I want to first say that I am perhaps, one of the biggest fans of Philip Rivers. I have argued in the past that Rivers is a better quarterback than Eli Manning. But today Philip Rivers went all Brett Favre in today’s game against the Miami Dolphins. I am not talking about the good Brett Favre either. I am talking about the gunslinger that used to throw into triple coverage, or tried to force the ball into too tight of a window, or threw a pass where there were no receivers in the vicinity.
Fans can make plenty of excuses: the offensive line was horrid; the ground game was non existent, his undrafted wide receivers ran the wrong routes, etc. But be that as it may, Rivers’ implosion cost the Chargers a shot at the playoffs. Granted, San Diego’s playoffs aspirations were already slim thanks to the rest of the AFC West winning today. Each of the teams in the AFC West have 7 wins, making it almost impossible for the Chargers to be one of the 3 AFC West teams to advance to the playoffs. Due to Rivers’ poor play, it is safe to say, the San Diego Chargers are most likely playing for respect for the remainder of the season.
For every great throw Rivers made, there was an overthrow for an interception intended for Gates. For every fantastic audible/read Rivers made, there was a misread in coverage that resulted in interceptions by Kiki Alonso and Tony Lippett. Philip Rivers has a game like this once or twice a year. It just was unfortunate that Rivers had a game like this at such a critical time for San Diego.