Chargers hail new kid on the block

TWO full decades after the emergence of linebacker Lawrence Taylor, there's a new LT making headlines in American Football's NFL.

This one lines up on offence, but is just as dangerous He is the San Diego Chargers' running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who ended one unlikely streak at the weekend while extending another.

Tomlinson, the fifth pick in the 2001 NFL draft, rushed 27 times for 217 yards and had touchdown runs of 37 and 58 yards, the longest two of his career, leading the Chargers over the New England Patriots, the defending Super Bowl champions, 21-14, before 66,463 at Qualcomm Stadium.

The Patriots had won 12 straight games, including their first three this season. With a powerful offence led by quarterback Tom Brady, they started the season determined to demonstrate that last season was no fluke.

The Chargers (4-0), who have not had a winning season since 1995, also had something to prove. They, too, opened with three straight victories, but the Patriots (3-1) were their first real test. They passed.

"We're a good football team,' Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer said. "We got some big plays that were the difference."

The Chargers also won it with stingy defence. They limited the Patriots, who had averaged a league-high 38.3 points, to two first-half touchdowns.

Meanwhile, running back Shaun Alexander collected an NFL record five first-half touchdowns but was shut out the rest of the way as the Seattle Seahawks outplayed the Minnesota Vikings 48-23.

Alexander had scoring runs of two, 20, three and 14 yards and also raced 80 yards after a pass from quarterback Trent Dilfer.

His five TDs left him one short of the NFL record of six in a game, last achieved by Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears against San Francisco in 1965. Ernie Nevers (1929) and Dub Jones (1951) also had six-touchdown games.

Only 10 players, including Alexander, have scored five times in a game.

In St Louis, rookie Billy Cundiff kicked a career-best 48-yard field goal with no time left on the clock to hand the Dallas Cowboys a 13-10 victory over the Rams, who lost Kurt Warner in the first quarter.

The loss left the Super Bowl favourite Rams with an 0-4 record this season.

In Oakland, Rich Gannon threw for four touchdowns and the Raiders added two more scores on punt returns of 83 and 79 yards in a 52-25 pasting of the struggling Tennessee Titans. Jerry Rice snagged a fourth-quarter pass to establish a new standard for yards from scrimmage with 21,281. The late Walton Payton amassed 21,264 yards. The Raiders are now a perfect 3-0.

In Buffalo, quarterback Drew Bledsoe passed for four touchdowns, the fourth giving the Bills a 33-27 overtime victory over the Chicago Bears. It was the third time Buffalo had gone to a fifth quarter this season.

In Jacksonville, the Jaguars ran over the hapless New York Jets, racking up 223 yards on the ground on their way to a 28-3 rout. Fred Taylor rumbled for 142 of those yards and a touchdown. Stacey Mack added 70 more, plus three touchdowns.

Chad Pennington went most of the way at quarterback for the Jets after veteran Vinny Testaverde banged up his right shoulder. The Jets are falling fast, having dropped their two previous games 44-7 and 30-3.

In Tempe, the Arizona Cardinals recorded two fourth-quarter touchdowns to snap a 7-7 tie and down the New York Giants 21-7.