Cry me a Rivers

By Steve Reynolds  |   Tuesday, January 16, 2007  |  Comments( 23 )

San Diego Chargers
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What the heck happened?

The San Diego Chargers, the sexy pick to win it all this season, picked a most inopportune time to stumble, and the Bolts received a rather uncomfortable shock to the system on the national stage Sunday.

The Chargers were 8-0 at home this season and featured no less than nine Pro Bowl-bound players, not to mention the league's MVP and resident greased bowling ball, LaDainian Tomlinson.

With talent, momentum and homefield advantage, the Chargers appeared invincible; and if you say you thought the Patriots had a good chance of beating them, you're either a liar or you can hum the lyrics of "Danny Boy" backwards, while whipping up a wicked bowl o' chowdah.

After all, the Patriots were only in the playoffs because someone had to win the AFC East. No one gave Brady and his collective band of oldsters much of a chance.

The ignominious defeat leaves fans of the Super Chargers super ticked off and looking for someone to blame. Well, the finger can be pointed at any number of reliable suspects:

- Marty Schottenheimer, whose aversion to playoff wins is about as easy to blame as George W. Bush for your car not starting.

- LaDainian Tomlinson, for only scoring two touchdowns instead of five.

- Shawne Merriman, who may have mistakenly downed the wrong kind of tainted supplements in the locker room, thus adversely affecting his game.

- Nate Kaeding: when in doubt, blame the kicker.

Then there's Philip Rivers. Rivers, a third-year man in name only, played like a rookie on Sunday afternoon. Sure, his receivers didn't help matters, what with balls caroming off blue facemasks all the live-long day; but Rivers didn't look like the solid, mistake-free quarterback who proved his worth in the regular season.

Rivers turned the ball over twice and threw at a ghastly 44 percent completion rate. It was well known that the Patriots would throw all of their efforts behind containing Tomlinson (still meeting with relative failure), and put the onus on Rivers. Well, the San Diego quarterback failed his first test with flying colors.

However, Chargers fans need not fret, as they have a young team overloaded with talent and featuring one of the most electrifying running backs to ever come down the 15 freeway. Also, remember that Rivers put up incredible numbers for a virtual rookie, and, with improvement, can be part of a team that will terrorize the league for years to come. He simply chose a poor time to stumble.

Just don't blame the organization; after all, it did draft Eli Manning.

Just kidding.
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