Chargers Clip the Eagles 31-23

By the time the Chargers took the field on Sunday they knew that if they were to beat the Philadelphia Eagles, they would be tied for 1st place in the AFC West thanks to the Redskins pulling off the upset and beating the Denver Broncos 27-17.

LaDainian Tomlinson looked like his old self today as he ran for a season-high 96 yards and he also scored twice.

Asked if something happened that gave him motivation, L.T. got a little emotional.
"I don't know if I want to talk about it," he said. "My wife is pregnant. I found out before the game. She left me a gift in my locker. It said, 'Open immediately.' I thought it was a necklace. It was a pregnancy test."

The child will be the couple's first. LaTorsha Tomlinson suffered a miscarriage in 2005.Today Tomlinson passed Thurman Thomas and Franco Harris and moved into 12th place all-time with 12,145 yards. His two touchdowns gave him 146 and moved him past Marcus Allen and into third place on the all-time list.

When LT was asked about his recent accomplishments he said "It's kind of surreal, I grew up watching all those guys. It's mind-boggling that I am third all-time."

Tomlinson has been hearing all the talk about the fact that’s he’s done, that his career is over, but he seemed to really enjoys his play today. As he scored his second touchdown today, the chants of “LT LT LT” could be heard all over the stadium. "I'm still effective," he said. "That's all that counts. Still finding ways to help this team win."

So now the Chargers and Broncos are both 6-3 and they meet each other next Sunday in Denver. It was just four weeks ago that the Chargers season was in jeopardy , 3 ½ games back after losing 34-23 to the then-undefeated Broncos. The Broncos still hold the tiebreaker in the division since they beat the Chargers back on October 19th.

Phillip Rivers was asked about the current AFC West standings "We didn't know it would happen this fast, we believed we could get ourselves back in it."

The Eagles (5-4) had trouble scoring touchdowns once they entered the red zone, they settled for 3 field goals from inside the 10 yard line.

“When you have those opportunities to score we have to pound it in there," McNabb said. "We definitely tried, but credit to them, they stopped us, obviously, from running the ball into the end zone."

Donovan McNabb threw for a season-high 450 yards in today’s loss, completing 35 of 55, and two late touchdowns. His only interception was on the last play of the game when Antonio Cromartie grabbed his pass in the end zone.

Phillip Rivers threw touchdown passes of 20 yards to wide-open fullback Mike Tolbert in the first quarter and 20 yards to Legedu Naanee in the third quarter. Rivers was 20 of 25 for 231 yards and no interceptions, with a rating of 131.8.

“This doesn’t mean anything other than that we’re a 6-3 team that’s made a lot of improvement,” Rivers said. “It doesn’t put us in any category. It doesn’t make us anything other than that, but it does give us a lot of confidence.”

So the Chargers have won 4 in a row and the Broncos have a 3 game losing streak heading into next weeks battle for the lead in the AFC West. There are still issues that need to be addressed by San Diego, but one thing is for sure, they are improving each week and it appears the Broncos are digressing.

NOTES:

Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton had to leave the game today with a high ankle sprain and his status for next week is not yet know.

Eagles running back Brian Westbrook was knocked out with another concussion. He had missed the previous two games during a win against Washington on Oct. 26.

Vincent Jackson only had 1 catch for 10 yards.

Chargers Right tackle Jeromey Clary left the game with a sprained ankle.

Source: http://www.boltbulletin.com/2009/11/by-time-chargers-took-field-on-sunday.html