5 Good Stats: San Diego Chargers at Chicago Bears

Philip Rivers - 21/27, 280 yards, 2 TDs
These are El Capitan's stats through the first three quarters of the San Diego Chargers' game against the Chicago Bears. They look like the stats of an elite QB, which he once against looked like before imploding in the 4th quarter.

Vincent Jackson - 7 catches, 165 yards, 1 TD
Referring to my previous post, VJax is the anti-Ryan Mathews. When RM24 has over 100 total yards, the Chargers are 4-2. Those two losses were to the Patriots and Chiefs (in a game that the Chargers could've won if Rivers didn't fumble the snap late in the game). When Jackson goes over 100 yards the Chargers are 1-3, with the one win coming against the Miami Dolphins.

The three best games of Jackson's season have been against the Patriots (172 rec yards), Packers (141 yards) and the Bears (165 yards). Oddly enough, those stats weren't even bolstered in garbage time either. It's perplexing why the rest of the team plays so poorly when Jackson does well.

Much like Antonio Gates, who we'll get to in a second, Vincent Jackson looked as healthy as he's been in at least a month. He looked stronger, faster and made catches that he wouldn't have been able to make a couple of weeks ago.

Antonio Gates - 4 catches, 63 yards, 1 TD
From where I was sitting, it looked like the key to the Chargers offense looking good for the first 3 quarter of this game was Antonio Gates. San Diego went to him early, and he looked spry getting in and out of his cuts. He even looked fast enough once he got the ball in his hands that it was noticed by Phil Simms, who never notices anything. Once he had a few catches, including the touchdown grab, it seemed that things really opened up around the field for Rivers' other receiving options.

Richard Goodman - 4 returns, 144 ret yards (36.0 average)
Charger fans feel like Richard Goodman is a poor returner, partly because he hasn't had a lot of big returns this season. However, in this game he came close to breaking a couple of huge ones. Say what you want about covering kicks, a hard thing to do against the Bears, but the Chargers return unit did a good job of creating lanes for Goodman to run through.

Jay Cutler, done for the season
You never root for injury, but if your favorite team gets a reputation for knocking QBs out for the season you run with it. Donald Butler, blocking Cutler on Antoine Cason's interception return, pushed Cutler to the ground where he apparently broke his thumb when landing. He looks to be out for the remainder of the season. Hello, Calbe Hanie.