Solid first half goes for naught in loss
SAN DIEGO – The Steelers defense limited LaDainian Tomlinson to 12 yards and Antonio Gates to one catch through the first half of last night’s game at Qualcomm Stadium. But the game is played for 60 minutes, not just 30, and the Chargers stars each made stellar plays in the second half of San Diego’s 23-13 win over Pittsburgh. And, yes, the San Diego defense flexed its muscle, too, limiting the Steelers to 74 yards of offense in the second half after giving up 216 in the first.
Tomlinson, the multi-talented Chargers’ running back, doubled his yardage total on San Diego’s first possession of the second half, but the job was far from complete. Tomlinson finished with 70 total yards. Gates had three catches for 55 yards and a touchdown.
But this win was as much a product of quarterback Philip Rivers out-dueling Ben Roethlisberger as it was anything else. These two promising young quarterbacks came to the league on the same day, Roethlisberger a few hours later as the 11th pick. Roethlisberger has received most of the headlines and accolades since then, but Rivers, starting only his fourth game, made the most of the national spotlight. He completed 24-of-37 passes for 242 yards with a pair of touchdowns and one interception. Roethlisberger completed 20-of-31 for 220 with no touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Steelers defense set a tone in the first half, but couldn’t carry through the second. No, it was San Diego’s defense that stepped up its game.
Stopping Tomlinson is the key to stopping the Chargers and limiting Gates, the basketball player-turned-All Pro tight end, is phase two of any plan to beat San Diego.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger passed to four different receivers to set up Jeff Reed’s 39-yard field goal that made it 10-0 before the Chargers manufactured their first scoring drive of the game. Tomlinson accounted for 16 yards on the drive after being held to minus 4 to that point.
But it still came down to the Steelers needing to stop Tomlinson and Gates over the game’s final 30 minutes. By the end of the third quarter, Tomlinson was up to 46 total yards and Gates had doubled his output, with a 22-yard touchdown catch and San Diego took its first lead, 17-13.
Tomlinson broke free for 19 on a screen pass to open the fourth and it appeared the Chargers were taking control. Quarterback Philip Rivers passed to Malcom Floyd and Keenan McCardell for drive-sustaining gains and the Chargers were in field goal range and Michael Turner ran for a first-and-10 at the 12.
Larry Foote blitzed on third-and-5 and sacked Rivers, leaving the Chargers with a 33-yard field goal that extended the Chargers’ lead to 20-13.
What that did was keep it a one-score game for the Steelers and Pittsburgh had to respond. Parker, who had been limited to two rushing yards to that point of the second half, broke free for a nice gain, but a few plays later, Roethlisberger threw his second interception of the game and the Chargers had only 5:58 of time to kill and walk off with the win.
Sports editor Mike Ciarochi may be reached online at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com