Chris Jenkins (Contact)

Monday, September 22, 2008

Chargers quarterback looks for an open receiver in the first quarter.
Nelvin C. Cepeda/Union-Tribune

He wears a red mesh vest over his jersey throughout the week, a tradition in the National Football League, where quarterbacks are thus designated as the “Untouchables” in drills. This time, though, the red on Philip Rivers’ uniform was blood.

It wasn’t from a vicious hit under the chin or a finger smacked against an opposing helmet, for as Rivers himself noted, the New York Jets barely laid a glove on him all night.

Rather, it was from the needle-puncture wound where Rivers had taken an intravenous fluid injection at halftime.

“I kept seeing him run to the sideline and I couldn’t see what they were doing,” teased running back LaDainian Tomlinson. “While we were on the bench I saw them cleaning him up. I thought to myself, ‘I got blood on me and they’re not cleaning me up.’”

Ah, the life of a quarterback, especially the one who now leads the NFL in overall QB rating (124.8), touchdown passes (nine in three games) and average gain per attempt (9.9 yards). For the sixth straight game, Rivers rated out over 100, and in the process he effectively outdueled one of his true idols in Brett Favre.

“It was fun, a fun night,” said Rivers. “Thinking back 10, 12 years, watching him on TV, then you’re playing a game against him, talking to him before the game. It was fun to be out there on the same field with him.”

Especially after Favre, then with the Green Bay Packers, basically dismantled the Chargers a year ago at Lambeau Field. Even with his pinpoint accuracy on the slants, though, Favre wasn’t nearly as efficient last night as Rivers.

The way he was dealing to eight Chargers receivers – OK, and one New York cornerback for a Jets touchdown – Rivers could’ve been called “Cool Hand” except for the fact that he had such a hot hand. At one point last night, Rivers completed 10 straight passes, three of them for touchdowns.

“You do get into a little flow and rhythm,” said Rivers. “It’s like in practice where you get a lot of reps and you hit a couple. It can be the same out there when you hit a couple. That was a good little span for us.”

Credit for which he likewise dealt off to his linemen – “I didn’t get knocked down the whole game” – and long list of receivers who all produced big plays.

The biggest, arguably, was a play that didn’t score. San Diego’s lead of 38-23 wasn’t nearly comfortable enough with five minutes to play and Favre still doing his thing, but the mood changed considerably when Vincent Jackson ran under a deep ball from Rivers and caught it for a 60-yard gain, though Jackson was dragged down two yards short of the end zone.

“They tried to bring an all-out blitz,” said Jackson of the third-and-five play. “We saw it, so it was pretty much man-to-man, one-on-one everywhere. Philip expected that look and he said he’d just put it up. … We were on the same page. As soon as I saw them coming with an all-out blitz, I figured he was coming my way. It was on the money.”

“Actually,” said Rivers, “I was afraid I’d overthrown it a bit.”

He said it was probably his favorite pass of the night, not just because it virtually wrapped up the victory for the Chargers, but because of the chemistry that went into it between him and Jackson.

“That’s what’s really gratifying,” he said. “You both see it. You both feel it. You hit it. That’s just the ‘me-to-you’ there.

Only five of his 25 passes fell incomplete, which brings up the really funny part about Rivers’ evening. Before he’d completed anything to one of his own receivers, Rivers had his first pass intercepted by David Barrett and returned 25 yards for a touchdown.

Undeterred, Rivers threw his second pass right through Barrett’s hands, and then he got the Chargers offense going with three first-down passes to Buster Davis. The latter wouldn’t catch another pass the rest of the game, saying nothing about Davis’ skill, but everything about the selection of receivers at Rivers’ disposal.

“Thirty-one points in the first half,” said Rivers, “so we got off to a pretty good start after that mishap.”

Whatever else was going wrong with the Chargers in the first two weeks, the problem certainly wasn’t Rivers, who has now thrown three TD passes in each of San Diego’s three games. As much as he earned people’s respect with his guttiness in last year’s AFC Championship Game, he surely elevated his stature as both a quarterback and pure passer in the eyes of a national audience last night.

Chargers next games…

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