SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
The Ravens' Todd Heap dives in for the winning score.
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BALTIMORE – The Chargers said this wouldn't happen anymore, that they had learned, that they were better.
But there they were, sulking and skulking away from M&T Bank Stadium, shocked and dismayed by another last-minute loss that again left them searching for answers and suddenly on the verge of distress.
“It seems like I've been in too many of these kinds of games,” LaDainian Tomlinson said. “They get old real fast. They won it. You have to give them credit. They were more aggressive. They won the game, and we lost it.”
There was plenty of blame to go around for the Chargers' first loss in three games this season. The defense wilted. The special teams melted. Left guard Kris Dielman sat alone at his locker for a quarter of an hour after the game and later took responsibility for the loss because of his costly penalties.
And then there was Marty Schottenheimer, who donned his conservative cloak again, seemingly coaching to not lose on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay.
In a frenetic close to a game that had previously been reduced to a slow and bumbling race to the finish, Steve McNair and the Ravens drove 60 yards to score a touchdown with 34 seconds remaining and held on to beat the Chargers 16-13 yesterday in front of 70,743 disbelieving fans at M&T Bank Stadium.
“We started off so great,” right tackle Shane Olivea said. “For whatever reason we just stalled. I don't even know what happened. I have no idea how we lost this game.”
It's not as if the Chargers hadn't seen this one before.
The defeat was entirely reminiscent of last season's late-game collapses. In each of their first four losses in 2005, the Chargers lost a fourth-quarter lead.
“We've got to know how to finish games,” linebacker Shawne Merriman said. “ . . . Until we do that we're obviously not going to accomplish what we want to accomplish. This is definitely one of the games that during the offseason we had to look at all the games we made mistakes in and how we lost to some of the teams we should have won against. We've got to learn how to do that.”
Tomlinson said he was not referring to the play-calling – “not at all” – when he assessed the Ravens to be more aggressive. He was alluding to the end of the game, when “they turned it up a notch and we stayed the same. When you're playing good teams you've got to match their intensity and match their aggressiveness, and we didn't do it.”
But the fact is Schottenheimer, who so effectively used the punt-and-stop approach to beat an overmatched Oakland Raiders team in the season opener, again harnessed his quarterback and forgot his tight end against a team entirely more capable of making a comeback.
“It was exactly the kind of game we expected,” Schottenheimer said. “We thought it would come down to the fourth quarter.”
Can anyone say self-fulfilling prophecy?
It didn't need to be that close.
The Ravens were not stopping the Chargers early. Only a horrid first-quarter pass by Rivers that was intercepted and set up a touchdown made it a game at all. The Chargers outgained the Ravens 166 yards to 45 in the first half. But because the Chargers could not put the Ravens away, a specter of impending doom hung over the field the entire second half.
“We've got to put more points on the board,” center Nick Hardwick said. “We can't expect the defense to just shut everybody down. Six points, that's just too dangerous. We knew that the whole game. You could see that was coming. Easy. Everyone knew. It was just in the air.”
The Chargers took a 13-7 lead late in the second quarter, and it sure seemed that Schottenheimer was content with that margin. He said afterward he was trying to get first downs, not playing for field goals. And he did have reason to keep it simple.
The Chargers were on the road, going against the league's second-ranked and perhaps most confusing defense, and Rivers underthrew that pass early that was intercepted.
Schottenheimer and Rivers said the play-calling reflected the Ravens' defense and the success the Chargers were having running the ball.
They did rush for 150 yards. But Rivers threw the ball just eight times in the second half.
On a third-and-6 at the 24 early in the third quarter, Tomlinson ran off tackle for 2 yards. In fact, the Chargers did not pass on that eight-play drive, which featured a 29-yard Tomlinson run and ended with Nate Kaeding pushing a 40-yard field goal just wide right.
The defense kept making stands, including one at the goal line where Stephen Cooper stood up Daniel Wilcox 1 yard from the end zone and forced a fumble that Donnie Edwards recovered.
But the Chargers' next three possessions were fruitless, characterized by a clipping penalty on Dielman, anemic runs and one particularly galling too-airy incompletion intended deep for Vincent Jackson. The third drive ended with a 52-yard field goal try that never got off the ground because holder Mike Scifres fumbled the snap before Kaeding could kick.
Another Ravens punt, and the Chargers had the ball at their own 9. Successive false starts by Dielman and Olivea made it first-and-17 at the 2. Three runs brought up fourth down. A penalty on a 55-yard Scifres punt forced a rekick, and Scifres intentionally ran out of the back of the end zone for a safety that made it 13-9 with 3:12 remaining.
With the game in the balance is when McNair has always seemed to be at his best. And for the second straight week, he engineered a last-gasp and winning drive. The scoring play was a pass from the 10 to tight end Todd Heap at the 3, where he was hit by Merriman and cornerback Antonio Cromartie but bounced off and across the goal line.
“It came down to a missed tackle,” Merriman said. “I really tried to take his head off. . . . Yeah, I'm a big hitter, but at the same time I've got to know how to finish him.”
Sure, Schottenheimer could have looked brilliant had the execution been better on many fronts. His players were certainly willing to publicly take the blame.
“We're a great team,” defensive end Luis Castillo said. “We just couldn't hold it today.”
So the question remains whether the Chargers can be a playoff contender.
“We strung it out and led the whole game and just didn't finish it,” Rivers said. “Championship teams finish those types of games, and that's what we weren't being. That's what we say we are, and that's what we're going to have to do.”
Kevin Acee: (619) 293-1857; kevin.acee@uniontrib.com
