San Diego’s Philip Rivers was extraordinarily efficient against the Dolphins, averaging a solid 8.7 YPA on the day. He sports an impressive 8.5 yards per attempt for the season and – we should have noted this last week – now counts himself "officially" among the all-time leaders in two key passing categories: passer rating and yards per attempt. During San Diego ’s Week 2 loss to Baltimore , Rivers surpassed the minimum 1,500 career pass attempts required to qualify for official NFL records. Following the win over Miami , Rivers’ career stat line now looks like this: 957 of 1,542 (62.1%), 11,688 yards, 7.58 YPA, 81 TD, 39 INT, 92.36 passer rating If you’re not impressed by the numbers, you should be. He’s fifth all time in passer rating, just ahead of the great Joe Montana. Here’s the top six in career passer rating as of the end of Week 3 of 2009: * Steve Young (96.81) * Peyton Manning (95.11) * Kurt Warner (93.45) * Tom Brady (92.41) * Philip Rivers (92.36) * Joe Montana (92.26) With an average of 7.58 YPA, Rivers ranks in the top 20 all time in this key indicator of success. Rivers is also on the very short list of passers in NFL history with a TD to INT ratio of better than 2 to 1 (2.08 to 1). The record is held by Brady, who’s thrown 2.27 TDs for every INT. That’s winning football, and Rivers is a winner, with a 35-16 (.686) career record following Sunday’s win.
Rivers one of the best QBs ever?Occasionally I like to toot my own horn. Consider this one of those times. In the middle of May I ran through the Chargers schedule and made predictions about each game. I eventually got to a record of 11-5. The promising part? My imaginary Bolts got to 11-5 after starting 2-2, with tough losses against the Ravens and Steelers.
It was strange to see a Norv Turner team make a huge fourth-quarter comeback instead of the usual blowing of a fourth-quarter lead. This defense is really torn up, though -- that comeback was all offense, and one fluky special teams fumble/strip. They seem to be getting some more pass rush than they had last year, but the run defense is horrible without Jamal Williams, and it doesn't look like a healthy Antonio Cromartie has been a dramatic improvement on last year's secretly injured Antonio Cromartie.
Aaron Schatz, who apparently stopped following Norv Turner's career before he landed in San DiegoLooking for the best Fantasy Football advice for the upcoming weekend? As always, SB Nation has you covered. Click the link above to check out "team capsules" from the manager of each SB Nation NFL team community.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Steelers RB Willie Parker missed practice again on Friday, and appears to be a lock miss the team’s Week 4 game against the Chargers after not practicing at all this week. Mewelde Moore and a chastened Rashard Mendenhall figure to carry the load if Parker is unable to play.
Steelers' Willie Parker Unlikely to Play Sunday Night - SB NationLaDainian Tomlinson practiced today without soreness or other complications, and Norv Turner expects he will play Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. "LT looked good," Turner said. "... We're making the kind of progress we'd hoped for. Based on what I've seen, I think there's a good chance (he plays)."
If you haven't been catching Kevin Acee's weekly Chargers Roll series, you've been missing out. It is consistently insightful and gives you a good look at the players' personalities. This is VJ's sit-down from this week, but I highly recommend watching all of them if you haven't already.
LaDainian Tomlinson was back at practice for the first time since spraining his right ankle during the season opener, an encouraging sign for a San Diego Chargers team that's struggled to run the ball. Tomlinson said Wednesday that he hopes he can play in Sunday night's game at Pittsburgh, where the Chargers haven't won since shocking the Steelers in the AFC championship game following the 1994 season. Tomlinson missed the last two games with the ankle injury, an absence that coincided with the Chargers struggling not only in the running game, but when they had the ball inside the opponent's 20. Also back at practice was rookie right guard Louis Vasquez, who hasn't played since spraining a knee in the season opener.
Junior Seau gets run over by a bull. (Now without the annoying TMZ player!)
Former Chargers linebacker Steve Foley is being sued in federal court by the team, which wants $416,666 that an arbitrator ruled he owed the club after a career-ending shooting by an off-duty policeman in 2006. The suit says that Foley's contract in effect at the time called for a $1.25 million "signing, reporting and playing" bonus. But the deal also said if Foley could not play or otherwise breached the contract, he owed the club a default payment of one-third the signing bonus — or $416,666. In the early morning hours of Sept. 3, 2006, Foley was shot in front of his Poway home by Aaron Mansker, a Coronado police officer who was off duty at the time. He had tried to get Foley, who was driving erratically down the freeway, to pull over, and when Foley did not, Mansker pursued him to his home. Mansker said he opened fire because he thought Foley, who had stepped out of the car, was reaching for a weapon. The linebacker, who was unarmed, was hit in the knee and hip, and his career was ended.