Turnovers spark big night from Bolts’ D

When it comes to differences between the 2008 Chargers and Bolts teams of the recent past that have seen more tallies in the win column, the box score doesn’t lie.

A year after leading the NFL in takeaways with 49, the Chargers entered Thursday night’s game against Oakland with just 14. They were ranked 20th in the NFL with a -2 turnover ratio.

Thursday, the Bolts forced a season-high four turnovers, and the takeaways fueled a night that saw the Chargers allow a season-low 163 yards during their fifth win of the season.

“That’s the one thing we’ve been lacking,” linebacker Shaun Phillips said. “I think we’ve been losing games because of our inability to create turnovers. If we create turnovers we can win games. That’s why we were so successful last year. We’ve got to keep that up.”

Chargers Head Coach Norv Turner called Thursday’s win his team’s most complete performance, and each aspect of the game flowed into another. The takeaways were there result of pressure. The Chargers sacked Raiders quarterbacks three times, and Phillips, who had 2.5 of those sacks, hit JaMarcus Russell as he was throwing to aid the first interception of the night.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” said linebacker Stephen Cooper, who two interceptions Thursday and narrowly missed a third. “Our linebackers and defensive line did a great job creating pressure and all the credit goes to them.”

The turnovers came because of pressure, and the pressure came because the Chargers’ offense capitalized on their opportunities. The Bolts scored on their opening drive of the game for just the second time this season. They put points on the board in each of their first four drives of the night, which allowed the Chargers to pin their ears back and come after the quarterback.

In last week’s loss to Atlanta, the Chargers came away with three takeaways but weren’t able to turn them into points, which ultimately kept the Bolts from dictating the pace.

“When you create turnovers and get a lead, it leads to getting pressure on the quarterback and the whole thing kind of rolls the way you’d like it to,” Head Coach Norv Turner said.

The pressure also came in part due to a strong night from the Chargers’ secondary, who limited the big plays and forced Russell and Andrew Walter, who replaced the former 2007 top overall pick in the second half, to hold the ball.

“Everybody got it done tonight,” Phillips said. “Our DB’s did a great job of locking them down and we were able to get a little bit of pressure. That was huge.”

Thursday marked Ron Rivera’s fifth game as the Chargers’ defensive coordinator, and following the victory, Cooper repeatedly praised the defensive play caller for his work.

“We know Shaun Phillips is our best pass rusher,” Cooper said. “Whenever you have a good pass rusher like that, you want to put him in a great position to make plays. That’s what Ron did the whole game. Whether it was coming from the week side, strong side, switching positions, that’s what we did all day. Shaun was mismatched all day and he made it happen.”

The Chargers’ win kept their playoff hopes alive, but perhaps more importantly, it reminded the Bolts of who they believe they are defensively.

“That’s who we want to be,” Cooper said. “We’ve got three games left and let’s see what happens. All we can do is continue to prepare and hopefully have three more games like the one we had tonight.”

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