All the talk over the Chargers getting better might not be just talk after all.

Just six days after their disappointing loss on Monday night to the Broncos, where they insisted that they had made progress, San Diego swatted the flu bug away and stomped Kansas City on Sunday 37-7, while dominating practically every aspect in the game.

Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers had three touchdowns, LaDainian Tomlinson rushed for 71 yards, his season best, and Nate Kaeding, who on Saturday had flu like symptoms and was vomiting, kicked three field goals for San Diego.

Rivers said, we felt like last week we had made some progress. Our attitude and focus was what we had wanted. However we didn’t win the game. We did know that we had improved.

Most of the week San Diego (3-3) was battling the flu. On Wednesday Tomlinson wasn’t able to practice. However the five time Pro Bowler running back did show signs that he is returning to his old ways. On the Chargers first touchdown drive his run of 36 yards got San Diego rolling versus a hapless Kansas City (1-6) team. It was his longest run since last December 28 versus the Broncos.

Tomlinson said, it helped to get us going. We needed that. For us that was a very big play. It’s a staple for our offense. For years it’s been around, it’s old power. The play was blocked perfectly. We did a great job executing.

During the fourth quarter, with a cold rain falling down on them, Chiefs fan were thinking that probably there wasn’t anything else that could possibly go wrong. However something did when Jacob Hester busted in on the right side of Dustin Colquitt to block his punt. Hester fell on the ball after it skittered backwards 20 yards inside the end zone to give the Chargers their last touchdown.

Colquitt said, until the very last second I didn’t even see him. The punting of Colquitt has been one of Kansas City’s few bright spots this season. Hearing that double thumping sound is bad, Colquitt added.

During the 1990s the Chiefs were almost invincible playing in Arrowhead Stadium. They have now lost 10 consecutive home games and 29 out of their last 32.

Ron Edwards, Chiefs nose tackle said, we really want to win games for us, for our fans at home, for everyone who is watching. This is very painful.

Rivers went 18 for 30 for a total of 268 yards passing and three touchdowns. San Diego won for the third consecutive time in Kansas City. It was the first time they had done that since 1981. At halftime the Chargers led 20-0.

Rivers said, anytime you win when you go to Kansas City it’s a good thing. San Diego’s quarterback completed two passes to Vincent Jackson for 51 yards each. We want to get on a roll, but you need to win one game before you can do that. Hopefully, we will be able to build on this.

Kansas City was hoping their sloppy win last week against Washington would give some desperately needed momentum for the faltering program of Todd Haley, their first year coach. However in virtually every aspect of the game they played miserably.

Cassel said, you don’t ever want to lose a home game or lose like this. This film will be very hard to watch this week.

Cassel went 10 out of 25 for a total of 97 yards passing. He had three interceptions and was sacked four times behind a line weakened with injuries.

San Diego had 135 rushing yards after they had averaged 57.6, worst in the league, over their first five games.

Rivers said, this was the type of game where we felt like it was possible to score 50 points. He connected on touchdown passes to Malcolm Floyd from 3 yards, to Jackson from 10 yards, and to Darren Sproles from 58 yards. We scored enough, and it feels good to get the win.

Kaeding kicked field goals from 19, 20 and 39 yards out.

Norv Turner, Chargers coach said, our guys prepared to play this game. They played well. We took away things that the Chiefs do best.

The offense line of the Chiefs, which had already been weakened with injuries, took another severe hit. During the first quarter. Rudy Niswanger, starting center, injured his knee. Wade Smith, who was starting for Branden Albert, injured left tackle, moved over to play center, while Barry Richardson came in from the bench and played left tackle.

Kansas City did break their touchdown drought of six quarters. On the Chiefs first possession second half Cassel connected on a touchdown pass of 7 yards with Dwayne Bowe.

Eddie Royal ran so fast even his white and brown striped socks were blurry.

On Monday night, Royal became the Broncos’ first player in franchise history to return both a punt and kickoff for touchdowns in a single game, as undefeated Denver defeated San Diego 34-23.

Royal thought that a Charger did touch him on his first quarter kickoff return of 93 yards. During the second quarter on his punt return of 71 yards he went untouched.

Speaking of his second return Royal said, man it felt great. The guys made some great blocks. I give them lots of credit. It was like hitting a home run. They really opened seams up for me.

Royal became the NFL’s 11th player to ever return a punt and kickoff for touchdowns in one game.

Darren Sproles, who is one of the players who has had a punt return and kickoff for touchdowns in a single game, returned a punt 77 yards to score for San Diego.

