DENVER – When it was all over, and LaDainian Tomlinson had walked off the field with his first 100-yard game here and, more important, his first victory, he used a historical reference to sum up his feelings.
“I feel like Steve Young in a way when he said 'Get the monkey off my back,' ” Tomlinson said, referring to the NFL Films video from Young's MVP performance in Super Bowl XXIX against the Chargers. “Obviously this is not the Super Bowl, but it's a huge thing, like a burden lifted off me.
Fastest to 100
LaDainian Tomlinson has reached 100 touchdowns faster than anyone else in NFL history. The short list:
LADAINIAN TOMLINSON
Games to 100 TDs: 89
Total games: 89
Total TDs: 102 (Tie No. 15 all-time)
JIM BROWN
Games to 100 TDs: 93
Total games: 118
Total TDs: 126 (No. 6 all-time)
EMMITT SMITH
Games to 100 TDs: 93
Total games: 226
Total TDs: 175 (No. 2 all-time)
Unstoppable
LaDainian Tomlinson is in the midst of a remarkable streak. Some numbers:
Touchdowns: He has scored an NFL-record 19 times over the past six games, equaling the most any Charger other than he has scored in a full season.
Last two games: He has scored eight times the last two weeks, an NFL record for TDs in consecutive games.
100 yards: He has four consecutive 100-yard games, totaling 564 yards, an average of 141 per game.
1,000 yards: He has 1,037 yards, giving him 1,000-plus in each of his six seasons.
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“In five years I've never won in Denver, and I haven't had much success here, either.”
That all changed last night on a cool evening at Invesco Field at Mile High, where Tomlinson and the Chargers ended five years of frustration with a stunning 35-27 victory over the Broncos.
Tomlinson, who had averaged 52.8 rushing yards and scored just two touchdowns here, rushed for 105 yards, caught passes for another 74, and scored four touchdowns to establish several more records in a season – and a career – full of them.
Most famously, with his second TD last night, he reached 100 career touchdowns faster than any player in NFL history, doing so in his 89th game. Jim Brown and Emmitt Smith had held the record at 93 games.
Asked how he felt about that, Tomlinson hesitated.
“I'm not sure,” he said. “Obviously I looked up to Emmitt Smith growing up, but Jim Brown, to me is an icon. The man is incredible. I heard Barry (Sanders) talk about this. . . . Barry's father would never let Barry live up to what Jim Brown did. That's the same thing with me. My father is 72 years old and obviously a big fan of Jim Brown's. It's just phenomenal to be mentioned in the same breath as Jim Brown.”
Tomlinson has other accomplishments that grace neither Brown's nor anyone else's résumé. He is the first player to score 19 touchdowns in a six-game span; the first to score at least three TDs in three straight games; the first to have three games of four or more TDs in one season; and the first to score as many as 22 TDs in the first 10 games of a season.
Tomlinson, who has scored more TDs in each of his six NFL seasons (10, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22), also broke his own single-season club record of 20 TDs and tied Chuck Muncie's club record with 19 rushing TDs. With 132 points, he is just three shy of breaking John Carney's franchise record for points in a season.
On the non-TD front, he surpassed the 100-yard mark in four straight games for the first time in his career, and he went over 1,000 yards (1,037) for the season, becoming the fifth player ever to start his career with six consecutive 1,000-yard seasons.
And then, after all that, he said, with typical modesty, “I'm going along for the ride.
“My offensive line, I've got to really point out the way they have played. They're just a relentless group of guys and they love to battle and they love to take something out of the defense every time they hit them. And obviously Lorenzo Neal is the best (fullback) in the business blocking. I've been fortunate enough to go along with the ride.”
Three of Tomlinson's TDs came on short runs, but the other was a 51-yard pass from Philip Rivers when the Chargers caught Denver trying to guard Tomlinson with – no kidding – defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban.
“When I saw John Lynch go with the motion (to the other side), I knew the defensive end would have to come out on me,” Tomlinson said. “I said to myself, I have to make a play. If I let a defensive end cover me, I'll never hear the end of that.”
As usual, he needn't have worried.
Jay Posner: (619) 293-1834; jay.posner@uniontrib.com
