San Diego Chargers vs. Los Angeles Rams, 1968

San Diego Chargers

Vs.

Los Angeles Rams

August 24, 1968

Chargers’ Defense Call the Tune

By BOB GATES

Los Angeles Times

SAN DIEGO — John Hadl, the Charger quarterback, played the Ram defense like an organ here Saturday night

Before an overflow crowd of 52,126, Hadl threw quick passes when rushed and long passes when Ron Mix was sitting on Deacon Jones and the result was 35-13.

That's San Diego 35, Los Angeles 13.

Extending the AFL lead over the NFL this summer to 9-5, San Diego showed most of its improvement on pass defense.

It will come as no surprise to any Los Angeles television fan that the Chargers have an offense with Hadl and Lance Alworth, who teamed on a 68-yard play to run the score to 15-0 in the second quarter.

But last season or this, there wasn’t much in the record to indicate that coach Sid Gillman has been stitching together a pass defense with this much class.

Still, time and again Ram quarterbacks Milt Plum and Roman Gabriel had nowhere to throw the ball, although each of them marched out a touchdown, Plum as the first half quarterback and Gabriel in the last 25 minutes. Gillman's new cornerman, Bob Howard, joined Speedy Duncan and the others in the deep four to throw a blanket over Ram receivers.

The Rams were a more disorganized club this time than in last week's 42-10 clobbering by Cleveland, partly because they were in charge of a new quarterback, Plum, for the first time as a starter. It wasn't disorganization, however, but San Diego defense that wrecked the pass attack.

The drama of the game was wrapped up in the first 25 minutes when the Chargers stepped out 22-0, a start similar to that of the Rams here last year, when Los Angeles eventually won, 50-7.

The drama mainly was Hadl vs. the Ram front four.

A prime difference between Los Angeles this season and last is that the defensive line is no longer getting the 1967 rush.

Jones and Merlin Olsen terrorized pro football a year ago. The rush this season has been about 50% less effective.

A reason for this is Jones' long holdout, which kept him out of training camp until three weeks ago. In the Rams' fourth game of 1968, Jones was starting his second.

He has not come back yet- and may not be back to his 1967 form before the NFL season starts three games hence, if then.

Another reason is that Lamar Lundy has been slowed by a long recuperation from surgery at the age of 33.

But the biggest reason in San Diego may have been the blocking of the Charger line, including Gillman's two all-AFL blockers, Mix and Walt Sweeney. San Diego's front five won the game by beating the Ram front four.

On the Charger’ two long touchdown passes in the first half, for example, Hadl had roughly three times as long to take aim as the Rams gave John Unitas last December in the Coliseum.

In marksmanship, Hadl was equal to the opportunity, drilling Alworth and Jacque MacKinnon at long range.

When the Ram rush picked up in the third quarter, Hadl was equal to that, too. He fired as fast as necessary and as accurately as ever. He toyed with the Ram front four, in a word, and that's pretty sharp quarterbacking.

San Diego has become a team that the Rams can no longer handle with any but their first-string personnel- and one of their first-stringers is on his way to knee surgery this week. He is Chuck Lamson, the strong safety, who did not suit up. The man who replaced him, Kelton Winston, was assigned to the San Diego tight end, MacKinnon, who caught five passes for 122 yards.

By prearrangement, Ron Smith replaced Winston in the second half. Their trouble with MacKinnon was not wholly their fault, but in adjusting to new strong safetymen, the Ram secondary came off worse in San Diego than the reworked Charger secondary.

For Plum, 33, the assignment was strenuous. He had netted only 58 yards for Los Angeles in the first half when he threw the interception that Kenny Graham returned 47 yards for the 22-0 lead.

Plum's response after that experience was the most encouraging aspect of a bad Ram night. On eight passes he moved Los Angeles 72 yards to a touchdown. It took him 29 minutes to get the feel of the offense, which may be about par for any new quarterback in his first start

For Gabriel, playing catch-up in the second half, the game was an adventure in nothing. Gabriel has settled down as a slow starter in the last couple of years. The third quarter was his first, and he played it like a Gabriel first quarter- he was held scoreless.

On his second series in the fourth quarter, he marched 96 yards and passed for the conversion to hold a 7-6 lead over Hadl until Howard ran 48 with a fumble in the last minute.

Gabriel was forced out of balanced football and required to pass. In those circumstances, as a rule, nobody looks good but the defense.

And San Diego's defense looked very good indeed.