The San Diego Concussion Company is on hiatus. The National Football League has imposed a bye week on the Chargers, so their bloodthirsty defense will be constrained from imparting any more sanctioned bruises until Oct. 1 in Baltimore.
Until further notice, then, the Bruise Cruise remains in port. The Border Patrol is confined to quarters. Perhaps inactivity will temper Blue Steel. Perhaps some quiet time will make the Monsters of Mission Valley a mite more mellow.
And perhaps, two weeks hence, we'll have hit on a nickname that describes their dominance and triggers T-shirt sales. Perhaps by then, what is now a marvel will have acquired a mystique.
Wouldn't you think?
Yesterday's 40-7 trampling of the Tennessee Titans provided vivid confirmation of what the Oakland Raiders learned last Monday: that the Chargers don't bend, don't break and hardly budge.
The Titans' only first down of the first half was the product of a roughness penalty against Chargers lineman Luis Castillo. Their two quarterbacks succeeded in completing one pass in their first 11 attempts. Their total offense through three quarters – 78 yards – was less than a third of their accumulated punts.
Were it not for the Chargers' fourth-quarter mass substitution, coordinator Wade Phillips' Defense To Be Nicknamed Later might still be working on a shutout season.
In eight quarters, the Chargers have allowed seven points. Granted, the schedule has been accommodating – Oakland and Tennessee appear on the NFL continuum between Awful and Dreadful – but bad teams still manage to score against sloppy defenses.
The Chargers' defense (The Punishment Detail?) is no longer sloppy, but suffocating. It has allowed its two overmatched opponents to convert only four of their 24 third-down plays thus far this season. It has yielded no rushing play longer than 15 yards. It has amassed nine sacks and caused three turnovers and contributed more than its share to the Chargers' back-to-back blowout victories. The lone touchdown the Titans scored yesterday came in the game's 57th minute, with the Chargers leading 33-0.
“The defense we're playing right now, it's all about attitude,” cornerback Quentin Jammer said. “The attitude around this locker room is we want to go out and dominate and that's what we do.”
It is somewhat about attitude. It is moreso about ability. The draft-day selections of Shawne Merriman and Castillo made the Chargers' front seven a force last season. This year, the secondary is stronger, bolstered by its shared seasoning and the acquired savvy of veteran free safety Marlon McCree.
“I can't emphasize enough how much tape we watched,” McCree said. “We knew everything those guys did today. We knew it like the back of our hands. That's why that touchown was a little disappointing.
“We knew exactly what they were running. We had the exact call. We ran it all week in practice. So that's a little bit bitter, but seven points in eight quarters, we'll take that.”
Maybe some of these guys will get scorched down the road by better competition, but the early returns would reassure the most fretful fan.
“It's scary to comment on how good they can become,” Chargers tight end Antonio Gates said yesterday.
Rather than speculate on future events, Gates preferred to stick to what he has already seen. And that was pretty scary, too.
“Fast, physical, unstoppable,” Gates said.
Hype is an occupational hazard in following football. The games are so few that each one comes to feel as if the fate of Western Civilization were riding on the outcome. Yet it's no exaggeration to suggest that this Chargers defense (Pacific Ocean's Eleven?) may be as fine as any in franchise history.
They will have to win a lot more games to deserve mention with Pittsburgh's Steel Curtain or the Super Bowl-shuffling Chicago Bears. Yet even in the absence of undesignated driver Steve Foley, there are a lot of good pieces in place.
“If we can continue to play like we've been playing, we're going to win a lot of football games,” linebacker Donnie Edwards said. “You've got to understand that it's the third year of the system. I think a lot of guys are really getting comfortable with their positions and we haven't had much turnover. When you have the same guys playing the same positions, it's a lot easier to play football.
“The first year (of a new system), we're out there thinking. You've got to get a feel for it. This is the third year in the system, so we're really getting comfortable – understanding plays, understanding blocking schemes, understanding who's going to block you when we have a particular defense in.”
Attitude develops when ability meets assimilation. This is where the Chargers' Storm Front (credit: east end zone stadium banner) has arrived.
“Right now, we feel like we're a dominating defense,” Jammer said, “but until we do it over the course of the season, we don't want any pats on the back. We don't want anything. We just want to do this week-in and week-out.”
Who knows? If it lasts long enough, they might make a name for themselves.
Tim Sullivan: (619) 293-1033; tim.sullivan@uniontrib.com
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