QB Rivers reflects on potential end of 16 seasons with Chargers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – If the final pass that Philip Rivers threw for the Los Angeles Chargers occurred Sunday, it certainly was a fitting one.
After he was dragged all over the field by the Kansas City Chiefs, the veteran quarterback heaved a nohope throw over the middle in a game essentially over. Daniel Sorensen plucked the wobbly ball out of the air for the Chiefs’ second interception of the game, clinching their 31-21 victory and sending Rivers trudging to to the locker room in defeat.
Rivers, whose four-year, $83.25 million contract expires after this season, finished with 281 yards passing and two TDs in his 224th consecutive regular-season start. But it was a game that also summed up his 16year career in San Diego and Los Angeles: stretches of tenacity and sheer brilliance interrupted by questionable decisions and inopportune mistakes.
“There have been times even at the house I’ve been a little bit emotional, thinking about the last bus ride. Those things I have gotten to at times,” Rivers said. “But I also think, ‘Don’t let it ruin the moment.’ Again, be in the present. That was my whole thing about today was just play, and I think we did that. It wasn’t enough.
Ultimately it wasn’t enough.”
Rivers made plenty of big throws, but he also was a big reason why the Chargers lost for the 11th time in 12 games against Kansas City. They failed to convert a pair of fourth downs, he was sacked three times, and he threw an interception on a jump ball into the end zone before his second pick as the final seconds ticked away.
The two interceptions gave him 20 on the season, second only to the Buccaneers’ Jameis Winston for most in the NFL. It was the fourth time Rivers has thrown at least 18 picks in a season, a number that casts a a bit of gloom over nearly 400 touchdown passes, nearly 60,000 yards passing and six trips to the postseason.
There won’t be any playoffs for the Chargers (5-11) this season, though. Injuries and misfortune brought low a team that won 12 games last year, and left Rivers with a potentially ruinous ending to his career with the franchise.