SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Chargers were laughing at Philip Rivers, not with him.
The quarterback's first career rushing touchdown on Sunday not only helped the Chargers break a three-game losing streak, but it brought some levity to a bunch that desperately needed some.
"I got so many phone calls about that run, more than I ever got about any of my runs," LaDainian Tomlinson said while trying to suppress a laugh a day after the Chargers routed the Denver Broncos 41-3. "Obviously it was for how slow he was going. Funny thing about that is, Philip, he was really trying. You know, you can see him, he was really trying to get there and he just looked horrible."
Ouch.
Rivers scored on a 2-yard naked bootleg for the Chargers' first touchdown in the blowout, which pulled the Chargers (2-3) within one game of .500 heading into their big AFC West showdown at home on Sunday against the first-place Oakland Raiders.
Rivers rolled right and kept waiting for someone to break free, then finally turned the corner and scored.
"Well, to be honest with you, I'd much rather have Gates or somebody standing wide open in the back of the end zone and make it a little easier," Rivers said, referring to All-Pro tight end Antonio Gates. "I didn't think I'd be running it.
"I've took more heat in the locker room in this last hour than you could believe about that," Rivers said. "I said, 'Hey, I'm glad you're all having a little fun with that.' "
Gates suggested that Rivers might have been wearing boots.
"I got that coming off the sideline," Rivers said. "They said, 'Take your Timberlands off.' It's all in fun. Obviously, I said, 'I'm not going to apologize I scored.' I never intended to be a running quarterback."
Tomlinson said he knows Rivers can run faster than he did.
"Sometimes they say when you run in track you want to stay loose, you don't want to get tense because it will slow you down. I think Philip was very tense at that moment and you could tell," Tomlinson said, starting to laugh again.
The Chargers finally rediscovered their offense and got a little confidence going.
Tomlinson amassed 140 total yards, including 73 on three receptions, and his backup, Michael Turner, added 147 yards on 10 carries, highlighted by a 74-yard touchdown scamper down the sideline past the bewildered Broncos' bench in the fourth quarter.
A week after committing three turnovers, Rivers looked more like the Pro Bowl quarterback he was last year. He threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns on 13-of-18 passing for a nearly perfect quarterback rating of 151.4.
"We got some confidence back," Tomlinson said. "But I think more than anything it's just I think we felt like we're starting to find ourselves, this team. That game proved kind of what we do well and I think we kind of found what we can do if we play like that."
But Tomlinson put it in perspective like only he can.
"I don't want us to get all happy and start patting ourselves on the back after one win. It's a long season and we definitely need to make sure that we stay focused on continuing to build on this. No doubt getting that win in Denver was big for us but now we have to turn our attention to Oakland and we have to continue to just build on what we did yesterday."
A week after their own fans were streaming out in the fourth quarter of a 30-16 loss to Kansas City, the Chargers had Denver fans streaming out of Invesco Field.
"I feel a little better than I did a week ago," coach Norv Turner said. Of course, a week earlier, Turner heard disgruntled fans chanting for his predecessor, Marty Schottenheimer, who was fired in February.
Turner improved to 60-85-1 in three NFL head coaching stints.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
