JOHN R. McCUTCHEN / Union-Tribune
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MIAMI – Even while LaDainian Tomlinson was unable to do much more than run straight ahead, his aching right big toe limiting his burst moving laterally, defenses were stacked to stop him.
So nothing is going to change now that he is moving so ably left and right – and now that he is entering the time of the season when in the past couple of years he's really begun to produce.
“That's what it's going to be in the running game,” quarterback Philip Rivers said this week. “LT has been doing it a lot of years now. Teams scheme and find ways to stop him and stop his cutbacks and stop the way we run the ball.”
Even with another defense targeting him over all the Chargers' other weapons, Tomlinson had his best game of this young and frustrating season last Sunday at Oakland. Clearly as healthy as he has been since dislocating his toe near the end of the Chargers' final series in their season opener, it was still a grind to get 106 yards against the Raiders.
Through three quarters, he had run 13 times for 31 yards. A 13-yard touchdown run to start the fourth and a 41-yard touchdown run to finish it sandwiched five other carries for 75 total yards in the fourth quarter.
Rivers threw just six passes while the Chargers scored 25 points in that fourth-quarter comeback.
Anyone who has watched the Chargers during Tomlinson's reign knows this is often how it goes. And based on what the team's four opponents have done so far – aligning to make Rivers beat them even as he has been among the league's top passers and has a variety of dangerous receivers – the grind will continue.
October is about when Tomlinson has put his seasons into another gear. The past two years, his first four games were nothing special. And then he went on to lead the league in rushing each season, averaging more than 5 yards a carry over the final 12 games of both 2006 and 2007.
Even now, at the same time chatter about Tomlinson's decline has increased, teams have continued to play eight and nine men near the line of scrimmage on most downs late into games.
“I think that's maybe what this year is going to be like,” Rivers said. “You hope it's easier in the run game in some games, but that may be what it's going to be like. Teams know us pretty good. You're playing the best back in the NFL – defensive guys get riled up.”
The Dolphins seem to be.
“When you're playing the San Diego Chargers,” nose tackle Jason Ferguson told The Miami Herald this week, “you're going to think about three or four guys, but the No. 1 guy better be No. 21.”
Tomlinson, who with 54 yards today can become the 17th player in NFL history to rush for 11,000 yards, had a pretty typical day against the Raiders. Time and again in his career, the yards have been difficult to come by early, then come in bunches in the second half.
It was certainly no coincidence his two longest runs came in the fourth quarter.
Often it is because the line has worn down the defensive front, often it is because Tomlinson finally gets that fraction of a step on a defender he almost got earlier. Often, it is a combination of both.
Then there is a run like Tomlinson's untouched sprint to the end zone against Oakland, a brilliant play-call expertly blocked and helped by an eager safety who jumped Tomlinson's run to the left before LT cut back to the right.
“They know I'm a cutback runner,” Tomlinson said. “What they do a lot of times, they have a linebacker slow-play the backside, or they have the safety there or a corner. They kind of treat me like they treated Barry Sanders. They knew he would come right back to you.
“That's what happens sometimes. They hold that safety back there, but sometimes they get so eager to get a tackle they run real fast. That's what he did. He ran real fast to try to make a play.”
What Tomlinson did on the 41-yard run was not nearly as impressive – or encouraging for the future – as the cutback and jump cut he made in following two Brandon Manumaleuna blocks on the 13-yard run.
With that Tomlinson back, defenses have more to think about and contend with – remarkable considering that with a not-healthy Tomlinson, the Chargers have scored the second-most offensive points in the league.
Said Rivers: “It can only help.”
McKinney released
As expected, the Chargers let go of reserve defensive tackle Brandon McKinney yesterday to make room for linebacker Stephen Cooper. Cooper will make his 2008 debut today after being reinstated following a four-game suspension for a failed drug test. McKinney played 14 games last season but had not appeared in '08.
Kevin Acee: (619) 293-1857; kevin.acee@uniontrib.com
