"Think of this. The Chargers had more sacks of Arizona quarterbacks, nine, than either of the Cardinals' passers had completions. And this. The Chargers dropped those two Cardinals quarterbacks, Derek Anderson and Max Hall, for more yards (69) in losses than run-minded Arizona had in rushing yardage (47). All game. And this. The Chargers defense scored more points, six, than the Cardinals scored on offense. In fact, the Chargers' ever-improving defense threw a shutout at the Cardinals, firstly and primarily by shutting down what's actually supposed to be one of the NFL's better running games, with Tim Hightower and Beanie Wells held to a mere 43 yards combined. Arizona's most promising drive was ended by a Steve Gregory interception, the other pick coming from linebacker Shaun Phillips, who returned his for a touchdown and had four of the aforementioned sacks. "Everybody was just feeding off each other," said defensive lineman Travis Johnson. "Everybody wanted to make plays, wanting to be that guy." Seemingly every defensive player was that guy for at least one play. Prior to Arizona, three of the Chargers top four tacklers were defensive backs, which usually is less than the ideal stat. Sunday, however, free safety Eric Weddle was struck by the number of times nobody in an Arizona uniform broke through to his territory. "Jeez, I know," said Weddle. "This was the first game where I went, 'What'd I have, like a half-tackle?' It's great. I feel like I'm not doing much out there … There wasn't much for me to do out there." As one of the starters returned to special teams as a form of emergency repair, Weddle said he got more "gassed" by running down a half-dozen kickoffs, the result of all those San Diego scores on defense, offense and placekicking. With all the attention to the touchdowns the Chargers had given up on punts and kickoff returns, few noticed that San Diego has been performing with the best defenses in the NFL this season. In four games, the Chargers have allowed only four touchdowns and five field goals." http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/oct/03/chargers-defense-had-one-bag-er-sack/
