A Day In The Life Of A Cat

Boo!

Halloween decorations: $10
Halloween candy: $6
Halloween costume: $20
Crushing the Raiders on Halloween: Priceless!

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Brees is near perfect in rout of Raiders

By Jim Trotter
UNION-TRIBUNE

Chargers fullback Lorenzo Neal joked during the week that the playing field might be the safest place in Qualcomm Stadium when the Raiders come to town.

He was right, unless you were an Oakland player or coach yesterday.

The Chargers whipped the Raiders so thoroughly before a crowd of 66,210 that San Diego supporters could have mocked the Silver and Black with "Drew's Your Daddy" instead of "Who's Your Daddy?"

Behind five touchdown passes from Drew Brees and a suffocating performance by the defense, the Chargers won for the fourth time in five weeks, burying the Raiders 42-14 in a game that wasn't as close as the score.

The Chargers (5-3) – now tied for first with Denver in the AFC West – scored touchdowns on six of their first seven possessions for leads of 14-0 after one quarter, 28-7 at halftime and 42-14 through three quarters. Mike Scifres didn't attempt his first punt until the fourth quarter, when the Chargers were more concerned with running out the clock than running past their opponent.

The whipping was so thorough that Raiders coach Norv Turner said: "I don't think we take anything away from that game that's positive."

Oh, to be on the other sideline.

Marty Schottenheimer could find few things wrong with his club, beginning with Brees. The quarterback that the organization didn't feel was good enough to win with was nearly perfect, completing 22-of-25 passes for 281 yards and five scores with no turnovers.

His QB rating: 153.1.

A perfect rating: 158.3.

"Outstanding," Schottenheimer said. "He came in and did the things you want your quarterback to be able to do to lead the offense. He made all the right throws. I thought it was a terrific performance for the offense throughout."

Brees, who had tremendous protection up front, set team single-game records for passer rating and completion percentage (88). His five touchdown passes were a career high and only one off the franchise mark held by Dan Fouts. He threw two scores to tight end Antonio Gates and one each to tight end Justin Peelle and wideouts Keenan McCardell and Tim Dwight.

Brees was so good that two of his three incompletions came when he was throwing the ball away. The only stop Oakland's defense actually made was when linebacker Tim Johnson batted down a pass in the second half.

"Brees was on fire," Neal said. "That was an awesome performance by him, especially considering he was a guy that a lot of people wrote off. A lot of guys in that position could have just conceded and just said, 'This is what's going on; I'm not going to get the job,' and just gone in the tank. Instead he steps up and he plays like he plays and does what he does. That's just awesome."

The organization wrote off Brees after a disappointing 2003 season, with management saying repeatedly in the offseason that it needed to "upgrade the position." Hence the draft-day trade to acquire rookie Philip Rivers.

But Brees has been so good that Rivers hasn't been able to get off the bench. Brees now has thrown 14 touchdown passes against just three interceptions, with a passer rating of 106.8.

"It was fun," Brees said of the game, not the doubts from inside and outside the organization. "This was a huge game and we were absolutely ready to play. We came out to play, and I think it showed. The tempo was great. The fans were involved, and everything just kept rolling. It was just one of those days."

Brees said it was his best performance since his sophomore year at Purdue when he was 31-of-36 passing for 522 yards and six touchdowns against Minnesota.

"But," Brees said, "that was a long time ago."

It wasn't so long ago that the Chargers were in this position, competing for the division title. Just two years ago, they were 6-1, and the season before that they were 5-2. Both times, they had an epic collapse, losing their final nine games in 2001 and seven of their final nine in 2002.

But this team seems different. There is a quiet confidence with this group. The players who still remain from those seasons contend they have learned from the past, which is why running back LaDainian Tomlinson (71 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries) refused to get carried away.

"I'm not ready to say it was a big win yet," he said.

Actually, the Chargers have scored more than 42 points at home against the Raiders just once in their history – in 1961, in their first game in San Diego. They put up 44 on the Raiders that September afternoon, shutting them out in Balboa Stadium.

The defense was nearly as good yesterday as it was in 1961. It held the Raiders – 2-6 and losers of five straight – to four or fewer plays on seven of their 11 possessions and intercepted two passes, by Sammy Davis and Clinton Hart. The unit also allowed just 22 yards rushing, the fewest since surrendering 11 to Carolina in 2000. It was the ninth-fewest rushing yards allowed in franchise history.

"I figured it was going to be a real competitive game that was going to come down to the end, just from hearing guys talk about how competitive it is," linebacker Steve Foley said. "But the way we jumped out on them kind of surprised them. The thing that's most impressive to me is the way we maintained and were able to continue to put pressure on them."

Asked if he felt the Raiders' will break, Foley said: "They weren't reacting to nothing. We're out there talking trash; we're in their ears about everything, and they would just turn around and walk back the other way. I don't know what that meant."

It meant that on this day the field was not the safest place to be for the Raiders or their coaches.

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Numbers

0 Punts by San Diego's Mike Scifres in the first 49 minutes of the game.

1 Time in the first 41 minutes the Chargers offense faced third down.

3 Incomplete passes thrown by Brees, who set a team record with an .880 completion percent-age (22-of-25). Only one incompletion came when he was trying to throw a completion.

42 Points scored by the Chargers, their highest total in a home game against Oakland since the team's first game ever in San Diego, a 44-0 win on Sept. 17, 1961.

Final Score

Chargers 42
Raiders 14

Happy Halloween ~ UNDENIABLY!!