KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- LaDainian Tomlinson seldom gets caught up with setting records and surpassing milestones, but the latest achievement of his seven-year career even makes him take notice.

The standout running back rushed for 177 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday in pacing the Chargers to a 24-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. In the midst of his stellar performance, Tomlinson moved past boyhood idol Walter Payton on the NFL's career rushing touchdowns list.

Tomlinson now stands third with 111 career touchdowns list, one more than Payton scored during his 13-year Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Bears.

"It was an incredible day for me," Tomlinson said. "Just kind of disbelief, also, because of what he meant in my life."

Tomlinson's heroics helped the Chargers improve to 7-5 before an announced crowd of 74,874 at Arrowhead Stadium. Coupled with Denver's loss to Oakland, the Chargers have a two-game lead in the AFC West with four games to play.

The Chargers notched this victory with strong defense -- they forced four turnovers and had eight sacks -- and with a punishing running game that produced an average of 6 yards per carry.

The ground assault was led by Tomlinson, who tied Payton on the career touchdowns list with a 31-yard tie-breaking score in the third quarter and then passed him with a 28-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

"He gave me something to strive for, someone to look up to and doing it the right way," Tomlinson said. "I have so much respect for him, God bless his soul, because he allowed kids like myself to be able to dream. I just have so much respect for him and his family. It was a great moment."

Tomlinson has long patterned his career after Payton, who died in 1999 at age 45. Of all the honors Tomlinson has won over the years, none means more to him than sharing last season's Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award with former Chargers teammate Drew Brees.

Tomlinson also surpassed 1,000 yards for the season, making him just the fourth player in NFL history to top 1,000 yards in each of his first seven years, joining Barry Sanders (10), Curtis Martin (10) and Eric Dickerson (seven).

Though he has an NFL MVP award in his trophy case and is now ahead of Payton on the rushing touchdowns list, Tomlinson truly is awed to have his name mentioned in the same category as Payton.

"It's just amazing," Tomlinson said. "You have to understand -- he's the whole reason why I wanted to even play football. Just seeing him.

"I remember watching everything that he did, even off the field. The way he talked to kids, the way he talked to people, the way he carried himself, the way he talked period. It was sweet. He's (nicknamed) Sweetness for a reason, because of the way he talked.

"It's an honor, definitely, just to be mentioned in the same breath as, in my opinion, the greatest running back to ever play the game."

Tomlinson reminded the Chiefs (4-8) why he himself is one of the game's top all-time backs by rushing 23 times for an average gain of 7.7 yards. The 100-yard outing was his third of the season and two have come against the Chiefs.

"We always want to get L.T. as many yards as we can," left tackle Marcus McNeill said. "They say he's been slowed this year, but this is a breakout game for him and I really think we can build upon our running game."

The Chargers had lost nine of their previous 10 games in Arrowhead before corralling the Chiefs on a cold, windy December afternoon. But the normally rabid atmosphere was replaced by a subdued Kansas City crowd that headed to the exits early as the Chiefs lost their fifth straight contest.

"This is a tough place to play," Chargers coach Norv Turner said. "Obviously, in the past the Chargers had struggles here. There was a mind-set today that we were going to go play and do whatever it took to find a way to win. That's what our guys did.

"We created turnovers, we protected the football, we pressured the quarterback extremely well, we ran the football and we got big plays."

Quarterback Philip Rivers had 157 yards passing, and three of the completions went for 40 (to Brandon Manumaleuna), 38 (to Vincent Jackson) and 37 yards (to Chris Chambers). The pass to Jackson tied the score at 10 with 3:29 left in the first half.

"We had the wind at our back and that was a big difference," Turner said. "I thought Vincent made a spectacular play because when the ball was thrown, you thought, 'Hey, there's no way he gets to it.' "

The scoring pass to Jackson erased momentum the Chiefs were riding after Kansas City defensive end Jared Allen lined up as a tight end on third-and-goal from the Chargers 2 and made a sensational catch of a floating corner route pass by quarterback Damon Huard to give the Chiefs a 10-3 lead.

Tomlinson scored both his touchdowns in the second half and the Chargers were celebrating just their second road win of the season. A modest two-game winning streak is now attached to their name as they prepare for next Sunday's road contest at Tennessee, but the Chargers claim that they aren't the least bit satisfied.

"We know where we stand and we know that we control our own destiny, but we can't breathe any easier because we're still not pleased with being 7-5," Rivers said. "We want to get on a roll and be hot come the end of December. It's certainly better to be where we are rather than looking up at someone, but we still have that sense of urgency."

Contact staff writer Mike Sullivan at (760) 739-6645 or msullivan@nctimes.com.

Charging over 1,000

LaDainian Tomlinson became just the fourth player in NFL history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in each of his first seven NFL seasons. Tomlinson has 1,049 rushing yards this season.

Player Streak Teams Years

Barry Sanders 10 Lions 1989-98

Curtis Martin 10 Patriots, Jets 1995-2004

Eric Dickerson 7 Rams, Colts 1983-89

LaDainian Tomlinson 7 Chargers 2001-07

The Chargers had eight sacks against the Chiefs on Sunday. Only four times have they had more in a game, including last year in the season opener against Oakland.

Opponent Date Sacks

Dallas Nov. 16, 1986 11

Green Bay Sept. 24, 1978 10

Oakland Sept. 11, 2006 9

Houston Sept. 15, 2002 9

Note: The Chargers eight sacks were on Sunday were the most ever allowed by the Chiefs.