Turner makes the right calls to beat Titans

Sunday, Jan 06, 2008
By Tom Shanahan, Chargers.com

They say a football game generally turns on three or four big plays.

For Chargers Head Coach Norv Turner and his players, take your pick:

Was it five third-down pass completions for first downs that kept alive three unanswered scoring drives in the second half? Or was it the two fourth-down calls in the second half that put up 10 of those 17 points?

Maybe they were equally big in the Chargers' 17-6 win in the AFC Wild Card round over the Tennessee Titans Sunday before 65,640 fans at Qualcomm Stadium.

"Coach made some great calls at the right time," said Chargers wide receiver Vincent Jackson, who finished with five catches for 114 yards and one touchdown.

On the two fourth-down calls near the end zone, Turner settled for a field goal with 9:41 left in the third quarter to trim Tennessee's lead to 6-3 and went for a touchdown to build a 17-6 lead with 8:45 left in the fourth quarter.

The 20-yard field goal by Nate Kaeding came after Turner decided not to go for the end zone when the Bolts faced a 4th-and-1 at the 2-yard line.

The one-yard dive for a touchdown by running back LaDainian Tomlinson came when the Chargers faced a 4th-and-goal from the 1.

"Every situation is different," Turner said in explaining his thought process on the sidelines.

"When it was 6-0, I didn't think it was appropriate (to go for it)," he said. "I felt we needed to get something out of that drive. We needed to get a field goal and that makes it a three-point game."

The Chargers were leading 10-6 by the time Turner faced his second fourth-down decision in the red zone with a fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line.

"The second one, we’re either up by seven (with a field goal) or we can put the game away going up 11 points," Turner said. "We were on the foot line, we have a great back and a heck of an offensive line. I put it in their hands."

The Chargers finished the second half 6-of-9 on third-down conversions after making only 2-of-6 in the first half.

On the Chargers' first score that was a 12-play, 86-yard drive ending with Kaeding's field goal to make it a 6-3 game, wide receiver Chris Chambers caught a 19-yard pass on 3rd-and-6 and Jackson caught a 34-yard pass on 3rd-and-9.

"They did a good job of mixing up third-down (defenses)," Turner said. "The big play that got us going (was the 34-yarder to Jackson). The line protected, Philip pumped the ball inside and Vincent is a big man with a big body. He went up high, got the heck knocked out of him by the safety and hung to the ball. It was a big play."

On the second score with Jackson's touchdown to give the Chargers their first lead at 10-6, Rivers hit a 3rd-and-4 pass for 5 yards to Tomlinson. Jackson scored three plays later with the help of a 15-yard personal foul on Titans' defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth.
On the third score for a game-clinching touchdown, tight end Brandon Manumaleuna caught a 9-yard pass on 3rd-and-6 and Chambers caught a 39-yard pass on third-and-10.

"The play (Rivers) made to Chris Chambers was a double move route with press coverage," Turner said. "(Rivers) knows the play takes a long time, so he slides and buys time by moving in the pocket. We protect great. The (defender) played end route that we had succes in the first game. That's as big of a play as you can make in a game like this."

Tomlinson said sticking with the run, even when the Chargers struggled to gain yards against a defense committing an extra defender in the box, helped set up the third-down competitions with play-action calls.

"That was huge for us to be able to stay on the field on third downs," Tomlinson said. "It wore them down a little bit the more they had to stay on the field. We were able to continue trying to run the ball. Even though we didn't run it with a lot of success, we maintained making them think about us running the ball. That helped us when we needed to throw the football.

After the game, reporters wanted to Turner to talk about getting a playoff win after hearing criticism about the Chargers' slow starter earlier in the year. He deflected the questions to the Chargers' game next Sunday at the Indianpolis Colts in the Division round.

"If you're a coach, it's always about next week," Turner said. "This game, I'll enjoy tonight. But then I'll start thinking about the things we need to do next week."