Regular Season Game #9

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Total

Kansas City

7

6

0

6

19

San Diego

0

6

7

7

20

Chargers Escape with Hard-Fought Win Over Pesky Chiefs

Regular Season Game #9

NFL.com l Video Highlights

Chiefs QB Tyler Thigpen & TE Tony Gonzalez celebrate after scoring a touchdown.

Nov. 9- Clinton Hart and the San Diego Chargers avoided the kind of upset that really could have ruined their season.

Hart, the strong safety, knocked down Tyler Thigpen's 2-point conversion pass with 23 seconds left and the Chargers held on to beat the scrappy Kansas City Chiefs 20-19 on Sunday.

The Chiefs pulled within one on Thigpen's 3-yard pass to tight end Tony Gonzalez. The Chiefs went for the win, but Thigpen's pass to Gonzalez was deflected by Hart to cornerback Quentin Jammer, who made the interception while on the ground.

Coincidentally, San Diego lost to Denver 39-38 in Week 2 when the Broncos made a last-minute 2-point conversion.

The Chargers were booed off the field Sunday while trailing 13-6 at halftime, but rallied behind Philip Rivers in the second half.

Rivers threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Malcom Floyd to tie the game late in the third quarter, then hit star tight end Antonio Gates on a go-ahead, 8-yard score with just less than 7 minutes left. Rivers completed 27 of 36 passes for 316 yards.

Gates' TD gave the Chargers (4-5) their first lead of the game. San Diego remained one game behind Denver in the anemic AFC West.

The outmanned Chiefs (1-8) were scrappy early, but missed a chance for just their second victory in more than a calendar year.

Rivers, who came in with a league-best 107.8 passer rating, led a 14-play drive that started on the last play of the third quarter and ate up the first 8:28 of the fourth period. He capped it by finding the wide-open Gates.

Rivers hit a similarly wide-open Floyd two possessions earlier.

But Rivers was intercepted twice, by safety Bernard Pollard in the end zone late in the second quarter, and by safety Jon McGraw late in the third quarter. The Chiefs didn't capitalize on either turnover.

Coming off their bye, the Chargers had lost three of four, including a two-loss, 11,000-mile road trip through Buffalo and London, where they fell to the Saints.

Thigpen, who started the season as the Chiefs' third-string quarterback, outplayed Rivers in the first two quarters. Thigpen threw scoring passes of 30 yards to Mark Bradley and 34 yards to Gonzalez to give the Chiefs the 13-6 lead at halftime.

The Chargers changed defensive coordinators during their bye week, firing Ted Cottrell and elevating Ron Rivera, but it didn't produce immediate results.

The Chargers allowed Thigpen to move the Chiefs 95 yards in 12 plays on their first drive, capping it with the pass to Bradley, who burned Jammer.

After the Chargers closed to 7-6 on field goals of 34 and 26 yards by Nate Kaeding, Thigpen moved the Chiefs 83 yards on seven plays, finding Gonzalez for his catch-and-run TD. The star tight end caught a short pass, made Hart miss, then got a nice block from Bradley as he made his way across the field before turning down the left sideline and into the end zone.

LaDainian Tomlinson passed O.J. Simpson and Corey Dillon for 15th place on the all-time rushing list at 11,279 yards. He gained 78 yards on 22 carries against the Chiefs.

Individual Statistics

Kansas City Passing:

Tyler Thigpen 27 of 41 for 266 yards and 3 touchdowns

San Diego Passing:

Philip Rivers 27 of 36 for 316 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions

Kansas City Rushing:

Dantrell Savage 12 carries for 44 yards

Tyler Thigpen 2 carries for 26 yards

Jamaal Charles 3 carries for 8 yards

Mike Cox 1 carry for -2 yards

San Diego Rushing:

LaDainian Tomlinson 22 carries for 78 yards

Darren Sproles 3 carries for 15 yards

Philip Rivers 1 carry for -1 yard

Kansas City Receiving:

Tony Gonzalez 10 receptions for 113 yards and 2 touchdowns

Mark Bradley 9 receptions for 81 yards and 1 touchdown

Dwayne Bowe 6 receptions for 72 yards

Dantrell Savage 2 receptions for 0 yards

San Diego Receiving:

Vincent Jackson 5 receptions for 83 yards

Malcom Floyd 4 receptions for 76 yards and 1 touchdown

Antonio Gates 8 receptions for 66 yards and 1 touchdown

LaDainian Tomlinson 4 receptions for 39 yards

Mike Tolbert 3 receptions for 37 yards

Darren Sproles 3 receptions for 15 yards

Kansas City Tackles-Assists-Sacks:

Bernard Pollard 9-1-0, Jon McGraw 8-2-0, Rocky Boiman 5-3-0, Brandon Carr 5-1-0, Donnie Edwards 5-4-0, Maurice Leggett 4-1-0, Alfonso Boone 3-0-0, Weston Dacus 3-1-0, Glenn Dorsey 3-0-1, Ron Edwards 2-0-1, Wallace Gilberry 1-0-0, Tamba Hali 1-0-0, Brian Johnston 1-0-0, Jarrad Page 1-0-0, Demorrio Williams 1-1-0, Pat Thomas 0-1-0

San Diego Tackles-Assists-Sacks:

Antonio Cromartie 10-1-0, Stephen Cooper 7-2-0, Tim Dobbins 5-0-0, Jamal Williams 5-2-0, Eric Weddle 4-0-1, Antoine Cason 2-1-0, Luis Castillo 2-0-0, Clinton Hart 2-1-0, Quentin Jammer 2-1-0, Ryon Bingham 1-0-0, Cletis Gordon 1-0-0, Igor Olshansky 1-1-0, Shaun Phillips 1-1-0, Paul Oliver 0-1-0, Brandon Siler 0-1-0, Jyles Tucker 0-2-0

Kansas City Fumble Recoveries:

None

San Diego Fumble Recoveries:

None

Kansas City Interceptions:

Jon McGraw 1 for 4 yards

Bernard Pollard 1 for 0 yards

San Diego Interceptions:

None

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