Chargers Live to Fight Another Day
“Refuse to lose”. That is what Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers is all about. Against all odds, with his deplorable defense playing poorly, Rivers got up off the deck, after sacks, hits and pressures, and led San Diego to a (34-33) come from behind win, a must-win game, that has now pushed them to top spot in the AFC-wildcard race following the Sunday night Chiefs loss to Denver.
The Chargers quarterback showed why he makes 16M per year, with a fire in his eyes, leading the Bolts to 3-touchdowns in the 4th quarter, as Baltimore self destructed enroute to a devastating loss, that knocks them out of lst place, and maybe the playoff race too.
Rivers converted 8-straight third down plays early in the game, and then running a no-huddle spread package, threw for (383Y) thru the air, putting Baltimore on its back heels, and shredding their battered secondary.
Keenan Allen ran routes against back-pedaling DBs, and had (11R-121Y). Antonio Gates forced the Ravens into double coverage, in finishing with (7R-83Y) and Eddie Royal, amongst the missing just a couple of weeks ago, wound up with (9R-81Y) and the game winning catch.
San Diego went no huddle early after Rivers took a big sack and a couple of heavy hits. He was pressured for sure, sacked twice, forced to run 5-times, but by the time he was done, his offense had 18-plays of 10-yards or more, a trademark of how good they can be when they run this package.
The Ravens died a death of a thousand paper cuts. They committed 13-penalties, including two bad pass interference calls on 2-drives in the fourth quarter. They wiped out big plays of 13 and 30-yards, just when QB-Joe Flacco looked as if his team was going to salt the game away. Flacco was blitzed 17-times and never was sacked.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh was visibly upset with officials for 2-pass inteference calls in 4th quarter, and said both players were going for the ball on both Rivers’ passes and flags should not have been thrown. There was hand-to-hand combat all days on WRs-vs-DBs in the game.
If I’m in Baltimore this morning, I ask John Harbaugh why his team got out of the blitz pressure package in the 2nd-3rd-4th quarters, especially when San Diego lost center Chris Watt with a calf injury? You might also ask how you lineup offsides four times on defense? And what happened to Torrie Smith his big play receiver, Steve Smith his tough guy receiver, and why did the tight end disappear in the offense after early catches? What the Ravens coaches called allowed San Diego back in the game.
San Diego didn’t play much defense in the game, with the exception of when their backs were to the wall. They forced the Ravens to kick field goals after drives were halted at the 3-11-15 yard lines.
It might collectively have been as bad a day as the Chargers secondary has had all year, and this time they got away with a win. Eric Weddle committed a terrible roughing the quarterback call on a 3rd down play, and gave up 4-pass plays. Marcus Gilchrist and Sharrece Wright combined for 4-pass interference flags, and the trio wound up giving up 13-pass completions in all..
They were aided when Torrie Smith and Jamal Aiken dropped big yardage passes, when they were completely open. The Ravens mistakes could fill a notebook; dropping a total of 4-key passes, having to settle for 4-field goals inside the red zone and all the critical penalty flags. This game may haunt them.
A game ball goes to Rivers. Don’t give out goat’s horns to the secondary, though they deserved it.
So for this day, the Chargers move up in the wildcard race, winning a huge game on the road, probably a make-good on the horrible loss in Miami. What a bad loss for Baltimore, now in a 3-way tie for 2nd place in the AFC-North, and this from a team that was (11-0) against West Coast teams in games played in Baltimore.
But make no mistake about it, Philip Rivers won this game, no-one else did. The quarterback and his “refuse to lose” personality-philosophy.
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