San Diego Chargers Gobble Up Kansas City Chiefs

NFL News - November 30th, 2009 - Written by John

Those of you who believed the Kansas City Chiefs were headed on the right track after an overtime win over the Pittsburgh Steelers need reconsider. In a lopsided performance that reaffirmed the San Diego Chargers as the supreme leaders of the AFC West (like it needed any such reaffirmation), the Chiefs were outscored 31-14 in the second and third quarters in a 43-14 drubbing on Sunday. It was the sixth-straight win by San Diego over their divisional counterparts, doing well more than covering the 11-point spread.

LaDainian Tomlinson broke into the record books, gaining 39 yards to reach 10th all-time in rushing yards, and had two touchdowns in the win. After starting the year 2-3, the Chargers have now won six-straight putting them in control of their own destiny for a first-round bye in the playoffs.

But the main difference was on defense, where the Chargers forced four turnovers that led directly to points. As ESPN noted, the best highlight came when Paul Oliver recovered a Matt Cassel fumble and returned it 40 yards to the house to make it 28-7. After Cassel reached back to throw, the ball fell out of his hands, and showed a mind of it's own, bumbling around before Oliver secured it and shook the ground during his journey.

"It bounced right to me," he said. "It was about as easy a play as you could make."

The Kansas City Chiefs didn't make it hard. Philip Rivers had just thrown a 15-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Gates to make it a two-score game. Gates had 118 yards and two touchdowns for the first time during the 2009 NFL Season. Rivers had 317 yards and two touchdowns on the day.

"We put the offense in good field position and really helped them out every way we could. It was a close game for the first half, but then the turnovers took over and we capitalized on all of them," Oliver said.

Two other Chargers, Brandon Siler and Larry English, had fumble recoveries, and Quentin Jammer also added an interception.

"You can't give a good team that's playing really well right now 28 points off turnovers," Cassel said.

About the only thing that went right for Kansas City was Chris Chambers' touchdown against his former team. The wideout was cut by San Diego earlier this month to make room for Malcolm Floyd. In his fourth game with the Chiefs, he scored yet again on a seven-yard connection that made it 7-7 early in the second quarter.

Chambers has 371 yards with the team, a team-high since his arrival, and three touchdowns.

Floyd also had a big play that led to a score in the second quarter when he gobbled up a 53-yard pass at the one-yard line that set up Tomlinson's first touchdown.