Aside from the undefeated New Orleans Saints (12-0) and the Indianapolis Colts (12-0), the San Diego Chargers (9-3) have the hottest win streak in the NFL. Sunday marked their 7th in a row, this time against the Cleveland Browns (1-11). In the 30-23 win over the Browns, the Chargers offense played a clean, consistent game while reaching more milestones.

The Browns marched down the field with the opening possession of the game. In 10 no-huddle plays, the Browns scored a touchdown with a Brady Quinn 11-yard pass to Mohamed Massaquoi. The Chargers answered with a Nate Kaeding 32-yard field goal. Cleveland tried to respond with a field goal attempt at the end of their next possession, but Phil Dawson missed from 43 yards.

On the very next play, Philip Rivers threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Mike Tolbert. Assisting Tolbert down the sidelines was Vincent Jackson, who made a block that took out two Browns defenders.

LaDainian Tomlinson is rushing up the NFL's career

record charts.

^{Courtesy of Chargers.com}

Consuming over seven minutes of game clock, the Browns worked their way to the San Diego 3-yard line looking to take the lead. On 3rd and 3, Shaun Phillips sacked Quinn and caused a fumble, recovered by Jacques Cesaire 10 yards back. Philips’ forced fumble was his sixth for the year, a Chargers franchise record.

The Chargers did not score off, the turnover and the Browns dominated the time of possession 17:54 to 5:38, but the turnover shifted the momentum to the Chargers.

Rivers continued to drive the team with extremely accurate passing and three long receptions by Antonio Gates, who had a career day for 167 receiving yards. After the game Rivers said of Gates, “He continues to make big plays for us.”

The most notable score came in the 3rd quarter when LaDainian Tomlinson ran 4 yards for a touchdown, marking the 150th touchdown in his career. Tomlinson reached this benchmark in fewer games (137) than any other player in history. (Emmitt Smith did it in 160 games.) Also, Tomlinson hit another key milestone during this game. He is now 8th on the all-time NFL rushing list with 12,321 yards. He first passed Marshall Faulk (12,279 yards) then Jim Brown (12,312 yards), who was attending the game in his former stadium. Tomlinson honored Brown by saluting him after the play.

After the game, the two embraced in the locker room and shared a poignant moment. Tomlinson told Brown, “I wanted to tell you that I appreciate you giving a young kid, and then a young man, something to strive for. Obviously, I looked up to you and I wanted to be like you a lot.”

Brown responded by telling Tomlinson, “I appreciate that.” Brown later told reporters that it was special to see Tomlinson break his mark in person: “He is a great human being. He has dignity. He has pride. He has character. He is honest... So, I like him for that.”

In the 4th quarter, the Browns put up a fight scoring three more times: two Quinn 8-yard touchdown passes to Jerome Harrison and a 49-yard Dawson field goal. Between the touchdowns, Kaeding kicked a 22-yard field goal, bringing the score to 30 to 14. After the second Harrison touchdown with less than 2 minutes to go, Cleveland had to try for a two-point conversion. It failed. However, their onside kick on the next play was a success and Cleveland had the ball again on their own 41-yard line. It was still a two-score game at this point. After Dawson’s field goal, the Chargers were better prepared for an onside kick and Tomlinson caught the ball, effectively ending the game.

Rivers had a notable game, completing 18 for 25 passes for 373 yards and 2 touchdowns. Rivers had no interceptions for his fourth game in a row and a season-high passer rating of 140.8. Remarkably, the Chargers offense had zero penalties. The only penalty against the team was a 5-yard illegal contact penalty by Antonio Cromartie.

The Chargers remain in first place in the AFC West, one game ahead of the Denver Broncos. San Diego is tied with the Cincinnati Bengals (9-3) in record, but the Chargers technically stand ahead of them as the current second seed due to more in-conference wins. In two weeks, the Chargers and the Bengals face off in what will likely be a critical game as the playoff picture comes into better focus. In the meantime, San Diego must face the Dallas Cowboys (8-4) on their home turf next week.