This was not Katrina or Ike. Nobody was forced into foreclosure. We weren't running from Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. Japanese planes weren't spotted over Hawaii. The band on the Titanic may have been playing “Nearer, My God to Thee,” but we missed that cruise.
It was a football game. That's all. Period.
That The Mile High Highjacking took place and the Chargers were robbed of a probable victory Sunday in Denver by more than one sophomoric call by officials cannot be denied.
Forget the conspiracy theories. It was a football game. Somebody one day may have to answer to Saint Peter, but Ed Hochuli isn't on his speed dial.
Hochuli, the referee who blew the whistle and ruled Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler's obvious fumble an incompletion – a monumental gaffe that immediately led to a Chargers defeat (and, although it's too late, a probable hard look at the residue) – is apologizing profusely to his e-mailers, just as he admitted he blew it to Chargers coach Norv Turner.
Turner did not accept Hochuli's apology. He shouldn't have, although Hochuli, an attorney by trade and zebra by avocation, did not play defense for Turner that afternoon.
If he had, he probably would have made just as many mistakes, but that's neither here nor there. Soldiers aren't going to find Hochuli in a hole in Iraq.
That the Chargers' terrific comeback should have led to a 38-31 win means nothing this morning, because what happened in Denver must stay in Denver. The outcome can't be changed, no matter how many vents are placed into the spleens of Chargers faithful.
“It's going to be 39-38 forever,” Turner was saying at yesterday's wake. “You're (ticked), and you know that's not going to change. You have to move on. It's gone. It's OK to be sick about, but we've got to move forward.”
Right.
Now Norv Turner can get back to coaching and mending. So can defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell, who has to find a way to stop somebody when the game's on the line. It's called finishing, and bad calls or not, the Chargers allowed Carolina and Denver to drive and score at the end to beat them.
“Finish it,” said tailback LaDainian Tomlinson, calling out his young teammates being pressed into service.
The screaming fact is that, although Chargers defenders did not allow a legitimate second-half point Sunday, they did give up 31 points and 329 yards the first 30 minutes. Unless they do something about their defense, forget about 0-2, forget about the officiating, forget about comebacks, forget about the playoffs.
Forget about the season.
I don't know how many times I've spoken with San Diego General Manager A.J. Smith, but rarely have I escaped without him saying defense wins championships. And he's right. But, in two games, his kids have allowed 65 points (including a fumble return for a TD) and 874 total yards.
They're not visiting jewelry stores with those numbers. So the offense has scored 62 points over that span and at times moved the ball with alacrity? As shown by the Chargers of the early 1980s, it's possible to be outscored, as they're proving.
“Just doing our job ain't getting it,” safety Clinton Hart was saying yesterday after having early-morning surgery on a broken bone in his left hand. “We have to step out and do a little bit more. It's not like we're trying to give up a whole bunch of yards.
“We've got to finish. In any race, you've got to finish. We're going to turn this thing around.”
For that to happen, there must be stops. When, in the second half, Chargers defenders held the Broncos to 77 total yards before the final drive, their offense was plenty good enough – to not only get them back in a game played in a venue most difficult when there aren't ridiculous goings on, but get them in front.
Never mind that Denver wouldn't have scored at the end without Hochuli's assistance. Never mind that Denver coach Mike Shanahan went for the two-point conversion, earning praise for his backbone, when the only reason he did so was because he feared (knew?) his defense's bad odor would continue into overtime.
What matters is that the Chargers allowed the Broncos to parade 80 yards and score. Denver did what it had to do to win. San Diego did not.
This team, on both sides of the ball, has to find a way of not only finishing, but starting. Digging out of holes is for gophers. No one has the answer for that. But they'd better come up with one.
For all certainly is not lost. Last year's team began 1-3 and made it to the AFC Championship Game. It, too, had some awful defensive moments (see Minnesota).
“I'm disappointed in a number of things right now, but I could be just as disappointed in those things if we were 2-0,” Smith said. “I recognize how unfortunate and tragic it was in Denver, but I'm not wasting my time on it. I don't make phone calls. I don't fly to New York to complain. It happens.
“Next up, New York Jets. Game 3.”
Ed Hochuli, Whistler's Father, won't be in the building.
Nick Canepa: (619) 293-1397; nick.canepa@uniontrib.com
