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It has not happened since.
Today, the Chargers enter the AFC playoffs at 11-5 and are quite possibly the hottest team in the NFL.
How have they done it?
Defense and LT.
What would you expect?
In the Chargers’ first ten games, they were allowing 354 total yards per game, including 120 rushing yards.
Since then, opponents are averaging just 265 yards against the Chargers’ defense, with just 86 per game coming on the ground.
San Diego’s defense was allowing 20.9 points per game through the first ten games. They were averaging just two sacks per contest.
In their last six games, the Chargers are giving up just 12.5 points per game and are averaging nearly four quarterback sacks per game.
Through ten games, San Diego was +9 in turnover ratio. In the last six weeks, the Chargers are +15 (21 takeaways to just six turnovers).
Of course, when you have the NFL’s best running back on the other side of the football, that helps a lot, too.
LaDanian Tomlinson was having a so-so year through ten games. Averaging a very human 4.1 per carry, Tomlinson had rushed for less than 800 yards.
In the last six games, however, LT has exploded to become the NFL’s rushing leader for the second year in a row. Over the six-game period, Tomlinson has 679 rushing yards, a 5.5 per carry average, four 100 yard games and eight total touchdowns.
All of that and Tomlinson enters the playoffs having carried the football just 51 times in the past three games. He’ll be fresh on Sunday.
It looks like the Chargers are really starting to get Ted Cottrell’s version of the 3-4 defense. And Norv Turner understands that everything in the San Diego offense works better when it starts with Tomlinson.
Right here at playoff time, it has all come together in San Diego.
These aren’t the Chargers who peaked in the regular season and then lost home playoff openers in 2004 and last year. Tennessee will get San Diego at their very best on Sunday. The Chargers are even better than they were four weeks ago when the Titans let them off the hook in Nashville.
If Tennessee is going to grab a road playoff win, they’ll have to solve the Chargers defense and slow down LT.
Tough tasks, but what the playoffs are all about.
