If you are a Jets fan, you won’t like hearing what one respected NFL quarterback guru has to say about the threat they face tomorrow against the Chargers.
Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger or Philip Rivers?
“If I was starting a team, and I had those three to choose from,” he said, “I’d take Philip Rivers every day. I wouldn’t even hesitate.”
Rex Ryan vs. Rivers and Norv Turner promises to be a compelling chess match, with Rivers and Turner coming armed with all kinds of motivation, from Ryan’s ill-advised Ring-Around-Norv diss to his braggadoccio following the Jets’ 17-14 playoff victory two years ago over Rivers (27-40, 298 yards, one TD, two INTs).
“Sometimes when you hit the quarterback,” Ryan said afterward, “the whole team feels it.”
Rivers surely didn’t like reading that.
He surely won’t like reading this, from Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine:
“He doesn’t have the biggest arm in the world.”
Ryan isn’t the only one who views the Chargers as perennial underachievers.
“We’ve had the numbers. We’ve had the stats. We’ve had what everyone would like to call the ‘most talented group.’ We’ve had all that been said about us,” Rivers told 1090 XX Sports Radio in San Diego. “We haven’t done anything with it. We did not go to the playoffs last year and now we are off to a 4-1 start and you’d think we are 1-4 from the outside. It’s funny because of the records of the teams we have beat, people say, ‘Look at the things they aren’t doing good.’
“We are 4-1. That is the end result. That’s all that anyone cares about. It’s just like in golf. You hit it into the woods and you hit it into the trap and then you chip it in for birdie. Well, you made birdie. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t hit no greens in regulations and you’ve done all that, but you have accomplished the task of that hole.
“Find a way to win. That’s what we’ve done. That is the plan this Sunday. Just find a way to win in New York. It’s going to be hard and nothing is going to go perfect. We are going to punt at some point in the game. Some things aren’t going to go great, but we are going to fight like crazy to have one more point than they do when the horn sounds.”
Rivers (seven INTs, six TDs), on pace for a fourth straight 4,000-yard season, will sling the ball downfield to his 6-foot-5 receivers, Vincent Jackson and Malcom Floyd. Tight end Antonio Gates (foot) might return tomorrow. Rivers won’t be afraid to visit Revis Island.
“There are times we threw Revis’ way in a playoff game and Vincent Jackson made some good plays on him,” Rivers said. “I think you’ve just got to be smart and run your offense, but certainly give him the respect that he’s earned.”
If you take the chunk plays away from Rivers, he will target running backs Ryan Mathews and Mike Tolbert.
“You can’t just sit in one coverage all the time because they’ll eventually have an answer for it,” Pettine said. “I think we need to do a good job of making sure he doesn’t know the coverage pre-snap. If he’s going to figure it out, let it be post-snap.”
Rivers’ unorthodox throwing motion?
“We talk about it when we give the scouting report,” Pettine said. “I think it’s critical for our defensive line to understand, that if [they] get stalemated on the rush, then go ahead and get a hand up. He’s 6-foot-5, but the release point is not that of somebody that is 6-5. It’s documented that he’s had more than an average amount of balls deflected on him. That’s always something for our guys.
“And he’s also a guy, he doesn’t have the biggest arm in the world, and most quarterbacks like to step into their throws. Some can do it, some have strong enough arms where they can be falling away and make a throw, but most can’t. So that’s always a thing for us, that hey, listen, if I do get stuck, just keep pushing the pocket, and anytime we can throw bodies at the feet of a quarterback, we should be in good shape.”
Rivers is a fiery leader with a lionhearted will to win.
“His competitiveness is off the charts,” FOX analyst Troy Aikman says.
CBS analyst Rich Gannon gushes about Rivers’ smarts and feel in the pocket.
“He’s not going to make a lot of plays with his legs,” Gannon says.
But just because he is the only one from The Great Quarterback Class of 2004 without a ring doesn’t mean he isn’t armed and dangerous.