In the 2nd quarter of Sunday’s game against the Vikings, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers called an audible. He saw the Vikings were going to bring a middle linebacker on a blitz so he changed the play at the line of scrimmage to a run.
Melvin Gordon took the handoff, watched Audie Cole run right by him, and went 39 yards for a touchdown without anybody on the Minnesota defense getting close enough to give him a high-five.
“He just checked the play,” said Gordon. “It just worked out perfectly. That’s why he do what he do.”
What Rivers do is give the Chargers offense the best possible chance of scoring points and play at a borderline Hall of Fame level. Rivers has the ability to diagnose defenses like House can diagnose rare diseases.
“Philip saw the front and what they were doing,” said head coach Mike McCoy. “We got to the right play that we wanted to and [Gordon] scores.”
The Chargers lost the game 23-10 but when Philip left they led 10-6 so he was in line for the win. Philip Rivers has played four series this preseason. In those series the Chargers have scored 14 points, punted once, and been intercepted once. Scoring a touchdown 50 percent of the time is not a bad ratio. That might win you a few football games.
Now let’s look at the Chargers offense without Philip Rivers during the 2016 exhibition season:
26 drives, no touchdowns, six field goals, four interceptions.
That’s 18 points on 26 drives. Scoring a touchdown zero percent of the time is not a good ratio. That won’t win you any football games.
Kellen Clemens is the default backup and undrafted rookie Mike Bercovici has earned the third QB job. Zach Mettenberger is basically just preserving arms by taking up throws in practice. The drop-off from Rivers to Clemens (and Bercovici) is like the drop-off from Godfather 2 to Godfather 3. And, much like Godfather 3, if it happens everybody is going to be really upset they paid money to see it.
Rivers knows more about opposing defenses than some of the guys playing on opposing defenses. He studies and comprehends and sees things that normal quarterbacks can’t see. His ability to call the right play against a coverage is uncanny, Peyton Manning-level stuff.
If Rivers goes down the Chargers season is lost. That is not an indictment of the guys behind him, it’s simply the truth. It’s not over the top to say if the Chargers don’t have 17 they will end up being the lowest scoring team of the Super Bowl era. But with him they have a chance to win every game on their schedule.
