Off-key L.T. still no clinker for Chargers

SAN DIEGO -- You can get lost in the numbers. In the records. In the brilliance. So many accolades and awards and dazzling statistics define LaDainian Tomlinson's football career that recalling those times he struggles to produce is almost impossible.

It's like waiting for Sarah Brightman to sing off key. Like waiting for Christian Bale to give a bad performance. Like waiting for Notre Dame to recruit a football player with more speed than a dial-up connection.

Thankfully, about as often as Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman completes consecutive passes, a day arrives when the game is not so effortless for the NFL's best player.

This way, we can see how exceptional Tomlinson is.

The Chargers and their supposed unmatched talent are off and surviving, having opened the season Sunday with a 14-3 win against the still-offensively incompetent Bears, a victory at Qualcomm Stadium that best can be described as exceedingly laborious.

Many of the 67,837 in attendance booed the Chargers off the field at halftime of a 3-0 game.

Those who didn't either were asleep or Bears fans ecstatic their team actually scored.

Tomlinson had carried 11 times by intermission and gained 12 yards. His final rush of the half went for 10, when the Chargers ran out the clock. A few years ago, such inadequate production might have meant bad news for any water cooler within Tomlinson's striking distance.

"I would have been boiling over," he said. "But I have learned to be patient. We have to be a team with poise. I didn't go into this game expecting to have 150 yards.

"I told our guys, 'This is not a team we're going to run up and down on, but they are going to make a mistake, and when they do, it's our job to capitalize on it.' These are the defending NFC champions."

Amazing as it is.

In the case of Tomlinson, Most Valuable Player means more than 1,800 yards rushing, a league-record 31 touchdowns and the frightening prospect of your image gracing the cover of the newest Madden video game, which he shrewdly declined.

It means unceasing growth. He is still that painting of a running back continuing to evolve as he begins a seventh season. He probably has yet to reveal all the talent within. It's a scary thought.

On a day he rushed for the second-fewest yards -- 25 on 17 carries -- in his career, Tomlinson still had a part in both San Diego touchdowns. His 11th career pass resulted in his eighth completion and seventh score when he connected with Antonio Gates from 17 yards. One series later, Tomlinson took a handoff right and scored from 7 yards out.

Each of the touchdowns followed a Bears fumble, the kind of mistakes Tomlinson promised his teammates the reigning NFC champions would make.

"When I took this job," first-year Chargers coach Norv Turner said, "he told me, 'You know, I throw the ball.' The way they were stuffing up our run, we liked (Tomlinson throwing) even more once the game started."

It's not something to get carried away with -- "I don't want to do it too much and hurt my completion percentage," Tomlinson joked -- but the option pass was needed on a day when resiliency against a pressing eight-man front proved more valuable to the Chargers than any advantage in skill.

They overcame the frustration created by a Bears defense that again will dictate whether Chicago proves the NFC's best team (oh, how the entire AFC hopes it's so). They ultimately answered a horrible noncall on the Chicago 1 that resulted in a San Diego fumble with focus rather than dejection.

It wasn't pretty in so many ways for the Chargers and not impressive enough to make anyone forget that first-round home playoff loss to New England last season or the popular debate about whether Turner can be a good enough head coach not to screw up what is a Super Bowl contender.

But in a league more and more defined by parity, the best teams win with their least-remarkable efforts. The same apparently goes for the best player.

"The thing about L.T. is that he understands he is not going to bust big runs all the time," Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said. "He was ready to grind it out today. He went for 2 yards and 3 yards and no yards and 5 and 6 and 7 and ultimately got into the end zone.

"That's the thing that makes him great."

It's one of the things, this truth that even when Tomlinson appears ordinary, he makes the plays necessary to win.

We just don't see that ordinary part often.

Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com