SAN DIEGO — Although LaDainian Tomlinson's jammed right big toe was wrapped today, fantasy geeks worldwide apparently have nothing to fear.

"No, I don't think so," the San Diego Chargers' star running back said.

If he's right, then it appears that the worst injury sustained in the Chargers' shocking 26-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday was an organization-wide bruised ego.

Picked by many to make it to the Super Bowl, the Chargers were stunned by Jake Delhomme's 14-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dante Rosario as time expired.

Delhomme was playing for the first time in nearly a year, having undergone reconstructive surgery on his throwing elbow after hurting it in the third game of 2007. Additionally, the Panthers were without their leading wide receiver, Steve Smith, who began serving a two-game, team-imposed suspension for sucker-punching a teammate during a training camp practice.

That didn't stop the Panthers from outgaining the Chargers, 388 yards to 316.

It was just the second loss for the Chargers in their last 17 regular-season games at home. Qualcomm Stadium went from frenzied to hushed, except for the ecstatic Panthers who dogpiled behind the goal posts and celebrated on the sideline.

"It's a very disappointing way to come out of the gate, especially being at home," said general manager A.J. Smith, who saw his team reach the AFC championship game last season before losing at New England. "It was a heartbreaking loss, no question, in dramatic fashion, but it's over and done with."

Tomlinson jammed his toe when a Panthers' player landed on the back of his leg during the Chargers' final drive, which resulted in Philip Rivers' 5-yard TD pass to Vincent Jackson that gave San Diego a short-lived 24-19 lead.

The two-time defending NFL rushing champion, Tomlinson said he thinks it's too early to tell if the injury will affect him. "But I don't think it's anything serious. There was nothing that came up on the X-rays. That's the good thing. It's a little sore today. That's to be expected. It's doing OK."

Tomlinson — who carried 22 times for 97 yards but no touchdowns — said he had a similar injury early in his career.

The Chargers agreed that there's plenty of room for improvement before their game Sunday at AFC West rival Denver.

"There's no guarantees that you're just going to blow people out or win all these games," Tomlinson said. "They're hard-fought games. You've really got to come to play and you've really got to know what you're doing out there. I wouldn't say it's a wakeup call, it's at the point where you really have to know what you're doing out there. Little things sometimes cost us. And it did yesterday."

One example of that was on the last play, when inside linebacker Matt Wilhelm tipped the pass that Rosario caught.

"We just needed to get deeper," coach Norv Turner said. "You get deeper than the deepest. They had five receivers running up the field. There was no one they could throw to underneath and Jake wasn't going to run in that circumstance. Matt thought he was deep enough. He's deep enough to feel the ball with his finger; he needed to be another step deeper and he could have batted the ball."

The loss was certainly a shocker, considering that the Chargers are generally considered one of the most talented teams in the NFL, with exceptional depth. Delhomme even mentioned how tough it was facing a veritable "who's who" defense.

"Talent is one thing," Tomlinson said. "That's what we always talk about. Every team has talent. We've just got a couple of more guys that get a lot of attention than others. But that doesn't make us any more better team than the next team. We all know it doesn't matter where you're drafted or what school you come from, if you don't know what you're doing out there and you don't execute the game plan, then you're going to get beat."

Although Rivers threw three touchdown passes, the offense wasn't supercharged.

"We had a long time to prepare for Carolina," Rivers said. "I was probably as prepared for that game as I'll be for any game this year. We were fully prepared. They obviously had some changeups for us. We had some changeups for them that they hadn't seen. That's part of the first game. All in all, it wasn't good enough. We know that, and we'll learn from it and build on it."