CHARGER REVIEW : NOTEBOOK : Home Cooking Getting A Little Stale
The Chargers were playing at home, but there were times when the noise coming from the stands favored the Steelers.
And the Chargers took notice.
“You go out there and you see 20 Steeler banners and no Charger banners and we’re 3,000 miles away from Pittsburgh,” Charger defensive end Burt Grossman said. “But I don’t blame them. What’s there to be happy about?
“We go 0-3 and haven’t been to the playoffs in 10 years. I wouldn’t cheer for us either.”
What should the fans think about the Chargers?
“The fans aren’t at the game anyway,” said running back Rod Bernstine. “We didn’t have enough of them to tell. I think Pittsburgh had all the fans here. It sounded like there were more Pittsburgh fans than what we had.
“I can’t blame people for anything. We’re paid to go out and win ballgames and we haven’t been winning ballgames. I don’t know if I’d come and watch us either.”
Pittsburgh quarterback Neil O’Donnell, who completed 17 of 24 passes for 215 yards, said, “Yeah, at times it did feel like a home game today. We had a lot of great fans here.”
General manager Bobby Beathard said Sunday night the Chargers will add former Green Bay wide receiver Charles Wilson to the team today because of injuries suffered by wide receiver Nate Lewis.
Lewis left the game with the Steelers with bruised ribs, returned, but was forced to the sideline because of breathing difficulties.
Coach Bobby Ross said later that Lewis also suffered a pulled hamstring.
Wilson, a third-year player released by Green Bay earlier this season, has 26 career receptions for 389 yards with one touchdown.
“He has all the speed in the world,” Beathard said. “We’ll see what he can do.”
The Chargers continue to have problems with special teams. Kicker John Carney missed a 25-yard field-goal attempt, Pittsburgh cornerback Rod Woodson returned a punt 46 yards, punter John Kidd failed to drop a punt inside the opponent’s 20-yard line at a key time in the game and a penalty to Steve Hendrickson on a kickoff return pinned the Chargers deep into their own territory.
“The area that guys need to take a step up in is special teams,” said Charger linebacker Gary Plummer. “We have not won in that area this year.”
On Woodson’s 46-yard punt return, he tried to leap over Kidd, but never made it past Kidd’s facemask.
“The only way he could score was to go through me,” said Kidd, who suffered a possible broken nose and cut lip on the play. “His knee put a good dent in my facemask and got me in the nose. That’s just part of the game.”
Grossman was asked what Ross said after the game. “I’ve heard so much stuff after a game I don’t listen,” he said. “I just stare; I don’t hear.”
Cornerback Tony Blaylock appeared to have difficulty with the Steelers’ passing attack.
Blaylock was more blunt: “You all put it on me; it was my fault.”
Running back Ronnie Harmon caught a tipped, 55-yard Hail Mary pass on the final play of the half and almost went the distance for a touchdown.
Harmon caught the ball at the Steelers’ 11, but tripped over a teammate and fell to the ground.
“We got the tip,” said quarterback Bob Gagliano, who threw it, “but we weren’t lucky enough to score.”
After watching Denver’s offense remain on the sideline last week after a change in possession, the Chargers opted to give it a try.
While the Steelers’ defense waited on the field, the Chargers had all their offensive personnel--more than 20 players--surround quarterback Stan Humphries. The idea is to keep the defense guessing on what group will enter.
When the Chargers broke the huddle on the sideline, they ran onto the field in hurry-up fashion and immediately assumed their positions with rehuddling.
After working so hard to disguise their intentions, Humphries turned and handed the ball to running back Butts, who ran right, exactly as he had done on the opening play in the team’s first two games.
Free safety Stanley Richard said confusion led to Dwight Stone’s six-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. Stone was by himself in the back of the end zone when he caught O’Donnell’s pass.
“Receivers started running around in the back of the end zone,” he said. “We were expecting a run and they came out with a pass. That sort of makes it difficult.”
Richard said the Steelers’ first touchdown, a 24-yard pass from O’Donnell to tight end Adrian Cooper, was a matter of better execution by Pittsburgh.
“(Cooper) had a fake-out move to freeze the (linebacker Henry Rolling) and then he ran deep,” Richard said. “I could have been there defensively, but I got there late. It was just a good play by the tight end and the quarterback.”