After Eli Manning couldn’t get the Giants into the end zone from four yards out, Philip Rivers took his team 80 yards for a dramatic game-winning touchdown that settled a 5-year-old score.
Rivers admitted after the Chargers’ 21-20 victory over the Giants yesterday that his come-from-behind triumph at the Meadowlands carried added significance because of the draft day trade in 2004, when the Giants sent him to San Diego in exchange for Eli Manning.
“It is a little special. You know that link is going to be there,” Rivers said after leading an efficient, rhythmic drive that finished with an 18-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Vincent Jackson with 21 seconds left.
“Knowing the link is there with the draft, it didn’t weigh into my thought process during the game, but you knew it was there.”
Manning led the Giants to an unexpected Super Bowl triumph after the 2007 season, which all but validated the controversial trade for Big Blue. But many Giant fans might have left yesterday’s game thinking San Diego got the better end of the deal.
Rivers (24 of 36 for 209 yards, three TDs, two INTs) was brilliant on the game-winning drive.
PHOTOS: GIANTS LOSE TO CHARGERS
He had thrown an interception on San Diego’s previous possession, an errant pass that was picked off by cornerback Terrell Thomas, who returned it 33 yards to the San Diego 4. But after a holding penalty, a pass play that gained zero yards and two runs that totaled 10 yards, the Giants settled for a field goal and a 20-14 lead.
The Chargers got the ball at their own 20 with 2:05 to play, and Rivers capped an 80-yard drive by lofting a perfect pass to the back right end zone to Jackson, who had separated himself from cornerback Corey Webster. It all seemed too easy.
Jackson said the Chargers, who had been shut down by the Giants for most of the fourth quarter, took their cue from their quarterback.
“He was calm as he always is,” Jackson said of Rivers.
“He has a lot of confidence in our receivers and our line. He was very efficient about it. To have somebody that calm and confident, it feeds off on everybody else.”
After the game, the Chargers were saying all the things the Giants had hoped they would be saying heading into the bye week. San Diego talked about how it was a “character win” they could “build on.”
The Giants, meanwhile, head into their bye 5-4 after starting 5-0. A four-game losing streak has everyone looking to Manning, who regretted not getting the touchdown after Thomas’ interception.
“You can’t leave an opening for them,” Manning said. “They are good and talented, and when you have a chance to end it, you have to end it.”
That’s exactly what Rivers did yesterday, earning a victory — and some long overdue payback.