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Then the Chargers got back to their season.

Antonio Gates was not distracted. Antonio Cromartie was not distracted.

In fact, all the Chargers recovered quite well from their long week of trauma and travel. After a week spent on the move, 24 of them fleeing their homes along with a half-million other San Diegans and then the entire team leaving town to practice in Arizona for three days, they routed the Houston Texans 35-10 yesterday in front of a sparse and somewhat subdued crowd of 60,439. “It felt good,” linebacker Shawne Merriman said afterward. “I felt the energy when we came out of the tunnel. At first you could feel the fans were still feeling what happened this week. During the game I heard a lot more cheering, I looked at a lot more people having fun out in the stands. It was good to see that happen. Us getting a win was a positive distraction for people who have been going through some tough things this week.”

The Chargers were led onto the field by a group of firemen. The final Charger introduced, Merriman emerged wearing a fireman's helmet, setting it down to do his “Lights Out” dance.

It did not take long after those introductions for it to become evident that on this day Qualcomm Stadium – until Friday morning an evacuation shelter – would be the site of a happy event.

The Chargers led 28-3 just more than five minutes into the second quarter, and they had run just 11 offensive plays.

Two of those 11 plays resulted in touchdowns by Gates.

He caught a 49-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and a 31-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter – one on a busted coverage that saw him wide open to catch a wobbly Philip Rivers pass and the other a catch-and-run on which he was dazzling with his moves.

One special teams play and a defensive play resulted in touchdowns by Cromartie, the first Charger in 40 years to score two return touchdowns in a game.

The first of those “returns” had to be couched in quotation marks. Cromartie said it would be “the easiest touchdown of my career.” He chased down a bad snap on a punt in the end zone 2 minutes, 11 seconds after Gates' first touchdown.

Cromarite worked for the second score, jumping to intercept a Matt Schaub pass and then returning it behind a wall of blockers 70 yards for a touchdown 2:08 after Gates' second touchdown.

“Our biggest thing the whole week was trying to go out there and prepare,” said Cromartie, who had another interception in the second quarter. “We felt as though this is our job and we have to go out there and prepare, and then come back here and win this game for the city.”

Chris Chambers, in his Chargers debut, scored the other touchdown on a 14-yard pass play.

While he threw his first three touchdown passes of the season at home, Rivers threw just eight passes in the first half, 11 in the game.

He didn't need to throw more. After Gates caught his second touchdown pass, giving him 92 yards on the receptions, he didn't catch another throw all day. Neither did LaDainian Tomlinson need to run much. He carried just 17 times for 90 yards and gave way to Michael Turner and others a short while into the fourth quarter.

“The first half went fast with turnovers,” Tomlinson said. “And we jumped on them big and coasted.”

The Chargers picked up not only where they left off before the bye week, they have gone back to 2006, which is what everyone has been clamoring for.

They have won their past three games by a total of 77 points.

With that three-game winning streak directly on the heels of a three-game losing streak, they are above .500 for the first time since they were 1-0 and are tied with the Kansas City Chiefs for first place in the AFC West.

Getting another win is what they plan on remembering as October turns to November in a few days. But, on this day, this was not just another win.

“It was important for us to play at home,” Gates said. “We were on a little roll. We wanted to come with the excitement of the fans. Ain't nobody immune to the trials and tribulations in life. We were going through a lot as a team, as a community, and we came out and had a good day today. For people to have such a tragedy in their life and still come out and support us, you have to take your hats off to those people.”

And inside the locker room, they took something away about themselves.

“This win was big for us because we proved to ourselves that no matter what the circumstances are – getting up to leave and prepare for a game somewhere else – this team can handle it,” Tomlinson said. “And that's overcoming adversity.”

The Chargers went to Arizona on Tuesday somewhat disheveled and took a day or two to get really focused. After a Thursday practice that was sharp, they knew they would be OK. Still, head coach Norv Turner was concerned enough about the exhausting week that he curbed their physical regimen on Saturday.

“It's a testament to everyone in this locker room, everyone in this organization, that we came back and we overcame whatever was thrown our way,” linebacker Matt Wilhelm said. “There were a lot of question marks all week long. Where are we going to play? How are our houses? Are we going to be ready? For us to come back and play this way was impressive.”

Kevin Acee: (619) 293-1857; kevin.acee@uniontrib.com