November 1, 2011
Check out photos from the Chargers' game against the Chiefs.
(Denny Medley/US Presswire)
KANSAS CITY – There is something wrong with Philip Rivers.
It could be seen from his San Diego Chargers' opening drive in their bumbling 23-20 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night, when he overthrew by three yards a deep ball to his open wide receiver Malcolm Floyd on the game's third play.
It could be seen in the next drive, when he was looking for his favorite target, the massive tight end Antonio Gates, and somehow overthrew him, too — only this time, Chiefs safety Kendrick Lewis was lurking and intercepted the pass.
It could be seen throughout the Monday Night Football game at Arrowhead Stadium, as Rivers' balls wobbled and sailed, as he increased his league-high giveaway total to 14 with two interceptions and a lost fumble, as he piled up the yards through short crossing passes and check-downs but missed on the majority of his downfield passes.
And it could be seen, most of all, in the crowning play of this Keystone Kops game, when all the Chargers had to do was leak down the clock and kick a chip-shot field goal to win. And what did Rivers do? He cost his team the win by forgetting that you're supposed to take the ball from your center with open hands instead of closed fists. Because closed fists mean fumbled snaps, and fumbled snaps mean you won't eke out that come-from-behind road victory against an extraordinarily mediocre Chiefs team, and losses to the Chiefs mean your fans are wondering what in the world is going on.
No, what is wrong with Philip Rivers isn't simply that he decided to dress as Tony Romo for this Halloween matchup against his AFC West rival.
What's wrong with Philip Rivers is that he might not have been wearing a costume at all, and that he's been tricking us all along. He's actually become Tony Romo.
Think about it: Coming into this season, the highly talented Rivers was a popular preseason pick to be MVP, and the Chargers were being talked about as Super Bowl contenders. In 2010 he was second in the league in quarterback rating, his 101.8 trailing only the indomitable Tom Brady. He led the league in passing yards and was fifth in touchdowns, his 30 passing touchdowns that much more impressive when put next to his mere 13 interceptions.
And 2009 was similarly impressive, his 104.4 passer rating good for third in the NFL, his 28 touchdowns tied with Brady for sixth, his nine interceptions one of the lowest among starting quarterbacks. Ditto for 2008, when he led the league in quarterback rating and passing touchdowns, and threw only 11 interceptions to his 34 touchdowns.
But this year, when the pressure's been on to reach his full potential as an elite NFL quarterback, Rivers has been a study in regression, angering Chargers fans — who wonder aloud whether he's hiding an injury, if only because that would be an explanation — as well as fantasy football owners, who curse taking him in the first round.
Rivers' quarterback rating is down to 82.3, 19th in the league — compared to his career average of 95.9. He's thrown for seven touchdowns, tied with Josh Freeman for 23rd in the league. His 11 interceptions lead the league.
The division game on the big Monday night stage was especially Romo-esque. On the surface, his statistics showed a decent game: 26 for 41 for 369 yards, his second-best total of the season.
Yet over and over, he overthrew receivers on deep balls. Or he threw ever-so-slightly behind them on mid-field crossing routes. Or he didn't capitalize on a nonexistent Chiefs pass rush. Or his team took a silly penalty to hurt any progress he made; the Chargers had 12 penalties for 105 yards. Rivers' only touchdown pass was called back on an offensive pass-interference call on Gates.
And then, of course, there was that inexplicable (and very Romo-esque) play where, as Chiefs fans were filing out of Arrowhead Stadium, Rivers fumbled the snap and gave the Chiefs the ball, and new life, and eventually the victory.
"Philip got a little anxious and came out early," head coach Norv Turner explained.
"Six years we haven't had one on the ground from underneath," center Nick Hardwick said of the fumbled snap.
"This one's rough," Rivers said. "When you know you're a minute away from just leaking the clock and kicking a field goal to end it. After you fall back and you blow it on a play. Something that never happens, that shouldn't ever happen."
The fumbled snap was a jewel in this game's Keystone Kop crown, when an explosion of fireworks in the Arrowhead Stadium parking lot went off just as the Chargers were about to snap the ball. (Rivers said he didn't notice the fireworks; his center said he did.) Between the two groups of 11 men who dressed as football teams on this Halloween night, there were four lost fumbles, four interceptions and 21 penalties in regulation.
Make no mistake about it: The Chiefs did not win this game. In fact, they seemed to be trying rather hard not to. Instead, it was the Chargers who lost it. As has been the theme all year, the Chargers didn't finish when they were in the red zone, coming away with four field goals and one missed field goal until they finally scored their first touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Despite their 4-3 record that has them bunched with the Chargers and Oakland Raiders for first place in the AFC West, the Chiefs are not a good football team. Their four-game winning streak started in a squeaker against the underachieving Minnesota Vikings and included wins against the hapless Indianapolis Colts and a Raiders team thrown into quarterback disarray. Head coach Todd Haley continued his inexplicable play-calling with an odd mix of runs, then passes at the end of the first half. The replacements for injured running back Jamaal Charles and injured tight end Tony Moeaki have played like replacements, and Matt Cassel has played like Matt Cassel. Beat the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos in the next two weeks and media will be gushing over their six-game winning streak. But it will all be a mirage that will be exposed during their brutal late-season schedule.
On Monday night, Rivers showed enough flashes of his old brilliance to remind us why he was considered an elite quarterback not long ago, and could be considered one again. A few of his longer passes were crisp and on the mark, though not many. On the Chargers' lone touchdown drive, he twice escaped pressure and made clutch passes for first down, and he lofted one beautiful pass to running back Curtis Brinkley, catching him in stride down the sideline and setting up the tying touchdown.
Yet in this game, as throughout the first seven games of this year — including last week's stinker of a loss at the New York Jets, one of the worst games of Rivers' career — Rivers has seemed like a stud starting pitcher in baseball who has suddenly lost his stuff, and people are grasping at straws to figure it out.
"He came off and said the ball's sailing on me," Turner said. "He had one to Vincent, a couple to Gates that got away from him. It's not mechanics. Like I said, the ball got away from him a couple times."
There's even more trouble on the horizon: The undefeated defending champion Green Bay Packers are coming to San Diego next week. Maybe Rivers can shed this Tony Romo costume and turn into Aaron Rodgers. Maybe Rivers can remind us why, not long ago, it made total sense to include him in a discussion as the best quarterback in the game.
And maybe the Chargers' locker room after next weekend's game won't be a somber, shell-shocked place, where Rivers, the team's leader, doesn't have to face the media and give forlorn answers like this to why he and his team fell short of expectations:
"I missed a few throws. Obviously there's throws you want back. But none of that being changed … if I handled the snap, all that doesn't matter."
Unfortunately, until he proves otherwise, that snap will be the one we remember, and the play the perfectly represents Rivers' season.
Arcade Register Log in 
Thu Dec 19, 2013 2:04 pm by 
