Redemption delivered with ice-cold efficiency
KANSAS CITY, MO. — Signed, sealed, delivered.
Thursday night’s National Football League win over Kansas City Chiefs was a signature win by Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, who had waited so long for redemption in this frigid house of horrors.
The epic comeback by the Chargers was a total team win, of course, with receiver Mike Williams having a career night, Travis Benjamin reeling in two clutch catches in the final drive, and the Los Angeles defence hardening like cement in the second half.
But it was a brilliant performance by Rivers, who methodically battled back from a 14-point deficit to win, 29-28, beating the Chiefs for the first time in
10 tries. The Chargers hadn’t won in Kansas since 2013, when the then-San Diego team pulled off a season sweep. The victory secured a playoff spot for the Chargers.
The game started in a grimly familiar way for the visitors, with the Chiefs intercepting the first pass of the game — Rivers was picked off twice in the first half — and Kansas City taking a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Naturally, Rivers caught an earful from the crowd bundled in red coats and hats behind the sideline. “Those guys behind our bench, I don’t recognize all of them, but they’re hounding you all game long,” he said. “They were hounding me, as they should have, throwing those two early interceptions. But once we got it to 21-14 (midway through the second quarter), in my typical fashion I hollered up there and said, ‘This is going to be just like 2013!’”
The thermometer read 37 F at kickoff, but by game’s end, Rivers’ blood was sub-zero.
“I told him, ‘Man, you cold as ice!’” left tackle Russell Okung said of Rivers, who orchestrated an incredible ending, a 1-yard touchdown pass to Williams with four seconds to play followed by a two-point conversion pass, again to Williams, that gave the Chargers their first lead of the game. “I’m screaming at him, ‘You cold as ice!’”
That gutsy conversion, on which Williams was absurdly wide open because of busted coverage by the Chiefs, will be a timeless memory from this thriller.
The Chargers’ kicking team began to run onto the field after that touchdown, and Rivers was perfectly content with that.
“I was going to the sideline, going to overtime,” he said.
“And coach (Anthony) Lynn said, ‘Let’s go win it right now. Let’s go for two.’ When he said that, there was so much conviction from him, it was, ‘Yeah, let’s go win it!’ I immediately turned around. If we didn’t win it, we didn’t win it. But I think it was his conviction.”
Rivers was looking for that old familiar target, tight end Antonio Gates, or the scorching-hot Williams, who had run for a touchdown and caught two more.
“In those situations it’s the guy who’s caught more touchdowns than any tight end ever in football, and Mike Williams who’s on fire,” Rivers said. “So let’s give these two guys a shot, and win and lose with them right there.”
So many Chargers games this season have come down to the wire, and so often, this team has made the clutch plays.
“We won a close game in Seattle, we won a close game against the Titans in London we lost a close game against Denver, we went to Pittsburgh and found a way,” Rivers said.
Because Kansas City still owns the tiebreaker over L.A. by virtue of a better division record, the Chargers need a loss by the Chiefs either at Seattle or at home against Oakland for a chance at that No. 1 seed.