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El Centro, California - The San Diego Chargers capped one of the most memorable seasons in team history with an eight-game winning streak, an 11-5 mark in the regular season and the team’s first two playoff wins since 1995 en route to an appearance in the 2007 AFC Championship Game.

 

The Bolts persevered early as they started the season 1-3 and sat at just 5-5 after the first 10 games under the direction of first year Head Coach Norv Turner. The Bolts did what all great teams do though: they found a way to win. Led by the NFL’s top ball hawking defense and first-year starter Antonio Cromartie and the offensive leadership of Philip Rivers and NFL 2007 rushing champion LaDainian Tomlinson, the Chargers closed out the regular season with six straight wins and finished the year 11-5. In doing so, they captured their second straight AFC West title and their third division crown in the last four years.

 

In the opening round of the playoffs, the Chargers hosted the Tennessee Titans in a Wild Card Playoff game. After falling behind 6-0 at the end of the first half on a rainy afternoon in San Diego, the Bolts rallied for 17 unanswered second-half points and held off the Titans for a 17-6 win.

 

That victory earned the Bolts a date in the Divisional Playoffs a week later against the defending Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts. In one of the most memorable playoff games in team history, the Chargers overcame knee injuries to Rivers and Tomlinson as backup QB Billy Volek led a fourth-quarter game winning touchdown drive. That score would have been for not though, had San Diego’s vaunted defense not made two late fourth-quarter stops against Peyton Manning and the Chargers eliminated the defending champion Colts, 28-24.

 

The Chargers run toward Super Bowl XLII would end one week later in the 2007 AFC Championship Game on Jan. 20 at Gillette Stadium against the three-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots. Rivers turned in one of the most heroic performances in NFL history, playing the entire game with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on a day when wind chill temperatures dipped down into single digits. Rivers and the Chargers battled offensively and defensively, but ultimately their inability to get the ball in the end zone would prove costly as the Chargers were forced to settle for four Nate Kaeding field goals and the Patriots won the game, 21-12.