Bolts look to fix mistakes; Browns look to break out
Associated Press
CLEVELAND
True to their nickname, the San Diego Chargers have struck quickly and efficiently this season.
Unfortunately, the Bolts have zapped themselves.
Done in by too many turnovers, the Chargers blew second-half leads in their last two games, consecutive losses to New Orleans and Denver. The come-from-ahead defeats were made worse because they came on national TV with the whole league watching San Diego self-destruct. So instead of being 5-1 and leading the AFC West by two games, San Diego enters today’s game against Cleveland looking to snap its slide.
“We just want to win,” Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said. “The last two games we’ve had two first halves about as good as you can have and then we’ve had two second halves about as bad as you can have, so I think it’s just a matter of collectively trying to put a complete game together. We need to get into a rhythm like we’ve been in these two games, like we know we can and just be more consistent.”
The Chargers (3-3) are coming off their bye week, which provided a chance for the players to regroup, for embattled coach Norv Turner to endure more heated scrutiny, and for the NFL to launch an investigation into whether any San Diego players have been using Stickum, a banned adhesive substance, during the season.
Turner, it seems, is almost always in a sticky situation.
He’s an impressive 52-34 in five-plus seasons with the Chargers, but only 20-18 since the team’s last playoff appearance in 2009. The recent back-to-back losses have only intensified the anger of some San Diego fans who believe a coaching change is in order.
In San Diego’s previous game, the Chargers built a 24-0 lead at halftime before Peyton Manning, helped by some turnovers — Rivers threw four interceptions — by the Chargers, rallied the Broncos to a 35-24 win, tying the fourth largest comeback in regular-season history. That meltdown came a week after the Chargers blew a 10-point lead in the third quarter and lost on the road to the Saints, who had been winless.
The league’s only 1-6 team, Cleveland is struggling through another one of those seasons that ends with a coach getting fired, a front office overhauled and endless conjecture about what they should do in April’s draft. The Browns, though, have shown a feistiness all season and have been one or two plays away from victory.
“We’re in games,” said rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden, who has thrown two touchdown passes in each of his past three games. “We’re not getting blown out. We’re not a gimme. No team is coming in and we’re going to lay down and give them one. We’re going to battle. We’re going to play hard. We’re going to play hard for 60 minutes.
“That’s what we’ve shown. That’s going to help us down the road as we keep maturing and keep getting better as a football team.”