At the end of the second quarter of the Chargers vs. Seahawks game at Qualcomm Stadium on Saturday night, the entirety of the Bolts fan base collectively gasped in horror.
Quarterback Philip Rivers hit his hand on a Seattle defender and winced in pain. He tried throwing one more pass, missing Keenan Allen in the end zone, before running to the locker room in obvious discomfort. In an NFL preseason that has seen the Packers lose Jordy Nelson, the Steelers lose Maurkice Pouncey and the Redskins lose Robert Griffin III, the obvious fear of the most important player on the roster is very real.
But Rivers, who was 13-19 for 140 yards in the first half, walked the second-half sideline with his ball cap on and not even a Band-Aid on his throwing hand. He's going to be just fine. Rivers had a good view of what turned out to be an exciting game.
The Seahawks won 16-15 thanks to a 60-yard field goal by Seahawks kicker Steven Hauschka with 16 seconds left in the game. San Diego falls to 2-1 on the exhibition season.
Despite the end result there is reason to be excited. The Chargers defense played extremely well against the two-time defending NFC champions.
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll let his starters play deep in to the third quarter. Quarterback Russell Wilson was not terribly effective, completing just seven of 15 passes for 56 yards.
San Diego safety Jahleel Addae made a tremendous play in the first quarter on a blitz to force Wilson into a intentional grounding penalty. Fellow safety (and Pt. Loma High alum) Jimmy Wilson sacked Wilson on another blitz.
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Linebacker Melvin Ingram also spent a lot of his night in the Seattle backfield pressuring Wilson, who scrambled four times for 23 yards. Ingram has had the best preseason of his professional career after dropping 20 pounds in the off-season.
As expected rookie running back Melvin Gordon got a lot of work in what should be his last preseason game of 2015. Gordon is still looking for his first breakout run but did carry 14 times for 34 yards. He also caught two passes for seven yards and did not seem to be slowed down by the ankle ailment that caused him to miss last week's game in Arizona.
The Chargers' only touchdown came on a 70-yard pass play to another running back. In the third quarter, Branden Oliver took a short pass from Kellen Clemens and had a lot of open field in front of him. Oliver made one defender miss on his way to the longest TD of his professional career.
Seattle's only touchdown came on a 67-yard punt return by rookie Tyler Lockett.
The Chargers have to cut their roster down to 75 by Tuesday and then play their last preseason game on Thursday at Levi's Stadium against the San Francisco 49ers. The final 53-man roster will be decided on Saturday, September 5.
