Rushing the passer, the Chargers are reaching the doorstep often enough that end Corey Liuget says they'll be getting home soon. The defense's total of one sack after two games would cause more concern if the Chargers were stalling out up front.

Chargers defenders have, however, generated six quarterback hits and 13 hurries to go with rookie Kyle Emanuel's sack in Game 1.

"If you watch the film closely, you'll see," Liuget said. "It's a matter of a split of a second. It's closer than it's ever been."

Case in point was Manti Te'o 's hit Sunday on Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton that initially was ruled a strip-sack yielding a Chargers touchdown. The call was overturned after replays showed Dalton's arm moved forward about four inches before Te'o, who advanced on a clean blitz, rammed Dalton's elbow with his facemask.

As to Liuget's point about near misses, consider that Te'o hit Dalton 2.1 seconds after the snap, whereas Bengals pass-rusher Wallace Gilberry slammed Philip Rivers in 2.5 for the strip-sack that stood earlier in the first half.

"The sacks will come," Liuget said. "Everything will come. It's only Week 2."

If they've parlayed the improved health of Te'o and Butler into better blitzes, the Chargers cannot expect to win the AFC West unless their pass-rushers win 1-on-1 duels more often.

Abundant energy and clever scheme only go so far.

The Chargers belled the cow in Week 1 when they used inside fakes to create two big plays -- Emanuel sacking the Lions ' Matthew Stafford and Melvin Ingram clocking Stafford to create Emanuel's interception.

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Against the Bengals, a sporadic pass rush enabled Andy Dalton's big day. The quarterback posted a 126.1 passer rating after logging below-average ratings in all three games against San Diego. The Chargers mustered only one hurry and three hits on Dalton, though Ingram caused a holding penalty on Andrew Whitworth , one of the NFL 's better left tackles.

For several years, the Chargers have had to rely more on trickery than talent to pressure the quarterback. While there are no style points for sacking a quarterback without blitzing, the better defenses usually create pressure with only four defenders. The Bengals, for example. The Chargers would like to join the party. The best candidates to get them there are Ingram, Liuget, NFL sophomore Jerry Attaochu, who returned Sunday from a hamstring injury, and rookies Emanuel and Darius Philon.