Three touchdown returns in the game tied an NFL record.

Royal said San Diego has special teams players that are very aggressive and Denver knew they needed to take those Chargers out.

He said, you need to believe it’s possible before you can do it. I have lots of faith in these guys that are in front. I wasn’t really surprised.

Josh McDaniels, Broncos coach, agreed with Royal.

McDaniels said, our guys really make some great blocks to give Eddie an opportunity to get started.

Norv Turner, Chargers coach said, no matter who you play, when you give two big returns up on a kickoff and punt that makes things tough.

It’s the fifth time in team history that Denver has had a 6-0 record. It’s the first time since 1998 when they went 13-0 and won their second Super Bowl in a row behind John Elway. The win gives them an AFC West 3 ½ game lead over San Diego (2-3), three time division champion.

Philip Rivers, Chargers quarterback said, it will be tough. We need to get over the loss quick. Otherwise we will get into trouble in Kansas City. This is a short week for us.

Elvis Dumervil, Broncos outside linebacker, had two sacks, extending his lead in the NFL to 10. Rivers fumbled on Dumervil’s second sack and Vinnie Holliday recovered the ball to set up a field goal of 29 yards from Matt Prater. Denver had five sacks on Rivers. Three of them occurred during the fourth quarter.

Denver didn’t score a touchdown on offense until late third quarter when Kyle Orton connected on a pass of 19 yards to Tony Scheffler, tight end, giving Denver a lead of 24-23. A Prater field goal was added by the Bronco and a touchdown catch of 5 yards by Brandon Stockley. Stokley’s touchdown was challenged but a review upheld the score.

Orton said, it’s tough losing when you get two special teams scores.

After San Diego had to settle for the field goal after a sensational late first quarter drive, Royal fielded the kickoff on the 7 yard line. At around the 35 yard line he spotted a big hole, cutting inside of Nate Kaeding, the kicker, on the 50 yard line and then ran down the sideline, giving Denver a lead of 7-3.

Royal during the second quarter fielded a punt from Mike Scifres on a bounce on the 29 yard line, then worked to the inside and outraced San Diego’s coverage on the outside. That made the score 17-10 in favor of Denver.

At first the electrifying runs of Royal silenced the fans at Qualcomm Stadium, but then had the fans booing.

Then Sproles was able to get some action. He had a 77 yard punt return to score a touchdown and give San Diego a halftime lead of 20-17. Sproles caught the punt from Brett Kern, raced down the sideline. On the 50 yard line he got a good block, then cut inside and scored.

Sproles on November 11, 2007 returned a kickoff and punt for touchdowns during San Diego’s 23-21 victory versus Indianapolis.

During the first quarter San Diego ran 22 plays, while Denver only ran six. The game appeared to be more fast break basketball instead of football.

In fact, as Dumervil was about to drag Rivers down he threw a chest pass with two hands over to LaDainian Tomlinson on the second drive for the Chargers to gain 21 yards.

It was one of Rivers’ four passes on the drive of 13 yards at least. The drive started on the 6 yard line of San Diego but stalled, leading to drama on the sideline that involved Tomlinson.

On third down and goal at the 2 yard line, Tomlinson wasn’t out on the field. Sproles got stuffed on a no gain play. Norv Turner looked chagrined and San Diego was forced to settle for a field goal of 20 yards from Kaeding.

Tomlinson paced along the sideline and then flipped his helmet. A few minutes later Turner and he spoke, but L.T. didn’t seem to be looking at his coach.

With six seconds to play first quarter, Rivers connected on a touchdown pass of 3 yards to Vincent Jackson, giving the Chargers a 10-7 lead.

Up until this point, Pittsburgh hadn’t be able to get their running back Rashard Mendenhall going. San Diego wasn’t able to stop him. Mendenhall helped Pittsburgh run a big lead up, then made sure they didn’t give another lead up due to a bad fourth quarter.

With his 165 rushing yards and two touchdowns, Mendenhall exceeded his previous career numbers. Ben Roethlisberger got the quick starting Steelers off with his passing as Pittsburgh opened a lead of 28 points up and then held on to defeat San Diego on Sunday night 38-28.

Mewelde Moore, Steelers running back, caught one touchdown pass and also threw one to Heath Miller from a play at the goal line. Pittsburgh (2-2), who during the last two weeks have been beaten by Cincinnati and Chicago in the final seconds, built a lead so big that their poor fourth quarter this time didn’t matter. During the final minute, Jeff Reed capped off the scoring with a field goal from 46 yards.

