Where Would Chargers Be Without Rivers?
By Dave Thomas
While team sports are just that, where would the San Diego Chargers be without starting QB Philip Rivers?
It is a thought that most Bolt fans care not to think about or even address. Safe to say that Chargers' players and management feel the same way.
Through 10 games this season, the veteran from North Carolina State doesn't have the gaudy numbers of some other quarterbacks around the league like Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers, but he is without question the rock of a team that finds itself fighting for a second consecutive trip to the AFC playoffs come January.
Rivers Looked Human In Last Game
During San Diego's (6-4) hard-fought 13-6 win this past Sunday over arch-rival Oakland (0-10), Rivers got knocked around on a couple of occasions like bowling pins do at your local bowling league night.
One hit to Rivers sent him down to the ground in pain with what at first looked like it could be a bad knee injury. Though hobbled for a few plays, Rivers would play on and be there for his team.
Later in the game, Rivers took a tough blow to his mid-section, once again leaving him doubled over in pain. That shot reportedly led to some painful ribs, though Rivers would continue once again to march on.
Gates Says His Comments Taken Out Of Context
Following the game, it was reported (actually through the words of star tight end Antonio Gates) that Rivers played Sunday through a bad rib injury, something the Chargers and the future Hall-of-Fame tight end have since refuted.
In comments early in the week to the media, Gates noted that his original remarks were taken out of context, claiming that he is by no means a doctor either.
As the Bolts head into another essentially must-win affair this Sunday when they host the 4-6 St. Louis Rams, they will do so with a quarterback who is certainly paying the price for an offensive line that has looked rather offensive in recent outings. After a 37-0 blowout loss in Miami on Nov. 2 that had Rivers running for his life, the offensive line was at times being pushed around by an Oakland squad that is trying to win its first game of the season.
As for his stats, Rivers (closing in on 35,000 career yards passing) through 10 games has thrown for 2,544 yards, 21 TD's and eight interceptions, leaving him with a QB rating to date of 101.2.
Getting Rivers to come out of a game for even one play is like trying to get Congress and the President to agree on something....it simply is unlikely to happen.
With six games to go, look for Philip Rivers to once again give everything he has to the Chargers, be he in pain or not.
For more Chargers news and updates, visit Chargers Central.
Dave Thomas has been covering the sports world since his first job as a sports editor for a weekly newspaper in Pennsylvania back in 1989. He has covered a Super Bowl, college bowl games, MLB, NBA and more. His work can be found on Examiner.com.