Chargers move past Titans

SAN DIEGO – As the final seconds ticked, a huge sigh of relief could be felt among the 65,640 rain-soaked fans at Qualcomm Stadium and from La Jolla to Tijuana.

At long last, the Chargers won a playoff game.

The third-seeded Chargers came from behind and beat the plucky sixth-seeded Tennessee Titans 17-6 in an AFC first-round game Sunday, ending the frustrations of one-and-done, home-field eliminations after the 2004 and 2006 seasons that cost Marty Schottenheimer his job.

When it was over, general manager A.J. Smith, the man who made the coaching change, greeted head coach Norv Turner with a big bear hug at the locker room door.

And Turner, who replaced Schottenheimer despite a 14-2 season in 2006, was visibly touched by the victory. His eyes were red and welled with tears.

“It’s the rain,” Turner joked, when asked about his moist eyes after celebrating with his Chargers, who will travel to Indianapolis and face the defending Super Bowl champion Colts in the second round next Sunday.

No, it was more than that.

The Chargers (12-5) still have 24 members of the teams that lost in overtime to the Jets in a 2004 first-round game and in last year’s bitter AFC second-round defeat to New England. Yet their sentiments were with Turner, who got off to a rocky 1-3 start this season.

“Norv was brought here in an odd situation,” said running back LaDainian Tomlinson. “It was either, get us back to the playoffs and win a game in the playoffs, or you’re a failure.

“I felt like Norv was given the wrong end of the stick, even early on when people started booing him and yelling, `Marty!’ That was unfair to him.”

The crowd was booing Turner and the Chargers early and often on Sunday as Tomlinson, the NFL’s two-time rushing champion, couldn’t find a seam in Tennessee’s rugged run defense, and the Titans took a 6-0 halftime lead on two Rob Bironas field goals.

And it could have been worse. The Titans, 10-7, wasted another scoring opportunity when running back Chris Brown fumbled at the San Diego 12. And Tomlinson alertly fell on a fumble by quarterback Philip Rivers on the Chargers’ second offensive play.

At halftime, Rivers reminded his teammates that they were just one touchdown from taking the lead and would receive the second half kickoff. Also, the Chargers trailed the Titans 3-0 at halftime of a overtime win at Tennessee on Dec. 9.

The Chargers, whose five possessions in the first half included three punts, an interception and a missed field goal, responded by scoring on their first three possessions of the second half – a 20-yard field goal by Nate Kaeding; a 25-yard touchdown pass from Rivers to Vincent Jackson and a 1-yard plunge by Tomlinson.

Because eight of Tomlinson’s first 16 carries went for zero or negative yards, and Pro Bowl tight end Antonio Gates was lost to a sprained toe in the first half, the Chargers started airing it out deep to Jackson and Chris Chambers, who combined for 11 receptions for 235 yards and a touchdown.

“Philip played his rear off,” Turner said. “The guys we’ve been talking about all year when we couldn’t run the ball, that needed to step up and make plays …

And that, more than anything best describes the transformation the Chargers have made from Martyball to what Turner has tried to instill in San Diego. Martyball might have stubbornly kept pounding Tomlinson against the Titans’ eight-man fronts.

Turner took his chances with Rivers, in just his second year as a starter.

It produced the Chargers’ first playoff win since the 1994 AFC championship game.