Roethlisberger said, we haven’t been finishing. This week we did it.

Until late third quarter San Diego (2-2), who was out gained almost 4 to 1 and 497 overall yards to 251, was able to make what appeared to be a blowout into a close game. During the fourth quarter Philip Rivers had a touchdown pass to Antonio Gates of 30 yards and another one to Chris Chambers from 13 yards, while Jacob Hester scored a touchdown on a fumble return of 41 yards.

Mendenhall, a first round pick of 2008, came into the game with 103 career yards rushing with no touchdowns. He was finally able to run out of the dog house of coach Mike Tomlin. He was filling in for Willie Parker who was out with an injured toe. Last week, Mendenhall didn’t get even one carry during the team’s loss in Cincinnati 23-0 because Tomlin didn’t think he knew the plays.

Mendenhall said, I didn’t have any chips on my shoulder. He challenge me. It was a good learning experience for me. I have always been confident. I always knew sooner or later I would get the opportunity to show what I can do.

The game’s first three plays indicated how the rematch from the AFC plays was going to play out. Ben Roethlisberger connected with Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes on 15 yard pass plays and also connected with Mike Wallace, the rookie, on a pass of 35 yards. Mendenhall then carried the ball three times to cover the last 14 yards and score the first touchdown of his career 3:11 into the game.

Max Starks, Steelers tackle said, Rashard was able to really prove himself.

The Chargers went three plays and out. Pittsburgh was then able to put a drive of 75 yards together. It started out with three runs by Mendenhall, and was capped off with Roethlisberger connecting with Ward for 15 yards, Holmes for 11 yards, and twice to Moore for 23 yards. The touchdown covered 19 yards.

Norv Turner, Chargers coach said, during the first half they played as well as the team could play. From our standpoint obviously we want to think there are things we can do to handle that. We didn’t respond how I wanted us to.

Roethlisberger went 26 for 33 for a total of 333 yards passing, while Ward caught eight passes for 113 yards receiving. Early on Roethlisberger got Pittsburgh moving so well that Tomlin let him run a quarterback sneak on fourth down and one at the 30 yard line of the Steelers to get a first down. The drive ended on a 2 yard run by Mendenhall to score the third touchdown for Pittsburgh.

Clinton Hart, Chargers safety said, in all phases they had it. When you get it going like they did, it’s hard stopping them. They are the world champions. They came out to play.

Last season during the fourth week Mendenhall’s rookie season ended with a fractured shoulder. He came in with 103 career rushing yards in seven games played. By late third quarter he had 100 yards. During the fourth quarter he had a run of 32 yards versus the No. 26 ranked rushing defense in the NFL.

Mendenhall said, I wanted people to be able to see me for who I am. I was able this time to do that. It was the first time of my career that I played a full game.

I don’t take any credit, said Tomlin. I didn’t have one single rushing yard.

With 4:08 left first quarter and Pittsburgh leading 14-0, some viewers on NBC may have had the temptation to switch to CBS to watch Three Rivers, the medical drama based in Pittsburgh, with San Diego struggling against those same three rivers.

However, you couldn’t fault Rivers. With no support from the running game, LaDainian Tomlinson only rushed for 15 yards in seven carries, San Diego’s quarter didn’t really have much of an opportunity for getting the offense going until things were basically out of hand. Rivers went 21 for 36 for a total of 254 yards passing with three touchdown passes. During his last two games he passed for 739 yards. Pittsburgh held onto the football for almost 23 minutes during the first half, while San Diego had the ball for only seven minutes.

Rivers said, the team we played had a 1-2 record. They were firing on all of their cylinders and were very hungry. We had an off night. At least at the end we made things uncomfortable for them.

It was the third time that San Diego had played at Heinz Field in the last 11 months. That’s as many times as University of Pittsburgh, stadium tenant, has played there. It was also their third loss in as many games. During regular season play, San Diego playing in Pittsburgh is 0-14. However during the post season they have won twice there.

The Chargers were trailing 28-0 in the game before having a possession ending in something other than a punt. San Diego didn’t advance the ball inside the 20 yard line until the third quarter when Gates caught a touchdown pass from 3 yards out.

Early fourth quarter the Chargers cut the lead to 28-14 when Pittsburgh thought that Stefan Logan had been downed on his punt return before fumbling the ball. However, he wasn’t. Hester returned the ball to the end zone and was not contested. Pittsburgh challenged the call unsuccessfully.