I hope you all caught the magnificent game this past Sunday between the San Diego Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals because that one, my friends, was one hell of a barnburner.

A few notes about the game: 

- A total of 90 points and almost 1000 yards of offense were produced in this game. 

- The Chargers scored six touchdowns in the second half to overcome a 28-7 deficit from the first half.

- The three TDs from Cincy in the first quarter were all produced by players named Johnson (Jeremi, Rudi, Chad "Ocho Cinco"). Since when did the "Y" become so out of style?

- LaDainian Tomlinson had the game of his career with four TDs (tying his record), including two made within 15 seconds of each other. Stay tuned for more talk about this fellow in this blog entry.

- Carson Palmer had the game of his career with a QB rating of 131.1 (440 yd., 31/42, 3 TD, 0 INT)… and lost.

- The top defense in the country allowed Ocho Cinco to be wide open for two TD receptions of 50+ yards.

- Chad Johnson gave his college teammate T.J. Houshmandzadeh a kiss on the cheek after a huge hit from Marlon McCree that momentarily knocked him out.

- The absence of Shawne Merriman is pretty obvious, as there is no way Palmer would've had a game that big had he been there. The Chargers got a lucky break with this one with Philip Rivers and Tomlinsin pulling through big time.

So anyways this Tomlinson guy is pretty good, eh? Having his breakout year, he's about to reach the 100 TD mark faster than anyone else in the NFL; a record currently still held by his idol Jim Brown and Dancing With The Stars finalist Emmitt Smith. After playing 88 games in his career, Tomlinson is just two away from the mark while it took Brown and Smith 93 games to do so.

As stated by me in my previous entry about Reggie Bush, I find it annoying that Tomlinson has been anointed the nickname of "L.T.", a name that has already been given to legendary New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor. Now, "L.T." isn't exactly a unique nickname (or a nickname, for that matter) as it's the initials of the two players in question. But with a player of such stature as Taylor, we're not just talking about any old L.T. in a football jersey. It's freakin' Lawrence Taylor man! Fourth on The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranking defensive player! The man who was addicted to cocaine and would hire prostitutes for his opponents to tire them out and still made it into the Hall of Fame! The man who ended Joe Theismann's career! (warning: video is not for the squeamish) We can't credit him for Theismann's new career as the "MNF" color commentator, though. I'm still on the lookout for whoever was responsible for that.

How do you think people would feel if we called Tomlinson "Sweetness" (Walter Payton), "The Juice" (O.J. Simpson), "The Bus" (Jerome Bettis), "The Fridge" (William Perry), or "The Playmaker" (Michael Irvin)?

To his credit, Tomlinson doesn't have the larger-than-life personality that productive players like him seem to possess and isn't playing up the nickname or coming up with one for himself. We can blame the media and everyone else for being lazy on this one. "La-Dai-ni-an Tom-lin-son" is quite a collection of syllables. My Wikipedia research tells me that the moniker goes back to his TCU days where "LT For Heisman" bumper stickers were quite the rage in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Unfortunately, my Google Images search came up short on that one.

I propose we come up with a new nickname for Mr. Tomlinson. I offer these as a launching pad for some ideas:

- LDT – It's only one extra letter, and you figure whenever there's a capitalized letter anywhere in someones name it warrants its own initial.

- Dos Uno - Chad Johnson style. And hey, with that win over Johnson and the Bengals, you figure he has the right to it.

- The Bolt – Yeah, it's the nickname of his team, but he deserves to be The Bolt given how much he's done for them.

For some final words here, I feel as if my entry about Reggie Bush the other day acted as both a blessing and a jinx for the man I defended in print. Later that day during the New Orleans/Pittsburgh game, Bush scored his first offensive TD from scrimmage, but was also responsible for a fumble that led to three unanswered TD for the Steelers and an eventual loss for the Saints. I would be lying if I didn't admit that in writing this entry I hoped that it would lead to Tomlinson reaching 100 but ultimately in a loss next week to the Broncos. Go Broncos!

- Carman

P.S. Actually, it'd be pretty funny if we called him "The Juice."