Chargers, Rivers win to ruin Shell's return

OAKLAND, Calif. — With LaDainian Tomlinson running through the Oakland defense and Shawn Merriman harassing Aaron Brooks, it didn't matter who played quarterback for San Diego.

Tomlinson ran for 131 yards and one touchdown and the Chargers shut out Oakland for the first time since 1961 to take pressure off Philip Rivers in his first NFL start, a 27-0 victory over the Raiders on Monday night.

With much of the focus on Rivers as he replaces Drew Brees, Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer put the game in the hands of Tomlinson and his defense, spoiling Art Shell's first game back as Raiders coach.

San Diego beat the Raiders for the sixth straight time and shut them out for the first time in their last 90 regular-season games. When the Chargers won 44-0 in 1961, Al Davis was still an assistant with San Diego.

Tomlinson showed little sign of rust after sitting out the entire preseason, topping 100 yards rushing in the second quarter — his sixth 100-yard game in 11 tries against Oakland. Tomlinson carried the ball 31 times and has 837 yards rushing in his last six meetings with Oakland.

The Chargers ran the ball on 48 of 59 plays, and Rivers threw only two passes to wide receivers all game.

Acquired on draft day in 2004, Rivers spent the past two seasons watching, but the Chargers had enough confidence in him to cut ties with Brees in the offseason. Rivers went 8-for-11 for 108 yards, including a 4-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Gates in the fourth quarter that made it 20-0.

"It was exciting," Rivers said. "I've been waiting for this day for a long time. ... I've said before, I don't care if I have to hand it off 50 times or throw it 50 times, as long as we win."

The Chargers' win capped an opening weekend in the NFL in which 11 games were won by visiting teams, the most on opening weekend since 1983, when 12 teams won their openers on the road. Merriman, last year's top defensive rookie, had three of San Diego's nine sacks and the Chargers held the Raiders to only 129 yards in Brooks' first game as quarterback. Brooks was replaced in the fourth quarter by Andrew Walter, who wasn't much better.

Shell was brought back to Oakland to turn the Raiders around after the worst three-year stretch in Davis' more than four decades with the franchise.

Oakland was shut out for the first time since a 30-0 loss to Kansas City on Dec. 7, 1997, ending its final drive at the San Diego 4.

Rivers led the Chargers to scores on the first three drives, although he did little more than hand off.

The Chargers ran the ball eight of nine times on the opening drive, with the only pass going to Tomlinson, as the Chargers moved 51 yards to set up Nate Kaeding's 47-yard field goal.

Tomlinson ran 58 yards on the first play of the second drive and capped it with a 1-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal.