappointed guys in there, including me," Colts Coach Tony Dungy said. "But you have to give a ton of credit to San Diego. They came in with real adversity. One of their big-time players was hurt and slowed down a little bit. Then Tomlinson goes out, the quarterback goes out, and they find the way to make the plays to win it."

The teams totaled 857 yards in the wild game, including 714 passing yards. Manning completed his first 14 passes and 33 of 48 overall but also threw two interceptions, giving him eight in the Colts' two losses to the Chargers this season.

The Colts also had a turnover when usually reliable wide receiver Marvin Harrison, back in the lineup after missing most of the regular season with an ailing knee, lost a first-quarter fumble.

With Tomlinson out, Turner ran for 71 yards and fellow reserve tailback Darren Sproles turned a screen pass from Rivers into a 56-yard touchdown on the final play of the third quarter.

"Michael stepped up and was great," Rivers said. "Billy stepped up and was great. The guts and poise of this team really showed. I was hoping the ups and downs of this season would pay off for us, and I think they did. We handled it great, and we just kept playing."

The Colts grabbed the early lead when Manning threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dallas Clark on a play on which Chargers safety Clinton Hart slipped and fell.

Rivers threw an interception on the Chargers' opening possession, and the Colts seemingly were en route to a quick two-touchdown lead until Harrison lost his fumble.

Rivers tied the game with a 14-yard touchdown pass to wideout Vincent Jackson in the second quarter, just after the Chargers recovered a fumble by Tomlinson on the play on which he got hurt.

Manning finally threw an incompletion, but the Colts got a 46-yard field goal by place kicker Adam Vinatieri. Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding sent a 48-yard field goal try off the right upright, and the Colts were driving for more points when Manning had a tipped pass intercepted by Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie, who weaved 89 yards to the opposite end zone for an apparent touchdown in the final seconds of the first half. But a holding penalty on the Chargers during the return nullified the touchdown and left Turner screaming at the officials.

"It kind of made us a bit rowdy coming out from halftime," Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman said.

Rivers threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to wideout Chris Chambers early in the third quarter, and Chargers safety Eric Weddle, who committed the holding penalty on Cromartie's return, redeemed himself with a goal-line interception of a deflected screen pass. Manning rebounded with a nine-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Reggie Wayne, who originally was ruled out of bounds at the 2-yard line but was awarded the score on an instant-replay reversal.

Sproles, who had two touchdowns on special-teams returns during the regular season triumph over the Colts, turned on the jets for his touchdown on Rivers's short pass. The Colts replied with Manning's 55-yard touchdown pass to rookie wideout Anthony Gonzalez with 10:07 left.

No matter. Volek and Turner took the Chargers back down the field for a touchdown, and Manning couldn't answer this time.

"You're playing the defending Super Bowl champs," Turner said. "No one thought it was going to be easy. No one thought there wasn't going to be adversity. But we didn't let that deter us. . . . Guys just gave unusual efforts to get this thing done."