The feeling at Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday was an interesting mix of nostalgia, sadness and anger. The Chargers played the Dolphins in what could be the final NFL game ever played in San Diego.
The Bolts winning big made things a lot easier to deal with for crowds at The Q, a group that was, for one of the rare occasions this season, mostly pro-Chargers. The Bolts beat up on the Dolphins with a 30-14 win.
San Diego's defense was tremendous, allowing just 77 total yards in the first half. During one stretch the Chargers forced a 3-and-out on six of seven possessions.
Offensively the Bolts rode the right arm of Philip Rivers and some intervention from the Football Gods. In the 2nd quarter Rivers tried to hit Malcom Floyd, who was playing in the final home game of his 12-year Chargers career (he's retiring after this season), deep down the middle. The ball was tipped away and intercepted by Reshad Jones, who had a lot of room to run.
Eventually Jones ran into offensive guard Orlando Franklin, who stripped Franklin the ball from Jones and allowed Rivers to recover it just three yards away from the original line of scrimmage. That was a pretty good indicator that this was just going to be the Chargers' day.
Rivers threw three touchdown passes to running back Danny Woodhead, who also ran for a score (the first rushing touchdown for the Chargers since Woodhead ran for a pair in the season opener against Detroit). Woodhead is the first Charger to have a 4-touchdown game since LaDainian Tomlinson ran for four against the Raiders in 2007.
The Chargers improve to 4-10 with road trips to Oakland and Denver still to come.
