BIG PRO FOOTBALL GAMES
The San Diego Chargers season-opening losses to the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos aren’t looking quite as bad now after a 45-23 victory over the visiting New York Giants at Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday, September 25.
New York quickly jumped out to an early 3-0 first quarter lead on a 22-yard field goal by kicker Jay Feeley before San Diego lit up the scoreboard behind the play of running back LaDanian Tomlinson and wide receiver Keenan McCardell. Tomlinson scored on touchdown runs of one and three yards and McCardell caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Drew Brees to give the Chargers a commanding 21-3 second quarter cushion.
The Giants came right back, though, as quarterback Eli Manning found wide receivers Plaxico Burress and David Tyree on touchdown passes of five and four yards, respectively. That cut the San Diego advantage to 21-17 just before halftime.
Another Feeley field goal, this time from 40 yards out, made the score 21-20 in favor of the Chargers heading into the locker room at the intermission. In the third quarter, however, McCardell caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Tomlinson and Gates gathered in a 14-yarder from Brees to extend the San Diego edge to 35-20.
Feeley was feeling it again in the fourth quarter as he hit a 28-yard field goal, trimming the margin to 35-23. Unfortunately for New York, that’s as close as they would get.
Tomlinson trotted into the end zone from five yards out and Nate Kaeding kicked a 44-yard field goal. That sealed the win for the Chargers, who improve their record to 1-2, while the Giants fall to 2-1.
Notes: San Diego would have beaten Dallas if the Chargers hadn’t committed three third down penalties to keep Cowboy drives alive—including the winning one…
It also would’ve helped if Tomlinson had touched the ball 25 to 35 times, Gates hadn’t been suspended, and San Diego hadn’t been looking ahead to the New York game…
Speaking of Dallas, they didn’t look too impressive in their loss to an overrated Washington Redskin team on Monday Night Football…
As for the Denver game, the Chargers should just consider it a throw away…
They were outplayed and the game itself wasn’t even as close as the 20-17 score would indicate…