Chargers are hoping to lose memories

SAN DIEGO - The DNA evidence is locked away. The chalk marks remain where the detectives traced the corpses. The death report on the 2006 San Diego Chargers is filed at headquarters, every ghastly detail of the team's mortifying demise at the hands of the Patriots in January's divisional playoffs recorded for posterity.

No new-age revisionist need prettify it. The facts are the facts (no videotape necessary): The 2006 Chargers buried themselves at Qualcomm Stadium and the Patriots danced on their graves.

"You can't fix it," said Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, a coconspirator in the calamity.

All the Chargers can do is try to avenge it, try to convince everyone that it was a regrettable mistake, that they never meant to commit playoff hara-kari after posting the NFL's best regular-season record (14-2). All the Chargers can do now is try to overcome the ghosts of January when they face the Patriots again Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

It won't be easy. The images revisit them like a Pacific breeze.

Who among them can forget the clock at the Q telling the football world that victory was theirs if they could protect a 21-13 lead for the final 8 minutes 35 seconds?

The league's best player, Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson, had just rushed for an insurance touchdown. Surely, San Diego's defense would get the ball back so Tomlinson and Co. could run the clock down and the Patriots out of town.

But no. What happened next was too much for even Marlon McCree's mother to bear. With 6:16 to go, McCree appeared to stick a dagger in the Patriots by intercepting a Tom Brady pass at the San Diego 32. All he needed to do was hold onto the ball.

"Baby, why didn't you just get down?" McCree's mother implored him afterward.

"Mom, I was trying to make a play," he told her. "I had one guy to beat, and if I made him miss, I'm in the end zone scoring a touchdown."

Instead, the one guy - Patriots receiver Troy Brown - stripped the ball from McCree, leaving the safety to live in San Diego infamy. New England's Reche Caldwell recovered McCree's fumble, then caught a touchdown pass from Brady with 4:36 to go to make it 21-19. A 2-point conversion later, the score was tied, the Chargers turning the dagger on themselves.

McCree's mother was incredulous. Why didn't her baby get down? He didn't need to score a touchdown.

"Son, y'all got LT for that," his mother told him. "He's the touchdown machine."

Eight months later, McCree's mother's voice echoes in his head.

"She didn't say it in a mean spirit at all," McCree said this week at San Diego's practice facility. "She was just trying to make me laugh a little bit, but it didn't work."

Forget about a laugh track. The Chargers had never won a Super Bowl. And 43 years had passed since they defeated the Patriots, 51-10, for the AFL championship (six years before the AFL merged with the NFL).

The 2006 Chargers, stocked with a league-high nine Pro Bowlers, seemed poised to change all that. Undefeated at home and with their only regular-season losses decided by 3 points each on last-minute scores by the Ravens and Chiefs, the Bolts surged into the playoffs. They also had beaten the Patriots in their previous two meetings, 41-17 in Foxborough in 2005 and 21-14 in San Diego in 2002.

They figured this would be the February they finally had something to smile about.

"We were supposed to win the Super Bowl this year," linebacker Randall Godfrey said at the time.

Enter McCree. And coach Marty Schottenheimer.

With the score tied and 4:36 to play, the Chargers returned the Patriots' kickoff to their own 29 and went to work. Or a facsimile thereof.

A drive conceived by Schottenheimer and executed by Rivers and Co. lasted all of three plays and went a measly 5 yards before the Chargers punted away another lost opportunity.

All they could do then was watch Brady pilot the Patriots 72 yards to set up Stephen Gostkowski's decisive 31-yard field goal. The Chargers mustered one final drive that ended with Nate Kaeding's desperation 54-yard field goal attempt dropping short.

"It was a bad game for us all the way around," linebacker Shawne Merriman said this week. "Everything that could happen wrong happened."

Then came the pain, aggravated by the Patriots mocking the Chargers in a disrespectful celebration on their home field. After that came a long summer of bitter memories.

"I didn't let it go overnight, but I have let it go," McCree said. "You can't take it back, but that was '06. This is '07. Now I'm just trying to help my team get back there, and hopefully that thing won't happen again."

At least McCree has hope. Schottenheimer has had nothing but memories since he was fired in February and replaced by Norv Turner.

Turner said this week he had yet to address the Chargers about their playoff collapse. He said the Bolts suffered similar problems in their losses last season to the Ravens and Chiefs - problems he attributed partly to deficits of poise, maturity, and big-game experience.

The Chargers have not won a playoff game since 1995, and Merriman noted that many of the players, himself included, had not been to the postseason before they faced the Patriots. Several players said the team gained confidence last Sunday by protecting a lead and defeating the Bears, the defending NFC champions, 14-3, in San Diego.

"It all goes back to the New England game," Pro Bowl tight end Antonio Gates said. "We had a disappointing loss, but it matures you. Any time you have a situation like that, you learn from it."

A few Chargers are chasing redemption, none more than McCree.

"After you get beat by a team at home in the playoffs, I would be lying if I said it wasn't somewhat personal," McCree said. "This is going to be a very important game, but all the talking won't do you any good against this bunch. They've got three rings and we don't have any, so we've got to prepare well. It's tough to beat them anywhere."

Rivers said San Diego's emotions will be running high and "some of it will be stimulated from the playoff game," even though whatever happens Sunday "won't change the last one, win or lose."

For Tomlinson, the best time to avenge the January debacle would be this winter.

"Our plan is to see them again in the playoffs," he said. "That's when it matters. We want to beat them in the playoffs."

As for Sunday's game, Tomlinson said, "It's going to be competitive because of what happened the last time we played them."

Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com.