NFL 2010 Week 15 - Recap: San Diego Chargers defeat San Francisco 49ers 34-7
Vincent Jackson had a career-high, three touchdown (TD) grabs, quarterback Philip River surpassed 4,000 yards passing for the third consecutive season and the San Diego Chargers gained their 6th
victory in 7 games with a 34-7 rout of San Francisco 49ers at Qualcomm Stadium on Thursday night.
Philip Rivers was 19-of-25 for 273 yards, giving him 4,141 for the season. Jackson, who missed the first 10 games due to a contract dispute, had five catches for 112 yards.
"Since I have been here, it's like I had never left," said Jackson.
Mike Tolbert had a 1-yard TD run in the third quarter and Nate Kaeding kicked field goals of 25 and 39 yards.
San Francisco 49ers got its only offense from running back Brian Westbrook's 3-yard run in the fourth quarter. That ended Chargers’ hopes of recording straight shutouts for the first time in the team’s
51-year history.
"I can't say enough about our defense," said Chargers head Coach Norv Turner.
San Francisco quarterback Alex Smith who got his second straight start for the 49ers, was 19 of 29 for only 165 yards with one interception and was sacked six times.
The San Francisco (5-9) could wind up 7-9 in a three-way tie and still win the NFC West (the NFL’s weakest division). But after a loss to Chargers, 49ers will remain at least one game behind Seattle
and St. Louis Rams for first place in NFC West.
"I felt like we were ready to play, we just did not execute," said San Francisco head coach Mike Singletary. "We gotta coach better and we gotta execute better."
The Chargers (8-6), meanwhile, have a chance to tie Kansas City Chiefs (8-5) for the AFC West lead if the Chiefs lose in St. Louis on Sunday. Not bad for a team that was just 2-5 on October 24th after
losing its third consecutive game.
On the first series of the game, the Chargers got a 7-0 lead when 6-foot-5 Jackson out-jumped the 6-foot Clements to make the catch at about the 15 before outracing the cornerback into the end zone.
Jackson added an 11-yard TD catch just before half time and a 21-yarder early in the fourth quarter for the first three-touchdown game of his career.
"He's always been a big-play receiver, but man I have to say this is the best I've seen him after the catch," Rivers said of Jackson. "He seems just to be super comfortable. Not that he wasn't in
the past, but he's catching the ball and going to score."
Meanwhile, things got pretty ugly for San Francisco. Their First mistake was taking three points off the scoreboard in the second quarter after Jeff Reed kicked a 38-yard field goal. The San Francisco
accepted a Chargers penalty instead that was called on Antonio Garay for unnecessary roughness for trying to gain leverage. It gave the San Francisco first-and-goal at the 10.
Two plays later, Smith appeared to scamper around the left side for a seven- yard touchdown run. The Chargers challenged and it was reversed. But only his body -- and not the ball -- broke the plane
of the goal line when he crashed into the pylon.
On a 4th-and-1 play, linebacker Brandon Siler threw Anthony Dixon for a 2-yard loss.
"I just read the play and got in there," Siler said. "I think it takes the energy and the momentum out of a team when you do something like that."
In the third quarter, the San Diego marched 58 yard on the ensuring drive and took a 24-0 lead on Mike Tolbert's 1-yard touchdown run.
Tolbert gained 46 yards on 17 carries while Ryan Mathews rushed 17 times for 56 yards.
The San Diego got 34-0 lead when Kaeding turned Steve Gregory's 41-yard interception into a 39-yard goal. The San Francisco got its only points on Westbrook's 3-yard TD in the fourth quarter.
Westbrook had eight carries for just 22 yards, while Dixon had six rushes for 33 yards.
Perhaps San Francisco was the toughest test left for the San Diego, who ends with games at Cincinnati Bengals (2-11) and Denver Broncos (3-10). If Chargers win out and the Kansas City loses once,
the San Diego will win its fifth straight AFC West division title.
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